By Steven Agen
The Seattle Sounders dropped another 1-0 result on Saturday, giving up a late goal to lose 1-0 for the third consecutive week. This time it was at the hands of Laurent Ciman and the Montreal Impact. Here are the ratings for the sputtering visitors following Ciman’s 88th minute winner.
Troy Perkins – 7
His stop on Dominic Oduro when the forward was in one on one was magnificent. Despite being nutmegged, Perkins gets a touch and sends it over the bar. Not wide, but OVER the bar. It was an improbable stop and it gave Seattle a chance for a lot longer than they would’ve had one otherwise. It’s tough to blame him on the goal, and his save is worth a full point. That works out to a 7 for the former Impact man.
Tyrone Mears – 5
Less involved in the attack than normal, but so was everyone else. As a distributor from the back, he takes some of the heat for Seattle’s abysmal passing numbers. Mears normally brings a veteran calm to the side, but it was absent on Saturday. The Sounders have relied on Mears’ offensive presence to create chances in the absence of Dempsey and Martins, and he provided no spark on Saturday. Seattle needed more.
Chad Marshall – 5.5
He could, arguably, be bumped down a half point for his role in allowing the Oduro chance to come to fruition. He’s caught awfully high up the field on that play, and it puts Scott and Mears in a tough position. No goal resulted, though, and it’s tough to find any other flaws with Marshall’s play. He is one of the few Sounders to have maintained form throughout virtually the whole of the injury crisis in the last month.
Zach Scott – 4.5
When you’ve lost half your starters to injury and national team duty and you’re trying to grind out a good result 3000 miles from home, the one thing you just can’t afford to do is get picked on a set piece and leave the opposition’s most dangerous man free to head home on 88 minutes. It’s worse yet when you’re wearing the captain’s armband. Enough said.
Leo Gonzalez (Subbed off on 73‘) – 6
Gonzalez’s cross on 5 minutes led to Seattle’s best chance on the night, when Chad Barrett headed wide from the penalty spot. Creating the most dangerous moment for the visitors keeps Gonzalez at a 6, even though he struggled to involve himself in the rest of the match. Unfortunate to see him removed due to injury in the second half, and Sounders will hope their longest-tenured-defender-not-named-Zach-Scott is alright soon.
Andy Rose – 5.5
The Australian is solid but cannot put the pieces together to be as dynamic as Seattle need at this point. He worked well with Alonso and Friber in the 4-3-3. a role to which he is better suited than Gonzalo Pineda. But why do they put him in front of those two instead of next to them?
Erik Friberg (Subbed off 78’) – 6.5
His well-weighted ball over the top nearly played Neagle in clean 20 minutes into the second half. Dempsey and Martins score when they get that ball, but Neagle turned it over. It was a good example of the Swede playing vertically, which is why Lagerwey & co. brought him back to Seattle. Fits in really well with Alonso and Rose in that 4-3-3, even if they couldn’t get the possession right this time. Looks like he’s getting closer to playing all 90 minutes, as well.
Osvaldo Alonso – 7 (MotM)
Alonso looked like the only Sounder playing at 100% fitness. His turnover leads to Piatti hitting the bar on 80’, but just look at the recovery run that leads to it. He bailed Seattle out on numerous occasions or the scoreline could’ve looked much worse. Perhaps he was a little unfortunate to concede the free kick that led to Ciman’s winner, but it’s hardly fair to blame him for the goal. An excellent performance from Seattle’s midfield talisman. If he and Marshall play this way with Dempsey, Martins, and Evans back, then the Sounders will jump back up the Western Conference table quickly.
Cristian Roldan – 4
He simply disappears when he plays on the road. Maybe it’s just a rookie problem that comes with learning to travel long distances and play soccer ten months out of the year. Regardless, it’s not acceptable when he’s starting and Sigi Schmid seriously needs to consider the impact Roldan can have in road fixtures. His low crosses weren’t placed in the right spots to threaten, and he ultimately failed to complete a forward pass in the Montreal half.
Chad Barrett (Subbed off 68’) – 5
Barrett headed wide on 5 minutes from Gonzalez’s cross. That’s a shot he buries last season, but 2015 has been a different story. Also played in a good cross that Neagle deposited just outside the near post. Beyond that, he created very little from the very little service he was given. He’s paid to take the chance he got early in the match, and he didn’t.
Lamar Neagle – 4.5
Missed wide on Barrett’s cross, and then gets dispossessed by Ciman before even getting a shot off following Friberg’s chip over the top. He needs to put one of those chances on target, if not score. Neagle hasn’t shown anything dynamic in the last three matches, and he doesn’t have the luxury of time to fix the problem like Roldan does. His games have been riddled with inexplicable turnovers and an apprehension to take defenders on. How many more unproductive starts before we see a change? Neagle shouldn’t be starting at forward anymore, even if it means minutes for Jones or Mansaray.
SUBSTITUTES
Darwin Jones (Subbed on 68’) – 5.5
Very little involvement on very few touches. This 5.5 is really just the 22 minute shift version of “Not enough time.”
Dylan Remick (Subbed on 73’) – 5.5
Came on for Gonzalez following the Costa Rican’s injury and didn’t make an impact either way.
Gonzalo Pineda (Subbed on 78’) – N/A
Not enough time.
