Seattle, WA – The first half of this match had similar vibes to the hot start that the Seattle Sounders got out to in their Leagues Cup loss to Monterrey: shooting out with two quick goals, feeling positive about the way that the club’s attack looked despite the struggles of the season leading into it. The Sounders scored two thrilling goals in the first half against the Timbers, showing life and energy that we hadn’t seen in months. Then, a player was sent off and a few substitutions later, and in the blink of an eye Portland had found two goals to tie things up. The rivals split points, Seattle won’t be able to take Cascadia Cup this season, and the Sounders once again are left to wonder what happened. Seattle remains in a playoff spot, and there are positives to take from this match, but the question of “what if” is what will sit with Sounders front office, players, and fans following this result.
“If I had to find a positive in the second half, it was the effort that the guys put in. Xavi came in, did a good job. Reed came on, Alex came into midfield, which I thought was actually interesting, intriguing, actually played pretty well in there. Nico came on, created some stuff Nouhou’s effort, getting up and down, at one time, he was gassed, he couldn’t get back, but the kid was trying to help us win games. Jordan playing three games in a week, we used to have to take him out of those situations. There’s a couple of positives. The negative is that the guys put everything into the game, and just gave it to em. That’s the negative. It’s not just the defending or Leo’s yellow cards, the second one was soft, by the way, I saw, it very soft. It’s a team sport. If we had a really good first half, it would have been three nothing and the game would have been over. I think that’s where everybody’s super frustrated,” Brian Schmetzer, Seattle Sounders FC head coach, on the difference in the first and second half.
The Seattle Sounders starting XI huddles before kickoff (Photo by Paul Kahl)
An injection of life into Seattle’s attack
The past few matches before the Austin win were struggles on the attack for the Sounders, as the club lacked creativity and really didn’t display what the club was capable of, considering the talent and veteran experience that is currently on this roster. After Seattle’s disappointing bounce from League’s Cup, head coach Brian Schmetzer promised that there was going to be more creativity from the group on the offensive attack. After the loss at home that saw the Sounders shutout by Atlanta, there was increased anger given that statement and the following lack of any sort of change. There was little improvement in their draw against Minnesota, and then a bit more progress in the narrow victory over Austin just a few days ago. Tonight, there was more progress made.
“I thought we created chances; we just couldn’t find the third goal. Raul has a chance, we get plenty of half chances, get the ball in their half, prime assist zone. We had some good chances; I’ll have to go watch the tape to get a hold of all of the good chances that we had and all of the good stuff that we did in the first half. But yeah, three nothing in the first half kills the game,” Brian Schmetzer, Seattle Sounders head coach, on the club not doing enough in the first half offensively.
A major problem for the club in the past two seasons has been their lack of production on set pieces. There is a bit of a creativity problem there as well, but that’s for a different discussion. Despite those issues, Seattle got their first goal of the night off a set piece. In the ninth minute, the Sounders drew a corner to be taken by midfielder Albert Rusnak. Rusnak initially found Jackson Ragen’s head, and the center back was able to direct the ball back post where forward Raul Ruidiaz was waiting with space to head the ball past Timbers keeper David Bingham for the score. Bingham had been frozen in place, watching as the corner hit Ragen and reacting to Ruidiaz, unable to make any attempt at a save. Seattle was off to a strong start, and one of the clubs all-time leading scorers against Portland had found the back of the net against the rival once again.
The second Sounders goal of the night added to the breakout campaign of Brazilian forward Leo Chu. By no means was this goal conventional, but at the end of the day nobody involved with Seattle will care about how the goal was scored, they’ll just want more. Chu intercepted a pass from Portland in the 28th minute as the Timbers were trying to build out of the back, and things took off from there. The interception had bounced in the direction of Ruidiaz, who barely could collect the ball before the sprinting Chu collided with it again, sending it flying high into the air and towards the Portland goal. That interception had caught the Timbers backline off guard, and considering Chu’s downhill speed, it was off to the races. With two Portland defenders on his back, Chu was able to wait till the right moment to slot the ball past Bingham for the second goal of the night, getting a yellow card for his celebration where he took his jersey off.
“Look you guys, we can’t blame the kid for the entire loss of two points. It’s a team sport. Look, he knows better, he should do better. Okay, fine, fair enough. You know me, I’m pretty conservative. If I would have yanked him off, some people might have said, ‘well why ya yankin Chu off?’ I gotta credit the kid for the goal that he took,” Brian Schmetzer, Seattle Sounders head coach, on the criticism of Leo Chu.
Seattle Sounders left wing back Nouhou clears a bouncing ball in his own box during the first half (Photo by Paul Kahl)
Defensive lapses allow Timbers back into this contest
Portland’s goals came just three minutes apart, and that was sparked in part by some of the substitutions that the club made in the 67th minute. After those changes were made, the Timbers sent a throw-in towards the edge of the six-yard box, where Zac McGraw headed it towards the back post where Dairon Asprilla was left completely unmarked. Three Sounders surrounded the midfielder, but none of them thought to defend against him, and as a result Asprilla was able to score just seconds after he came into the game. The momentum had shifted in Portland’s favor, and it showed as the Timbers had a counterattack immediately after the reset. As Seattle retreated to attempt to guard it, the Sounders left midfielder Evander with plenty of space just above the 18-yard box, and he unleashed an absolute rocket into the top corner to tie this contest.
Leo Chu and Raul Ruidiaz of the Seattle Sounders react to Chu being shown a second yellow card (Photo by Paul kahl)
Multiple errors result in one big disappointment
It needs to be stated that Leo Chu’s double yellows are not the reasoning for this draw. While yes, I understand that the first yellow for his goal celebration wasn’t well thought out, even Schmetzer stated that Chu’s actions weren’t the reason the club dropped two points. Even that second yellow card was quite soft, in reality Chu shouldn’t have even been shown a second yellow. Stop trying to find a scapegoat and look at the bigger picture of this result. Seattle awarded Portland players far too much space on the goals that the Timbers scored, another example of lapses that the club has had defensively. It’s odd, given how strong overall that the Sounders have been defensively (near the top of the league in fewest goals allowed and clean sheets), but we’ve seen those mistakes dating back to last season.
There isn’t just one primary reason for this club’s struggles. There are multiple flaws with the Sounders, starting in the second half of the 2022 season and running through now. Seattle has a strong defense for most of the match, but there will be a poor mental mistake that will allow an opponent an easy opportunity on net that will put the Sounders in poor position. The Sounders also fail to have much creativity at all on the attack, but that has been changing in the past few weeks. Seattle could use a bit more rotation of youth, and while we’re seeing that lately to a small degree, the argument could be made that we need to see it even more. The Sounders have a group that certainly can be winning these matches, but the full effort hasn’t been seen from them in quite some time. Getting that full effort is key towards securing a high playoff seed and then actually making a quality run.
Check out photographer Paul Kahl’s photos from the match here
