Another road game, another tough outing for the Seattle Sounders.
After falling 2-0 to FC Dallas Saturday at Toyota Stadium, the Sounders now have only earned one point in their four road games this season. Only this road game was the first in 2016 where Seattle failed to score a goal.
“When you don’t play real well, that makes it tough on the road,” head coach Sigi Schmid said. “Obviously with every team, fan bases are much better, much stronger, much louder, so I think that makes playing away from home tougher. A couple of early road games I thought we should have come out with more, but tonight it was just one of those nights.”
Although it was Dallas scoring early in the 3rd minute off a Mauro Diaz penalty kick, it was actually the Sounders who initially set the tempo.
Herculez Gomez received a nice through-ball in the first minute and had a one-on-one chance with Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz, but Gomez fired the shot wide.
"If I put that one away in the first few minutes, we will be talking about a different game," Gomez said. "It is difficult because, on a personal note, you can change the outcome of the game. On a team note, we were good at times, but we are not in the business of moral victories, so it is difficult."
Schmid said the chances kept coming, although they were few and far between in the first half.
“I thought we had two, maybe three really good chances in the first half that would have changed it around a little bit, but certainly they opened us up," Schmid said. "I thought our midfield in the first half was a little bit disorganized, but we sorted that out in the second half.”
While Dallas notched the clean sheet and gave Seattle its second shutout of the season, Schmid said the hosts showed Seattle exactly what he thought they would – shaping the result as more a matter of Seattle’s execution than Dallas’ game plan.
“We knew we’d find space on the flanks, which Joevin Jones and Tyrone Mears got a lot of space in time, but our crossing wasn’t as good as it needed to be.
“I thought Joevin was in a couple of times where I would have rather seen him shoot than try and cross. That’s something we felt would be open for us, and it was.”
The Sounders’ losing streak on the road now dates back to Sept. 19, when they beat the Whitecaps 3-0 in Vancouver.
Extending the streak also means they remain below the red line in the West with only 13 points about a quarter of the way through season. But according to Schmid, the road woes won’t continue to bog his team down.
“It’s not in our heads. Last September – I don’t think we played on the road in late November, December, January and February. I’m not worried about it being last September," Schmid said. "It’s just something we try and go out and try and play pretty much the way we play at home for the most part. Today, we just didn’t execute at key moments, and FC Dallas played well.”
