SEATTLE – For the Seattle Sounders, Saturday afternoon’s 1-0 defeat to the LA Galaxy at CenturyLink Field was a continuation of the same storylines that have defined the first half of their 2016 season.
Seattle took a whopping 22 shots – the team’s highest total since the beginning of 2015, 16 of which came from inside the LA penalty box. They also held a commanding 61.6 percent possession and had a handful of opportunities to find a second-half equalizer that would have changed the game’s complexion entirely.
But despite those statistical advantages, Seattle could never find a response to Robbie Keane’s 15th-minute tally for the Galaxy, sending the Sounders to the same type of frustrating defeat that has left them with a 5-10-2 record and in last place in the Western Conference.
“It’s been repetitive,” midfielder Cristian Roldan said. “It’s been the same story. I think you guys will write a similar story to our first 15 games, you know? At the end of the day, we played fine. We dominated them. We’re not satisfied because we lost, but I think we’re happy with how we played.”
In his postgame press conference, Sounders coach Sigi Schmid expressed a similar sentiment.
“All that you can ask for your team is to create chances and to fight and battle and to work hard and smart for each other,” Schmid said. “We did all that and we came away with nothing, with a goose egg. It’s frustrating, but I also feel strongly that if we continue to do that, it’ll turn around.”
As they attempt to regroup and find an elusive spark for their struggling attack, the Sounders must also contend with a particularly daunting portion of their schedule.
Seattle host a dynamic, Supporters’ Shield-leading FC Dallas squad at CenturyLink Field on Wednesday before heading south for a massive Cascadia Cup showdown with the Portland Timbers at Providence Park next Saturday.
“They’re both in-conference games, so they’re huge points,” said goalkeeper Stefan Frei. “We’re not going to get down on ourselves now. We need to keep that confidence that we were able to build up [before Saturday] because we need it. We’ve got six points of games against tough opponents. It’s do-or-die.”
