While Wednesday night’s Concacaf Champions Cup showdown against Cruz Azul ended in a 0-0 stalemate, the Seattle Sounders were able to take away several positives from the 90 minutes of match play.
Cruz Azul is consistently a top contender in both its residing league, Liga MX, and the Concacaf sanctioned tournament. Considered one of the “big four” clubs in Mexico, the team is no stranger to winning championships.
With a collection of nine league titles and six CCC trophies, Cruz Azul was bound to be a difficult opponent. But, the Sounders’ own talent and tactical strength left the Mexican side scrambling in varying moments of the first leg, Round of 16 match.
“We felt like we were the better team on the day,” said midfielder Cristian Roldan.
Defensively, Seattle was sound. The team closed out the night with a whopping 52 duels won, 24 clearances and 16 interceptions.
“Obviously [Cruz Azul] is a talented group, evident by their possession, but I think the positive side of [the match] is a clean sheet,” said defender Alex Roldan. “I think their best chance was a shot outside the box and it went straight to Stef [Frei].”
Offensively, the group created chances. Whether it be Nouhou’s second half header that hit the crossbar, Pedro de la Vega’s banger past goalkeeper Kevin Mierin in the 51st minute that was called offsides, or Jordan Morris’ 70th minute shot that bounced off the right goal post, the Sounders had multiple opportunities to put the game away.
“It could have been three plus goals from us,” said Alex. “We just need to be a little bit more clinical when it comes to the final third.”
The objective is to do exactly that, while carrying over some of the silver linings from Wednesday’s draw, when the team faces Cruz Azul in the second and final leg of the Round of 16 on March 11 in Mexico City.
“[Cruz Azul] is a team that entices you to press a little bit, it's a team that has a lot of the ball. So how can we be compact defensively? Pick our moments to attack. We know there's going to be altitude and possibly heat, so that's going to be something that we need to be ready for,” said Cristian. “But look, if we can score one down there, it puts a lot of pressure on Cruz Azul, so can we be the benefactor of the first goal.”
Due to the outcome of the first leg, next Tuesday’s match will decide the victor of the Round of 16. A win or a tie — with goals — would advance Seattle to the Quarterfinals where they would face the winners of the Club America-Chivas de Guadalajara series.
“We are going to go and try and score a goal, and that would give us an away goal and give us hope,” said Head Coach Brian Schmetzer. “We'll make sure that we give them a good game, just the way they came up here and were motivated to play.”
