In the ninth minute of Sounders FC’s anticipated rematch against the LA Galaxy on Sunday, Osvaldo Alonso put an exclamation point on a long string of team possession. He drifted wide, toward the right sideline about 35 yards from goal, and arrowed a pinpoint cross that found Lamar Neagle's head about eight yards from the net. Neagle’s flick-on header looped longingly toward the underside of the crossbar, but Galaxy keeper Jaime Penedo acrobatically parried it away.
It was both an encouraging and troubling sign for the game’s ensuing tenor. Despite opening up the flanks to a conveyor belt of meaningful service, Penedo’s fast thinking and Sounders FC’s inability to finish chances doomed them to a disappointing 1-0 loss on the road. If the litany of chances were reassuring for the long run, their lack of decisiveness was disquieting in the moment.
WATCH NOW: Highlights - Seattle Sounders FC at LA Galaxy
“Their goalkeeper comes up with a ton of saves,” Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid said. “Some hit him and some saves he makes and we end up losing the game 1-0. I don’t think based on our performance we deserve to lose. I think we were as good if not better for good portions of the game, but that’s how the game goes sometimes.”
Earlier in the week, Schmid pleaded for more production out of his wingers, Neagle on the right and Marco Pappa on the left specifically. But with Clint Dempsey still on the shelf with a left hamstring injury, Neagle was pushed up to striker next to Obafemi Martins on Sunday to make room for rookie Cristian Roldan on the right.
The move sparked a team-wide performance centerback Brad Evans called the team’s best of the season. It just didn’t produce any goals.
That, however, was not for lack of trying, and the wide play was consistently feeding logs into the fire. Swinging wide right into comfortable channels, Neagle himself registered a career-high six shots. Roldan was rampant on the right, completing 76 percent of his passes and dazzling with a handful of chance creations. Pappa managed to shuttle in nine crosses from the left, including a beautifully wrought corner in the 10th minute that led to an on-target header by Chad Marshall and a near-miss from Neagle. Even young leftback Dylan Remick got into the act, completing eight of his 11 attempted passes along the flank in the attacking half.
In all, the Sounders produced a staggering 11 key passes, or passes that directly result in a shot, and a further 18 crosses. While key passes typically come closer to goal considering the action that proceeds them, more than half of the Sounders’ came from crosses, and nearly all of them were produced directly from the team’s consistently dangerous wing play.
Without Dempsey to orchestrate the game’s movement in the middle, Sounders FC continually looked outside for chance creation. The team’s completed pass map looked like a V in the attacking third, with the play routing through wide-split strikers and a pair of dogged wide midfielders. To that end, Roldan was perhaps the day’s most pleasant surprise on the right side. At one point, he stepped through three Galaxy defenders before emerging with the ball, unscathed. He also led in Martins and Pappa for chances over the course of the match.
“I thought (Roldan) had a good game today and I thought Dylan Remick had a good game attacking as a leftback running down the left side for us,” Schmid said. “I was pleased there is nobody I can point to and say they didn’t play well. I think our guys played pretty well today.”
Schmid’s decision to move Neagle further upfield also seemed to spark his danger from wide positions. In the 53rd minute, Neagle flew onto a long ball on the right flank and took it five yards into the box before whipping in perhaps his most well-weighted ball of the season. The ensuing scene was typical of the day. With the cross on Andy Rose's shoe-tops four yards from goal, the shot slammed into Penedo’s chest and caromed back out.
Just one of those days for a team that continues to grow in its versatility as the season marches toward the summer.
“I think everybody is obviously very disappointed with the result, but in saying that, I thought that was probably our best game this year,” Evans said. “Sometimes soccer is that way.”
