After holding many of their first-team regulars out for Wednesday's US Open Cup defeat to the LA Galaxy, the Seattle Sounders hoped the extra rest would afford them a spark in their return to MLS play at Sporting Kansas City on Sunday.
But an onslaught of pressure from the hosts combined with the vicious Kansas City heat would prove to be too much for Seattle, as a brace from SKC’s Dom Dwyer and a tally from Jacob Peterson sent the Sounders to a 3-0 defeat.
Temperatures were as high as 95 degrees at Children’s Mercy Park just before kickoff – and felt as high as 106 on the field – making the consistent barrage of pressure from SKC an even taller task to deal with for Seattle.
“They put us under pressure for the full 90 minutes,” Sounders captain Brad Evans said afterwards. “They smelled every single backpass and really put us under the gun. I’ve never played in a game like that, so mental lapses [happen] when it starts to get hot. They’re pressing, pressing and credit to them. They stuck to their game plan and it worked.”
Seattle managed just 35.2 percent of the possession and struggled to generate chances throughout the afternoon, attacking struggles that Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid said could not only be explained by the elements.
The Sounders narrowly avoided becoming the first MLS side in history to go an entire game without registering a single shot and were outshot by SKC by an overall margin of 19-1 for the game.
“It’s hot for them and it’s hot for us,” Schmid said. “In a game like that with [the heat], when the game’s going well for you, you have the energy to run. And when the game’s not going well for you, you feel that it’s really hot. If we could have gotten a goal, then all of the sudden we would have looked a little more sprung. But it didn’t happen so we looked pretty tired.”
Seattle tried some tactical tinkering at halftime to try and jumpstart the attack, switching to a 3-5-2 formation that saw Evans and left back Joevin Jones move from the backline up into the midfield.
Both Schmid and midfielder Cristian Roldan pointed to the period following the change as Seattle’s strongest of the match, but it would ultimately be to no avail.
“We didn’t play well,” Roldan said. “It was pretty hard with the conditions but we didn’t bring it today. You saw how many chances they had and how few we had.”
Midfielder Erik Friberg exited the contest in the first half with an ankle injury, putting his status for Seattle’s home matchup with the Galaxy into question. The Sounders will regain the services of midfielder Ozzie Alonso for that match, however, after he missed Sunday’s contest due to yellow card accumulation.
