SEATTLE — It took 81 minutes on Saturday, but the Seattle Sounders finally found a breakthrough in their 1-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps at CenturyLink Field.
Nicolas Lodeiro curled in a cross to Jordan Morris, whose diving flick header beat David Ousted. It was Morris’ fifth game-winning goal of the season, an MLS rookie record, and afforded the Sounders the three points they desperately needed at home to keep their playoff chances alive.
The opportunities at goal and possession were there from the opening whistle, but Seattle couldn’t capitalize until late, an issue the Sounders fought off rather than sit back in frustration as the match wore on.
“[Us scoring late] is testament to that group of guys,” said Sounders interim head coach Brian Schmetzer. “We had worked all week long to create enough quality chances for us to get at least one, and if you look at the stat sheet I think we did that.”
Morris’ goal was his 10th of the season and became just the fifth MLS rookie ever to record double-digit tallies. He dealt with incredible amounts of pressure all game from the Whitecaps’ two big center backs, but kept working hard to find his one half-chance.
“[Morris] is playing with confidence,” Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson said. “With all young players, it’s important you stick with them when times are tough and going through those periods when everyone is writing about them and talking about them, but continue to let them play…He’s making right decisions at right times. He’s got a good future ahead of him.”
The goal came after a halftime talk where Schmetzer told the team that they needed to reward themselves for playing so well. The message was to keep pushing forward and try to find the go-ahead goal in a half that Schmetzer said was some of the best soccer they’ve played in a long time, with or without Clint Dempsey, who returned to training this week for the first time in a few weeks since undergoing a procedure for an irregular heartbeat.
The team was steadfast and consistent and didn’t let missed opportunities get in the way of what needed to be done.
“In the first half [the Whitecaps center backs] knew I was trying to make those runs and they tried to cut them off, and it was frustrating because I didn’t get a lot of touches on the ball in the first half,” Morris said. “The mentality is that you just have to keep grinding…It can be frustrating when we have a lot of the possession and have the ball in the final third and can’t get the final product in, especially as a forward you kind of feel responsible because it’s your job to get the ball in the back of the net. You just have to keep pushing and be confident that your chance is going to come.”
Said goalkeeper Stefan Frei: “Patience was also important today because it was a do-or-die game. You can’t go in with a mindset that you have to score in the first 10 to 15 minutes especially against a team like this where they have a tremendous amount of pace up top. I liked our patience and our fight.”
The Sounders have made a habit recently of scoring late, as they’ve tallied in the 75th minute or later three times in the last four matches. While being in a position where they need to score late to salvage points is not a trend they’d like to continue, the effort and resiliency they’ve shown in keeping the attacking pressure on when goals are elusive has been impressive.
“Spirits are good but it’s what was expected,” said Frei. “We needed to get a win today, that was the only acceptable result.”
