TUKWILA, Wash. — To say that the Seattle Sounders are familiar with FC Dallas would be an understatement.
Seattle will host FCD on Sunday (6:30 p.m. PT; FS1, KIRO Radio 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360AM) in the first leg of the Western Conference Semifinals, the third straight year the two teams have met in this round of the playoffs. In the most recent matchup between these teams, Seattle lost 2-1 at FC Dallas on Oct. 16 in the penultimate game of the regular season.
“It was a competitive game [on Oct. 16],” Sounders interim head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “If we had gone down there and gotten blown out or something bad would have happened, then there’s a little chink in [our] armor and [our] psyche.
“Through 80 minutes we played well. We had a couple of errors that cost us the game, but I think the team knows that they can play against Dallas even though Dallas is a very good team.”
Schmetzer has a close relationship with FC Dallas Technical Director Fernando Clavijo. The two were teammates with the San Diego Sockers indoor soccer team in the 1980s and lived next door to each other. They would routinely grab coffee together before practice and had barbecues on their patios after training sessions.
Now Schmetzer will have to try and outwit Clavijo’s Dallas team that won the MLS Supporters’ Shield and boasts one of the league’s most talented lineups. The biggest key for the Sounders on Sunday will be fixing the sudden and disconcerting schism between Nicolas Lodeiro and Jordan Morris in the attacking third.
“We’re trying to figure that out,” Schmetzer said. “It’s noticeable…We’re working on it. Some of it is personnel.
“But the personnel that we have must step up…It’s next guy up, you’ve got to do your job.”
Seattle has a quick turnaround ahead of FC Dallas after the Sounders’ 1-0 Knockout Round victory over Sporting Kansas City on Thursday, and they’ll have to prepare for an entirely different type of match.
“Dallas is nowhere near as physical as KC was,” said goalkeeper Stefan Frei. “We’re going to have to make sure that counts. We like to be a team that has possession and KC disrupted our possession very, very effectively.
“[FC Dallas has] crafty players and if you give them too much time and too much rhythm to feel comfortable in the game, they’re going to punish you. Especially at home, we’re going to have to dictate that.”
One player the Sounders don’t have to worry about is star midfielder Mauro Diaz, who is out for the season with a torn Achilles suffered in the match versus Seattle. Schmetzer said on Friday that Diaz’s absence is not going to affect the way his team plans for the semifinals.
“We do not change our tactics for one guy regardless of how good he is,” Schmetzer said. “They will miss [Diaz]. How they played in L.A., that’s the stuff we’re going to digest. What [head coach Oscar Pareja] might do for this game away from home. All of those things will come into play.
“It should be a really tremendous series.”
