Less than a month ago, the Seattle Sounders slunk out of Frisco with a 2-1 loss to FC Dallas nipping at their heels.
The game, the penultimate match of the regular season, offered Seattle the chance to clinch a postseason berth with a win. And it looked as though they might get it, if not for two goals in the final 10 minutes to dash those hopes and defer that playoff clincher to the final day of the regular season. It was a deflating evening, to say the least.
Seattle left Frisco with a 2-1 loss for the second time in as many months on Sunday. But this time they did it with a celebratory whoop and an eye toward an MLS Cup.
The Sounders may have lost Sunday’s battle, but they won the war. A vital second-half away goal from Nicolas Lodeiro turned the mound FCD needed to climb into Mount Rainier. Even with a quick-fire goal from Maxi Urruti just a minute later, FCD still needed to score three goals in the final 30 minutes to snag the win.
They did not get so much as one more. And now the Sounders are through to the Western Conference Championship.
Here’s three things we learned from the best loss the Sounders suffered all year.
FCD Targets Width, Sounders Don’t Buckle
Throughout its Supporters’ Shield-winning regular season, FC Dallas positively ignored chances from wide positions. It isn’t as though FCD never crossed the ball, but its average per game was the lowest in the league. That, though, was with central creator Mauro Diaz in the lineup. And FCD did not have Diaz at their disposal on Sunday, the result of a season-ending Achilles injury he picked up three weeks ago.
In the first leg, during Seattle’s rollicking 3-0 win at CenturyLink Field, FCD attempted to ram defensive midfielder Kellyn Acosta up the gut in hopes of stymying chances and perhaps finding one or two of their own. It backfired.
As an answer, FCD coach Oscar Pareja moved former Sounder Mauro Rosales into that role on Sunday and directed nearly the entirety of the team’s chances toward the flanks. It worked early while the Sounders struggled to cope with a team that hit its season average for crosses in the first 20 minutes. FCD’s first goal came from a well-delivered cross to Tesho Akindele.
This is where FCD staked its game. Without balls in centrally, everything came from wider crosses from players like Atiba Harris and Michael Barrios. Unfortunately for FCD, they only went 2-24 on crosses from wide. This could have hurt the Sounders. Instead, it ended up crippling FCD instead.
Tyrone Mears and the Steal of the Season
There’s no way around it: Tyrone Mears has taken his lumps this season. While the overall trajectory of his year has been a net positive, there’s no getting around the fact that the Sounders’ right flank has been a point of contention at certain parts of the season. Mears, for his part, simply kept his head down and kept working.
Mears never lost his starting gig for any length of time this season for a reason. And he showed it in spades on Sunday night.
Inside the first five minutes, Mears careened into the box to head off a Barrios corner from practically Oklahoma. It was FCD’s first truly dangerous moment, and Mears proved he was in the moment then and there. But it took a flashpoint of sheer brilliance later on in the second half to truly stamp Mears as perhaps one of the most under-appreciated cogs on this team in 2016.
Ten minutes into the second half, the match was perched on the edge of a knife. FCD held a 1-0 lead that felt anything but tenuous, and another goal would put them one away from sending the match into extra time. Meanwhile, a Sounders goal would effectively end the series. It’d force FCD to score four goals in the second half.
FCD looked the more likely to nip the next one when Mears sprinted down a seemingly uncatchable long ball into the right corner of FCD’s end. Mears was booking it, and you quickly saw why. One tap and he’d dispossessed the defender, leaving him heads up to space just outside the box. Mears then brilliantly whipped in a low-flying cross that found the foot of a streaking Lodeiro, who did the rest.
The moment was a single point of light in a firmament of stars, but it illustrated the simple fact that Mears never switched off this season.
Excitement, Break Await Sounders
The transition from the conference semis to the championship is an odd one. After cramming three playoff games into 10 days, the Sounders won’t play again for another two weeks. And on the other end of that layoff, the Colorado Rapids await.
The Sounders are red-hot at the moment, so from that standpoint you can understand some concern in the clubhouse that the break for the international calendar this weekend could cool what’s otherwise been an unquenchable fire. Whatever momentum the Sounders have built over those 10 unforgettable days and three indelible games could be a faded memory in another two weeks.
By the same token, the Sounders won’t mind a rest for weary legs. And perhaps some injured ones as well.
Seattle was already working Andreas Ivanschitz and Alvaro Fernandez back from injuries that’ve kept both out for the entirety of the postseason. But they’ve also been dealing with an injury that’s sidelined center back Roman Torres of late as well. Torres made the bench in the second FCD leg but wasn’t ready for prime time. Expecting him back in two weeks seems all the more likely in that light.
Meanwhile, the Sounders picked up two more injuries on Sunday night. Jordan Morris and Nelson Valdez were both forced out of the game in the second half with injuries, and two weeks to heal will be a welcome sight for both.
The Sounders certainly have their work cut out in keeping the fire roaring over the next two weeks. Judging by a madcap Sunday night that was an appropriate extension of the last three months, don’t bet against them.
