SEATTLE — The Seattle Sounders’ 1-0 home loss to Toronto FC on Saturday looked very much like Seattle’s 3-3 draw with the New England Revolution last week: tons of possession, lots of chances and, unfortunately, a missed opportunity at three points.
Toronto FC rested Sebastian Giovinco, Victor Vazquez and others, but the Sounders were still unable to find a breakthrough in a rematch of the 2016 MLS Cup Final. The Sounders had 64 percent possession, completed over 650 passes and took 12 shots but the finishing touch in the final third just wasn’t there.
“Overall, there is a lot of frustration in that locker room,” said Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer, who lost his first game at CenturyLink Field since taking over last July, a span of 14 games. “We’re tired of the same storyline of extended possession and getting a bunch of chances. That storyline is growing old very fast.”
The Sounders have been all over teams in their three matches since moving Jordan Morris to the left wing and starting Will Bruin up front against the LA Galaxy on April 23, but after an emphatic 3-0 win at StubHub Center, Seattle secured just a point from their last two home matches. Both games against two Eastern Conference teams with long road trips to boot.
“[We’re missing the] final pass, final movement, little bit of luck, little bit more desire to get in the box and make stuff happen,” said Schmetzer of the recent home struggles. “It’s getting the monkey off our back to try and get the first goal. In L.A. and against New York, we scored first and ended up winning the games. The rest of the season’s been a challenge.”
Seattle sits on 10 points from nine matches, an inauspicious beginning to its title defense, but the most frustrating aspect for the Sounders is not that they’re not playing well — they have put in some statistically astounding performances — but that they’re playing well and not taking advantage of it.
“We’re playing some really good football,” said goalkeeper Stefan Frei. “I’m really excited with what I see in front of us. But we still need to get points and maybe fine-tune that last little bit of possession up top and how we can turn that into defenses not bending, but actually breaking…We need to be able to find a crack and then punish teams.”
Added center back Gustav Svensson: “I think sometimes we have too much possession and we’re not really as sharp in the final third than if you have the ball not as much. If you know that you only have once chance to score, maybe you’re [sharper] and more focused. It feels like we have the ball a lot…maybe sometimes we’re not as focused as we should be.”
The Sounders know more than anyone that early-season results are not an accurate indicator of how a team will finish a campaign. Seattle didn’t really click until August last year, more than twice as deep into the season as the team is currently.
That logic won’t necessarily quench the team’s thirst to return to winning ways, but there are certainly plenty of positives to take looking forward. With a few tweaks here and there, the Sounders know they have the ability to be a legitimate Western Conference contender.
“The reality is that we lost the game because we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net,” said Schmetzer. “The reality is that we’re still a good team. The reality is that nobody is in panic mode. The reality is that there’s no magic formula that halfway through a season we can turn things around, so they need to start thinking about how they can help the team win.”
