The Seattle Sounders’ desire to ascend above the playoff line will have to wait for at least one more match, after the boys in rave green lost 2-1 to the Supporters’ Shield frontrunners, LAFC, on Friday night in southern California. The Sounders came into the match with a 1-3-1 record across all competitions at Banc of California Stadium, with the sole win being the victory Seattle had in the 2019 western conference finals. All three of Seattle’s losses came without the services of Raúl Ruidíaz, who was again unable to participate on Friday night. With the absences of Ruidíaz and Kelyn Rowe, combined with the daunting atmosphere that’s always created by the LAFC faithful and the excitement surrounding the home debut of Gareth Bale, the Sounders knew they were going to be in for a long and challenging night.
However, for the first 15-20 minutes, Seattle didn’t play like they were +500 underdogs, rather they were taking it to LAFC and staying on the front foot. The Sounders got the reward for their diligence in the 14th minute when Cristian Roldan cleverly blew past LAFC defender Giorgio Chiellini before sending a low cross in front of the home side’s goal for Jesús David Murillo to inadvertently deflect the ball in the back of his own net to give the Sounders the lead. Seattle looked very promising in the early going of the game, but LAFC would soon flip things into their favor after conceding the first goal of the game.
Despite Carlos Vela’s tally being reversed by VAR in the 29th minute, that did not stop the home side from pressing higher up the field, moving the ball well, and creating flurries of chances on Seattle’s goal. LAFC would finally get on the board in the 35th minute when Kwadwo Opoku’s brilliant strike from outside of the area would find the low corner of Stefan Frei’s goal. The league-leaders would go on to take the lead just minutes later when José Cifuentes found a wide-open Carlos Vela in front of goal, who put it in the back of the net to give LAFC the 2-1 lead right before the halftime break.
It was a tale of two halves within the opening half, with the Sounders looking promising for the first 15-20 minutes and then LAFC dictating the game for the last 25-30 minutes. Forward Will Bruin highlighted LAFC’s success in applying pressure on his squad throughout the first half, which helped the hosts drop a pair of goals on Seattle by the end of the first half. “After we went up, I think we got a little more passive and took our foot off the gas,” said Bruin. “I think they were pressing us pretty high when we would win the ball and I don’t think we really connected the first pass out of pressure well enough.”
The Sounders never seemed to be able to successfully kick things into second gear in the second half either. Despite the introductions of Fredy Montero and Jackson Ragen at the hour-mark and the decision by Brian Schmetzer to change formations, it never seemed to materialize for Seattle, who finished the game with zero shots on goal. “Sometimes those changes work, they (team) get a spark,” said Schmetzer. “I think you saw some good moments in the second half, but the cohesiveness maybe wasn’t quite there. I just didn’t think that some of those half-chances really turned into some clear chances.”
With the 2-1 defeat, the Sounders currently remain below the playoff line in a tight race in the western conference with only 12 games left in the season. This season will also go down as just Seattle’s fifth season with 11 or more losses since joining MLS back in 2009, marking the second season in their 14-year league history where the club accrued 11 losses by the end of the month of July in that given year. Despite their current positioning and struggles throughout 2022 outside of their CONCACAF Champions League triumph, Jordan Morris is confident the Sounders will navigate themselves to yet another playoff berth by the end of the year. “Obviously we’re going through a bit of a rough patch now,” said Morris. “Huge game on Tuesday at home (versus FC Dallas), we want to get back on the right foot from there. We understand that games are running out and we need to get above the playoff line, so I think we have the right mentality and we got to show it on the field. We understand the situation, but there’s no panicking in the locker room.”
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