The expectations weren’t high.
It could’ve been better than this, though.
The Seattle Sounders entered their midweek matchup — their first of the season — against first-in-the-West Real Salt Lake riding high off the coattails of a rivalry win over the Portland Timbers. Head coach Brian Schmetzer offered a rotated lineup, affected by the three games in seven days the team faced, but a frustrated Seattle group left having conceded twice and never been close to scoring.
The Sounders were goal-dangerous in the first half (better than expected), but couldn’t take a touch inside the area to save their lives (worse than expected). Georgi Minoungou made his first MLS start on the left wing, and gave out-of-position Philip Quinton fits down the side all night. For all of that, though, Seattle couldn’t make the most of a couple great half-chances. Danny Musovski found the ball stuck under his feet on multiple occasions, Albert Rusnák sent a Minoungou cutback into the stands, and the Sounders went into the half with a big ol’ goose egg on the scoreboard.
The casualties continued to come, too. Léo Chú exited in the first half with an injury that Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer later confirmed was to his adductor after going down no-contact.
“It altered some of our plans for halftime making changes because we already burned one sub,” Schmetzer said. “So you deal with that…but that did put us at a little disadvantage.”
The defense did well to allow just a single counter-attacking goal from Carlos Gomez; there was an onslaught as Salt Lake held nearly 70% of the first-half possession and generated 10 shots, but what’s another entrance in the hall of “Save Us Stefan Frei” performances.
Unfortunately, Stef Frei couldn’t save the Sounders. It’s tough, to be fair, when your opponents are taking shots on their favored foot from inside the box. The second goal came when Jackson Ragen was left one-on-one with Diego Luna. Luna turned Ragen and tucked his shot neatly into the bottom right corner.
Even the insertion of Cristian Roldan couldn’t spark life. The Sounders veteran entered at the half, followed by Jordan Morris with a half-hour to go.
The Sounders took just one second-half shot, though — an off-target effort from Minoungou.
“Now as far as Georgi’s attacking movements are concerned, the kid is super talented,” Schmetzer said. “I mean — you guys can all see it. He's fun to watch. But Georgi certainly has played his way into a conversation about whether we should sign him for the rest of the year. And especially if Léo Chú’s injury is such that it's an extended injury — that helps his chances.”
In the meantime, it seemed that Seattle’s midfield had vanished. Time and again, Braian Ojeda and Diego Luna had free reign to run at the heart of Seattle’s defense. To their credit, they did what they could. It wasn’t enough.
The Sounders scarcely found more than a glance at goal — the loudest that Salt Lake’s goalkeeper was ever referenced was when Frei was misidentified as RSL ‘keeper Gavin Beavers. They finished with just 0.03 xG from six corner kicks, less than half a goal from play at all, and two shots on target.
For those looking for some silver lining, two injured players made their returns in this one. Reed Baker-Whiting and Yeimar Gomez Andrade both grabbed second half minutes, and with Pedro de la Vega’s first appearance since his early-season injury forecast for Saturday’s Cascadia matchup with Vancouver, it’ll be as important as ever that Seattle can offer a close-to-full complement.
Seattle’s weekend game against the ‘Caps kicks off at 7:30 PM on Saturday in Seattle.
All photos courtesy of Sounders FC Communications
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