A spot in the 2024 Leagues Cup semifinals was on the line on Saturday evening as the Seattle Sounders took on LAFC. Coming into this fixture, LAFC were unbeaten against Seattle since May 16th, 2021. This match, as well as the Open Cup semifinal on August 28th between these two clubs, were of immense magnitude. Thus, it was essential that the Sounders exorcized their demons against the team from Southern California.
Things got off to a rocky start early for the Sounders when LAFC’s Ryan Hollingshead put the ball in the back of the net in the 14th minute. Hollingshead made a lethal run from the left side of the field. Maxime Chanot played the ball to Hollingshead, and after a nifty first touch, he was one-on-one against Stefan Frei and scored with a cool finish.
“Alex [Roldan] and I may have had a little bit of a miscommunication. Alex was a little bit narrow, and Hollingshead was a little bit higher up. We were caught in between,” Cristian Roldan said.
LAFC doubled their advantage in the 25th minute as Kei Kamara hit a beautiful volley from the left side of the box. The MLS legend showed incredible poise to score that goal. The 39-year-old found himself wide open on the play as the Sounders were caught ball watching.
In the teams’ last meeting back on July 20th, the Sounders also gave up early goals to LAFC. This time, the Sounders also had a shaky start to the game, which is something that they cannot do against solid teams like LAFC.
At the half, LAFC had held a mere 34 percent of the possession, and yet they had seven shots, six of them on target. The Black and Gold had been opportunistic with their opportunities. Seattle, on the other hand, had eight shots and only one on target. The Sounders had been caught in a familiar situation of having much of the ball and being unable to produce anything with it.
“The challenge at halftime was to score one goal against this team…If it’s not a goal then it’s creating five or six really good opportunities,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said.
Dennis Bouanga added a third tally for the visitors in the 53rd minute. Hugo Lloris played a long ball all the way from his own box and found Bouanga’s streaking run down the middle of the field. Bouanga collected the ball and scored the goal off the post. Now with a three-goal deficit, the Sounders had a mountain to climb.
The chances mentioned by Schmetzer never occurred in the second half as Seattle was unable to create solid chances for themselves. LAFC were more than happy to sit back and let the Sounders have the ball for the rest of the match.
On what didn’t work in the attacking half, Schmetzer said, “Getting scored on early. Having [LAFC]… get into their deep, low block and preventing us from getting any clear looks on goal in the first half.”
Despite Schmetzer’s urging, that was the problem beyond the first half as well. The Sounders just could not create clear cut chances that would allow them to get on the scoresheet, which has been a major problem for this team for long stretches of the current campaign.
The Sounders will face LAFC again in eleven days. It is important the club regroups and prepares well as they look forward to facing this team again in another high-stakes match.
“We’ve got to understand the way they play. They are a transition team…Maybe we can drop and make them try to break us down next time…We want to implement the way we want to play,” Roldan said.
Indeed, changes will need to be made as the team makes its preparations for the Open Cup semifinal at Starfire.
It is not all doom and gloom for Seattle, though. While the team did not get where they want to be in winning the Leagues Cup, we saw improved play throughout the tournament. Goals were consistent and defensive play has remained mostly solid.
This has been a difficult season for the Sounders, yet they sit in a playoff spot. They have looked better this summer. Things are trending up since the spring and though tonight’s result was deflating, the team still has an opportunity to compete for trophies, which has always been the standard for this club.
Now, the Sounders shift their focus to MLS play as they will visit Minnesota United on August 24th. The match is scheduled to kick off at 3:30 PM Pacific Time.
Feature photo by Earving Marquez / Area Sports Network
