The Seattle Sounders failed to cap off a hectic and frustrating three-match week in the manner they would have liked, falling to the Chicago Fire by a scoreline of 1-0 at Soldier Field on Saturday night. This result marks the fourth loss that the Sounders have suffered in their past five matches. The 1-0 shutout score also makes it 300 minutes since the last Rave Green goal, which came in the 60th minute against Toronto FC back on July 2nd. This match also marks the first time the Sounders have had three consecutive shutout losses in a single season. The last time such a pattern of results came for Seattle was back in the springtime of 2018, a run of games that coincidentally also started with a shutout loss to their rival Portland Timbers.
The early going of the match was truly end-to-end, with a Jordan Morris breakaway opportunity that was tipped over the Chicago goal by Gaga Slonina in the 7th minute and a Kacper Przybylko close-by shot that was stopped by Stefan Cleveland in the 17th minute. The Fire broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute when Federico Navarro floated a ball into the box where Rafael Czichos capitalized on a free header to put the home side up by one. Inability to maintain a clean sheet has been a big point of emphasis for Brian Schmetzer and his squad lately, so Chicago’s goal must’ve really been a let-down for the visitors. “Again, we’re giving away soft goals,” said Schmetzer at halftime. “That play never should have happened.”
Just a few minutes after the opening goal, the Fire had the opportunity to double their lead when Brian Gutierrez was in on Seattle’s goal with a 1v1 opportunity against Stefan Cleveland, but the Sounders’ second-string goalkeeper came up with another huge save, a stop that kept his side in the game. “On the 1v1 breakaway, they were in,” said Schmetzer. (His save) kept us in the game at one-nothing.”
Despite the heroics of Stefan Cleveland, who finished the game with four saves, the Sounders were never able to kick it into second gear in the attacking phase of the game. While the introductions of Léo Chú, Alex Roldan, and Fredy Montero in the second half helped bring some life back into the game for the visitors, the Fire was well up to the task of preserving their 1-0 lead. Seattle’s last gasp opportunity of the game came in the 88th minute when Jordan Morris was once again denied by Gaga Slonina after a perfectly-weighted ball from Nicolás Lodeiro. With the 1-0 final result, the Sounders ended their three-match week in one of the worst ways possible, failing to pick up a point let alone score a goal in any of the three affairs.
“We definitely feel frustration and also uncertainty,” said Lodeiro after the game. “We are not performing the way that we would like to and the problem is that we’re getting less and less time to turn this thing around.” Brian Schmetzer agreed with Lodeiro’s sentiment after the match. “There’s 14 games left, which seems like a long time, but it’s really not,” said Schmetzer. Having won only 6 of the 13 regular season matches after their CCL triumph, the Sounders don’t seem quite like themselves in recent weeks, which Seattle’s captain himself admits. “We’re definitely not the same team that played in the CONCACAF tournament,” said Lodeiro.
The 33-year-old Uruguayan shared his thoughts on how the Sounders can end the skid that they’re currently in and get back to racking up points and advancing back up the table to a playoff spot. “We have to go back into the basics of what we have been doing before, which is play as a team together, we are aggressive, and then we need to have the ball. Those are the three things that we need to go back in to do well,” said Lodeiro in the post-match press conference.
Despite the recent run of form and the fact that the Sounders currently find themselves below the red line in the conference standings with 26 points to show for 20 games, there’s still optimism in many Seattle fans that the boys in rave green will find themselves in the playoffs again for the 14th consecutive season. This is partly due to the club’s history of having slow starts but coming up with hot runs in the latter part of the season to secure themselves in strong playoff seeds. In fact, since Brian Schmetzer took over the reins as head coach of the team from the late Sigi Schmid on July 26th, 2016, the Sounders hold a record of 40 wins, 16 losses, and 16 draws across all regular season matches played after July 26th of each year, not including the 2020 season that was thrown into disarray due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the club has to produce results out on the field to continue this success that they seem to enjoy in the second half of seasons. Brian Schmetzer provided some insight on how his squad can get things back on track after yet another disappointing result in Chicago on Saturday night. “We talked about pressure about how when things aren’t going well, then you (players) have to step forward,” said Schmetzer. “You have to not be afraid to change your mindset and do things a little bit differently.” Schmetzer also shared his personal observations with the media in the post-match press conference. “I don’t think there’s any panic in that locker room, but I think there’s a little bit of lack of confidence I think at times when I watch the team play and that’s what we’re going to try and address.”
After a three-match week that saw them face their rival Portland Timbers for the first time this season and make trips to Nashville and Chicago for a pair of away games, the Sounders will finally be back home for the next week leading into their clash with the Colorado Rapids next weekend. Needless to say, Brian Schmetzer and his squad will surely be looking forward to this period of time. “We’re going to give them (players) Sunday and Monday off and I think they need a little bit of a physical break and a mental break,” said Schmetzer. “It also gives us a couple of days as a coaching staff to get them some much-needed training in a couple of different areas of the game and hopefully we put out a better performance against Colorado at home.”
