80 minutes into an Open Cup semifinal, the Seattle Sounders thought they’d found their remedy.
They’d held LAFC — an LAFC who’d dominated them for years — to half-chances and set pieces. There wasn’t much for their attackers to eat, but it didn’t matter. At Starfire Stadium, they always had the answer.
Not this time.
A hotly contested penalty put LAFC ahead with seven minutes to play, only for an even-more-contested goal to be taken away from Jordan Morris in extra time. For the first time in a long, long time, the away side prevailed in regular time at Starfire.
After the club announced the signing of Tacoma Defiance winger Georgi Minoungou earlier on Wednesday, Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer included the Ivorian on the bench. Schmetzer’s only starting change from Seattle’s Leagues Cup defeat against LAFC was Andrew Thomas in goal. Thomas has started throughout the Sounders’ Open Cup run.
In three previous meetings with LAFC this year — which have ended with an aggregate score of 8-1, the Sounders dominated possession. Either at Lumen Field or in Los Angeles, their opponents were more than happy to sit off and find wingers on the counterattack.
Starfire Stadium may have leveled the score. It’s significantly smaller than either of those two other pitches, and without the space to run into, LAFC attackers Denis Bouanga and Cristian Olivera were often forced to come short. Steve Cherundolo’s side ended the first half with 62% possession and no official shots on target.
“We didn’t allow them to transition,” Cristian Roldan said. “Obviously, it’s a smaller field, so we’re able to get bodies on their fast players. We didn’t allow the game to open up — we were more compact and aware of counter moments.”
The Sounders, meanwhile, began to find their way. Even given less of the ball than in their previous matches, they performed well in moments. One well-worked passage of play in the 20th minute ran from Paul Rothrock across the box to a sliding Jordan Morris, whose foot couldn’t wrap around the ball.
LAFC, meanwhile, found their only real opportunity from a set piece. Bouanga swung in a right-footed ball from the far side of the pitch, and after a deflection set up a looming Kei Kamara, Jackson Ragen threw himself across the goalmouth to deflect the ball wide.
“We dropped our lines a little bit,” Schmetzer said, “tried to be a little bit more direct, just like we said in the game plan. It worked okay — it wasn’t great.”
It was much the same in the second half. With no action in between the boxes, there’s usually one place goals come from.
It’s not a fun one.
In the 80th minute, De la Vega and Alex Roldan were on the backside of an LAFC corner and a strike cannoned off his forearm.
Denis Bouanga stepped up and tucked it past Thomas.
“It was an even game,” Schmetzer said, “But handballs are handballs and we need to be brave in those moments.”
The Sounders thought that they had the equalizer in the 91st minute, when Cristian Roldan swung a ball into Jordan Morris, but after the Seattle native nodded home the referee quickly called for offsides.
“I just tried to put it in a dangerous area,” Roldan said. “I didn’t know if Jordan was onside or offside…VAR is there for a reason, but [it was] frustrating that we felt like we scored and we were back in it and then it gets overturned.”
Six impassioned minutes later, the game was over.
Asked whether he’d consider this progress against the team that has tormented the Sounders, Schmetzer had a one-word answer:
“No.”
Feature photo by Earving Marquez / Area Sports Network
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