Regrding the refs – thanks for telling it like it is Dave and not whining like too many others.

Perhaps this is the “expansion team” phase of our year. If so, it’s good that we’re still getting points, and I hope we get back on track soon.

I’m not even sure why there’s a vote here. If you voted “No” you don’t understand offsides. This clip isn’t the greatest though to use, because it starts right after the ball is kicked — but watching on TV with replay, it was OBVIOUS that he was in an onsides position when the ball was kicked. The Sounders were unfortunately just a bit too late in pulling up to make the offsides trap.

Yes, the Dallas feed (that’s what MLS used for QuickKicks) does not show a replay when the ball leaves the foot of the passer.

But, even a split second later Rocha is still onside.

Considering how many are complaining about biased referees on other sites and other forums, I’m surprised at how reasonable the readers here are.

Well said, although I don’t see Keller getting to that ball at all, it was in the bottom corner just inside the post… not many keepers make that save, especially when you would expect the player to take a touch to control it rather than lay out for it.

Rocha was pretty clearly onsides when you watch the clip in slow motion.

I disagree with you about Keller playing the play assuming that Rocha was offside. Rocha just had a really really good one touch on the ball. Keller saw the ball coming over, back pedaled and floated over to his near post. There was much else he could have done here.
He was trying to sell the offside to the ref after the play, and from his angle it probably did look offside.

I wouldn’t say that Montero is lazy, but he clearly doesn’t work for the ball like he should. The majority of his touches are well away from the goal and facing multiple defenders. He needs to be making diagonal runs in behind the defense and somebody needs to be able to make those passes.

Keller, could have moved on the entry pass. That was when he was trying sell the call.

In contrast to LA match last week, I thought the refs in the Dallas match were excellent. There were some close calls (which I agree they got right) and those are always disputed. However, the flow of the game was much smoother this week. There were some testy moments that, in contrast to last week, the ref did not ignore. Instead, he addressed them with the players and then the game moved on. No grudges, no tit-for-tat, just soccer for 90 minutes. This week we’re busy talking about the players rather than the refs. Much better MLS.

I really don’t think you can blame Keller at all on that goal. The entry pass was perfectly placed and unexpected and the finish was perfect.

Montero was looking great in the first half coming back deeper for the ball and making entry passes. I think in his past few games he’s been starved for the ball a bit by staying up too far trying to make attacking runs. Getting him some good touches where he isn’t molested by defenders is a good thing.

It’s easy to blame the referees for all that has gone wrong in Sounders’ season. It’s also a disservice to other fans, or if you’re a writer, to your readers.

Sounders clearly have some working to do to work out how to best use the players at their disposal. Given how many routes the current squad came from, and how many people selected them, I’m fairly happy with the way things are going. Six goals shipped in nine games is hardly proof of an unsteady ship.

You can only blame the officiating to an extent. I believe that an official can impact the outcome of a match like last week. With that said, at the end of the day you have to execute and play with passion. Sounders did neither last Saturday. The point is nice even the it wasn’t pretty.

Expectations have been set high because of the strong start but we are still an expansion team and the team chemestry is a work in progress.

I think the best is still yet to come.

Exhibit A:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/177721-memo-to-mls-instant-replay-needs-to-come-in

Too bad that article is wrong on both of it’s main points. Rocha wasn’t offsides, and 15 seconds over ‘stoppage time’ is not too much.

I don’t want replay. And I don’t think it will happen, thank goodness.

I disagree with your praise of Jaqua on the wing… yes, he did play there but his lack of pace and defensive ability drove a gaping hole in our defense and coincided exactly with Van den Bergh’s great run of play which nearly cost us the game twice over.

Broke, I think I was impressed in that my expectations were low.

I agree dave, he was clearly onsides. during the game, i was cursing at the ref. however, it was clear with the replays that we was onsides. a great goal and I think GotW candidate. Keller should play every ball like it’s onsides and trust the ref to make the call. The ref made a great no-call on this, much to my chagrin.

Dave,
Take a look at the video again. Its Seba Le Toux who is at the top of the screen tracking back, and keeping Rocha onside.

But your main point is right on. I’ve never heard so much whining in my life. The officials in MLS are what they are. Play better and you win, no matter the officiating.

My wife graduated from law school yesterday, so this past weekend was completely consumed by family events. I was at a big dinner when the Sounders were playing and still haven’t had the chance to sit down and watch the game, so I’m not going to say anything specific about this game.

What I do want to say is that I think this current funk has been largely due to two factors, first other teams have figured out that we don’t have an adequate response at the time for very physical play, and second that our lineup has been very much in flux because of suspensions, injuries, and other personnel changes.

As for the first problem, it would be great if refs in the league would call the game better, but it’s a factor that affects all teams in the league, not just us, and we have to adapt our playing style to compensate. The biggest thing we need is a good free kick threat. If teams are going to foul us, it’s up to us to make them pay. The refs have a role in calling the fouls correctly, which most of the time they do, but the real punishment for fouling is getting scored on, and we haven’t been able to do that yet. If we developed a strong dead ball game, the game plan that involves just fouling us to death would stop working in a hurry and teams would have to actually play us.

As for the second issue, one good thing you can say about this last game is that no one was sent off, but we still lost Evans, possibly for a while. So, there’s been a lot of shuffling and improvisation recently from a club that hasn’t played together much to begin with. From what I heard about this last game, there were a lot of communication issues, which is unsurprising with people constantly rotating in and out. The first three games we were playing with the almost the same formation that we had developed during the preseason and the team was able to carry that into those games. Since then, there’s been a lot of upheaval. There’s no real solution to this but time and a little luck.

Finally, about Jaqua. I don’t think he’s been useless or anything like that, but I’m still not convinced that we’re getting more with him than we’re giving up. I think our team has a speed advantage on the rest of the league and we could be exploiting it better than we are currently. I wonder if, for example, Le Toux’s speed and workrate might not be more valuable upfront than Jaqua’s physical presence. A Montero-Le Toux front line with Zak and Ljungberg on the wings makes for an extremely fast attack.

I like all your points, but you missed one additional point: Whether or not they scored is really immaterial. We had four golden opportunities to score, and we blew three of those. The only one we converted was absolutely the most difficult of the four.

To revise my previous statement: This can’t be the ‘expansion team’ phase of the year because we’re not losing, and haven’t lost in our last four games, five if you count the OC play-in.

That makes me feel better.

No, it’s our LA Galaxy phase of the year, and hopefully it will pass soon.

Whether he was onside or not is immaterial. Whether the half should have been called is immaterial. The Sounders should never have let it get to that point. The Sounders are so much better than the Hoops and they let them off the hook.

I believe that because some of the poor refereeing that SSFC had in previous games, we are biased now against any call that goes against us. I had no problem with the ref of the Hoops game.

SSFC is a young franchise. Teams have learned how to play the Sounders. It is up to the Sounders now to make adjustments. I think Sigi will make those adjustments and will start winning again.