Quick Review: Sounders Draw Chivas on Road; No Goals for Either Side - Now with Quotes

Once upon a time the goal for a decent team in MLS was to average 2 points at home and 1 point on the road. That gets a team to 45 for the season, and the Playoffs. Today, while many will focus on the referee the Sounders got the result they deserved.

They earned that draw. Certainly the Sounders threatened on occasion but these were matched on the other hand. A few brilliant moments by Kasey Keller and Jeff Parke stopped Chivas USA. On offense the team didn't seem to have a solid threat. Sanna Nyassi did what he does - quickly, but missed the open Blaise Nkufo on multiple occasions.

Nate Sturgis failed to pass to Alvaro Fernandez and just couldn't switch the ball effectively. Seattle did not deserve three points, and no amount of finger pointing at the referee will change that.

Fredy Montero and Blaise aren't working well together. And similar to Freddie Ljungberg, Nkufo is frustrated with referees and with the lack of quality service.

Sigi Schmid does not seem to make game adjustments to his substitution pattern, as the two players who were struggling the most had one play 90 and the other was the second sub. Fernandez should not have been overly tired by this performance. He should not have needed to leave the pitch.

Leo Gonzalez' Red Card will mean that he is not going to play against the Chicago Fire at home, which could mean a stronger side for the next three CCL matches.

Again, a point on the road is good. Clean Sheets are good. Seattle moves forward in its quest for the MLS Cup Playoffs. Early in the season this was a match that Seattle loses. Now, it is a point. San Jose did get their win tonight, but in all the results favored Seattle (you'll likely get 2 to 4 ways to look at the standings/chances in the next 24 hours).

We'll have the quotes and stats for you shortly NOW for stats. Next up is the journey to Honduras to face Marathon in the CCL.

All Statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial 

Seattle Sounders FC Head Coach Sigi Schmid

(On the match . . .) “In the first half, I thought we played well. I thought we controlled the game pretty much, maybe we were unlucky not to get one. But in the second half, they certainly came out well. They made a couple tactical changes which we had trouble adjusting to and I thought they did an OK job. But you’re going on the road and you’re not going to win every game and so to come out of here – it’s a tough place to play – to come out of here with a 0-0 tie and at least get a point, we’re not super thrilled with it but we’re not super disappointed with it either.”

(On the defense . . .) “The defense I thought played well. I thought we defended together as a unit. In the first half especially I thought we did a good job of keeping [Ante] Jazic [. . .] and [Mariano] Trujillo out of the game. That was good from our wide players. We always talk about the back four, but that was really good from the wide midfielders to get that done. I thought [Jeff] Parke was very good today and overall defensively I thought we were solid.”

(On what kept the team from scoring . . .) “Obviously there was a great save by [Zach] Thornton on [Osvaldo] Alonso’s shot at the end there. And just the final pass, final decision kept us off the board a little bit. Some guys didn’t make as good a final decision as they have at other times. Again, like I said, playing away from home and coming into a tough place to play, playing against a team that needs three points and making sure that they don’t get three points, and coming out with a point, we’re still happy with that.”

Seattle Sounders FC Defender Jeff Parke

(On the match . . .) “It’s a bit both ways. I feel like in the first half we had the better of the play. The second half could’ve gone both ways. I feel like the team put a good effort in. It’s just a shame we didn’t get three. One point is good at least. It’s not exactly what we wanted but it’s still a step in the right direction and zero goals [allowed] is good as well.”

(On what to take from the match . . .) “There’s still some positives. You’ve just got to move on. You’ve got to forget about it now that the game’s over. We’ve got the game on [Thursday] and that’s the next important thing.”

(On the red cards at the end of the game . . .) “It looked like two girls smacking each other. I don’t think Leo [Gonzalez] really got too bad into it. I think it was definitely a red on [Mariano Trujillo’s] part and maybe a yellow on Leo, but it was pretty funny looking from my vantage point.”

Seattle Sounders FC Goalkeeper Kasey Keller

(On the team’s performance . . .) “It was fine, but I thought our final third just wasn’t as sharp as it’s been lately. We got ourselves in a good position and mistouched a trap, messed up the cross. It just seemed like it was one of those days but at the same time I was happy with the way we worked as a team and we defended and we did some pretty good things. Definitely it’s a positive step. We’re now nine games unbeaten and things are OK.”

(On keeping a clean sheet without making too many saves . . .) “That’s always nice. I like it when I’m cleaning up a lot of things and that seemed like more of what I was doing. I’m just happy with the way we’ve been playing and the way we’ve been stepping out to block shots, the way we’ve tracked runners and got out on the counterattack. It really has been an unbelievable turn around in the last eight to ten games.”

(On the physicality of the match . . .) “It was a physical match but you expect that. It’s part of the game. I took a good shot to the ribs and that doesn’t happen too often and that was a little bit frustrating. Besides that little fracas at the end, I thought it was a pretty clean match. There were some hard tackles but nothing where you thought anybody was going after anybody.”