While the Seattle Sounders FC earned a point on the road, their failure to score in their handful of opportunities showed what a waste that one point was. Alvaro Fernandez pushed forward with a perfect interplay from Fredy Montero only to short pass to David Estrada when both were alone on goal. Later Roger Levesque had a decent angle on goal, but attempted to pass rather than force a save. Even Marc Burch got in on the opportunity-fail action when an Osvaldo Alonso shot was saved right into Burch who put the rebound-shot into the crossbar.
Again, Sigi Schmid's side dominated more than possession and came out without the full result. D.C. United couldn't win 50/50 balls, couldn't pass and had even fewer quality chances than the Sounders. Probably the only thing MLS' dust filled historical franchise could do is hurt Sounders, even if accidentally. Both Alonso and Fernandez took significant blows to uncomfortable places. It should be noted that Chris Pontius did blow his scoring opportunity that was as good as any the Sounders had.
Overall Seattle handled the multi-prong threat that United presents. Dwayne De Rosario, nor Maicon Santos, nor their two Designated Players threatened significantly over the course of the match. Defensively the strategy and tactics of Seattle worked. But, the sacrifices made in the attack were clear.
It was another game when Sigi did not use all of his subs while the opportunity to score more was available. The second sub was even one that put the Sounders more defensive in nature when Fernandez was replaced by Burch. First sub Eddie Johnson looked over-confident as he tried to do it all himself including a double-stepover dribble move deep in his own half that created a United chance after the turnover.
Over the season a point on the road against an East Coast team will be looked at as a good thing. But today, it was a wasted opportunity for Seattle to catch up to teams that are notching points in the early season as Seattle falls short in their second straight match. Still, seven points in four played is a strong pace on the season and would fall just under 60 points on the season. Panic now would be absurd, tweaking towards a better offense is important though.