Match Data
SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 4 - Houston Dynamo 1
Monday, October 8, 2018
Venue: Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field
Referee: Drew Fischer
Assistants: Chris Wattam, Ian B. Anderson
Fourth Official: Alejandro Mariscal
VAR: Allen Chapman
Attendance: 39,518
Weather: 55 degrees and rain showers
SCORING SUMMARY
SEA - Will Bruin (Nouhou, Cristian Roldan) 18’
SEA - Cristian Roldan (Nicolás Lodeiro) 34’
SEA - Víctor Rodríguez (Kelvin Leerdam) 64’
SEA - Víctor Rodríguez (Handwalla Bwana) 73’
HOU - DaMarcus Beasley (Arturo Alvarez, Tomas Martinez) 87’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
HOU - Juan Cabezas (caution) 55’
HOU - Leonardo (caution) 76’
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei; Kelvin Leerdam (Handwalla Bwana 72’), Kim Kee-hee, Chad Marshall, Nouhou; Jordy Delem, Osvaldo Alonso - captain (Henry Wingo 78’), Cristian Roldan (Alex Roldan 83’), Nicolás Lodeiro, Víctor Rodríguez; Will Bruin
Substitutes not used: Bryan Meredith, Tony Alfaro, Lamar Neagle, Waylon Francis
Total shots: 13 (C. Roldan, 4)
Shots on goal: 5 (C. Roldan/Rodríguez, 2)
Fouls: 8 (Rodríguez, 2)
Offside: 1 (Lodeiro, 1)
Corner-kicks: 7 (Lodeiro, 6)
Saves: 3 (Frei, 3)
Houston Dynamo - Joe Willis; Andrew Wenger, Adolfo Machado (Leonardo 73’), Kevin Garcia, DaMarcus Beasley - captain; Darwin Ceren, Juan David Cabezas (Adam Lundqvist 74’), Boniek Garcia (Eric Bird 79’); Arturo Alvarez, Tomas Martinez, Mauro Manotas
Substitutes not used: Chris Seitz, Memo Rodriguez, Luis Gil
Total shots: 11 (Manotas, 4)
Shots on goal: 5 (Five players, 1)
Fouls: 12 (Cabezas/Manotas, 3)
Offside: 6 (Manotas, 4)
Corner-kicks: 4 (Garcia, 2)
Saves: 1 (Willis, 1)
Post-Match Quotes
SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER
On Cristian Roldan not playing the full 90:
“I needed to get his brother (Alex Roldan) on because his brother might play in Orlando because we’re short some guys. I figured it might be a good time to have a little brotherly love and make him come off the field and hug and let his brother play a few minutes. Seriously, Cristian has logged a lot of miles for this club and there’s always times where you think you could take a couple minutes off of him when it doesn’t matter in this game and the game is probably cooked anyway. There’s always injury risks and stuff like that but he’s been durable. It’s a testament to that kid that he can play 90 every game. Midweek games, all that sort of stuff. He does all the little things that we do. His goal, his run was from way, way back here and almost had a goal right before halftime as well. The kid gets up and down the field in a hurry. We love the kid and we hope we get him wrapped up here so he can be here for a long time.”
On Will Bruin’s goal giving him confidence in the match:
“It helped tremendously because we had a couple sniffs early on in the game and Will was kind of getting his feet under him. He had a couple other balls he maybe could have done a little better with. He’ll probably watch the film and be critical of himself and then he pulls that off – left-footed, upper-V – it boosts his confidence and then the whole team went with him. All credit to Will for coming in. The narrative in Seattle is that Raul comes in and helps spark the club, but when you’ve got a guy like Will Bruin sitting there and he can do that, I love it. I thought it was great.”
On Nouhou’s play on the Will Bruin goal:
“Nouhou had a good game. We weren’t concerned at the end of the game, I think he just had a couple of cramps, so he was fine, because the kid put the work in. We say to some of the young guys, ‘there’s demands of the game.’ The way we play, our outside backs get balls a lot, so Nouhou was finding his footing a little bit with the timing of the movement and when you go and how he goes. We’ll continue to work on the technical piece of getting the crosses right, but he’s still a young kid.”
On Will Bruin’s finesse in the match being an underappreciated part of his game:
“You’ve seen a lot of minutes. We’ve given him a lot. He’s been around for awhile, so he has some of those experiences in games where some of that stuff just comes intuitively. You’re in a position, you know what’s behind you. OK, the guy’s in a better position than I am so he’s unselfish, that’s all part of who Will is.”
On outside players contributing to goal-scoring opportunities:
“Nico Lodeiro is a massive part of our team. Bruin had a goal down the middle of the field. Absolutely they are critical parts to our machine, but what happens is those guys become more effective when these guys out here are goal-dangerous. We’ve discussed that. We’ve had Andreas Ivanschitz, we’ve had some guys that were really goal-dangerous from the wing channels and that’s always helped us. It’s great if you get Victor in a space where he is just, I mean, that’s quality. Handwalla came on too, in little bits and pieces, Cristian has done a great job from those positions so it’s a tremendous help to us. Then you maybe even put one more layer on top of that is that then you get Nouhou, then you get Kelvin going at some of those moments, and then all of the sudden you have got four guys, two on each side, that are helping the team in the attack. Then it’s really causing problems for the other team.”
SOUNDERS FC FORWARD WILL BRUIN
On the importance of scoring an early goal:
“For me personally, it was good to get back on the scoresheet. My minutes are limited now, so I need to make the most of them. I think I did that tonight.”
On the match:
“That was a game where the longer it stayed 0-0, the tougher it would’ve gotten. So it was nice to get that first goal. And then Cristian (Roldan) followed up with the second one. Then coming out of halftime, we had to make sure we got the third one because 2-0 is dangerous. You don’t want it to be 2-1. We got two more and it ended 4-1.”
On his goal:
“Cristian slid the ball across and I’ve just been working with Preki on getting my feet right in the box. Then I turned and I’m not used to not having a defender right on my back side, so that was nice. I just tried to pick out the corner. It was a little close for comfort, but it went in.”
On taking advantage of his minutes:
“I’ve scored goals every year in this league. As the league brings in higher quality players, a lot of them are attackers. So I have to evolve my game as well. I think I’ve done that throughout the years. Whenever I get my opportunities, I’m just going to do my job and try to score goals”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER NICOLÁS LODEIRO
On the importance of scoring early:
“It was very important to score first. But, in the end, the most important thing was the victory for the team, for our confidence. I think this was the most important.”
On the team’s second goal:
“It was a very good counter-attack, a smart counter-attack. Cristian’s run was very intelligent. Víctor (Rodríguez) and Will (Bruin) had very good movement. I think it was a good goal.”
On his injury scare:
“I was trying to lift Cristian, and then he tried to lift me, so our two knees collided and he hurt me. At the beginning, it did really hurt me a lot. But, of course, I also took a little bit of an advantage to stay down there because it was a long run and a very fast counter-attack. So I needed to catch my breath and also give an opportunity to my teammates to get a little bit of rest.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER VICTOR RODRIGUEZ
On his recent form:
“I’m very happy for today, the last game, and for the result. It was very important for us. And for the goals, because for me, the season was complicated. Now I feel better and it’s really good for the team.”
On how he feels after two long games:
“I feel good. I work a lot every day and this is the most important thing for the players. I feel really good. I know I can keep going and try a little bit more. I need to keep going.”
On his goals:
“I don’t know. I touched the ball there and I had to score. It’s easy. I think Handwalla (Bwana) had a really good assist. We need the young players, too. It’s really important for us, for the team, all together. This was really important.”
—
HOUSTON DYNAMO HEAD COACH WILMER CABRERA
On the match:
“The idea was to play equal and to try to get a result while we’re here, but we were really poor defensively. Really poor defensively. If you play poor defensively, then what is going to happen is you’re going to concede too many goals. It wasn’t a good performance defensively from us. But despite that, we’re still going to play and try. We scored a goal and then I don’t know what happened - the referee - I don’t know what happened. It was a bad call. He disallowed that goal. Nobody knows. We’re not that bad, but we’re not that good, and when you take a goal – you’re losing 2-0 in the first half – and you go to the break, halftime, 2-1 it’s totally different. The game is totally different. But, wow. It’s been a tough year for us, and then with the call-ups we lose players. We haven’t been able to have good depth. Now we have to refocus on the three games we have in front of us, to try to see what is coming and try to reorganize the team for the next year because this year, with the MLS season for us, it’s going to be over October 28.”
On what the message to the team will be after being eliminated from MLS Playoff contention:
“That we need to perform. We need to perform because now I have the pen and the paper and I need to take notes on who’s going to be able to help us next year and who’s not.”
On the next match against LAFC:
“We have to do it. We have to have the professional mentality. During the warmup, the last shot of the warmup, Ronaldo Peña got injured so we have to make another sub. And then tomorrow we have two players leaving for the FIFA window. We won’t have enough players on our roster to present against LAFC. We will have 16 or 15, but that’s our situation that we’ve been dealing with the whole year. It’s our reality, but we need to perform well. We have to put 11 players on the field. We need to do better, especially when you defend you have to show more character.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO FORWARD ARTURO ALVAREZ
On his goal:
“It was a quick play from the right side, I think DaMarcus (Beasley) got the ball, and I put myself in a good spot to receive it from him, and then I saw Beas (DaMarcus Beasley) making a late run. I think it was a good goal. Unfortunately, it was a tough game for us. I think throughout the game we had a few chances. If they go in early, it changes the whole game. We have to look forward to the next one which is Friday against LAFC.”
On playing hard until the final whistle:
“Yeah, we have to. I think that is a part of… it’s our character. We have to fight until the very end. In soccer, you never know. You can easily score two goals that can completely change the game, so we had to keep pushing until the very end. We got a late goal and like you said, Mauro (Manotas) hit the pole and that is soccer for you. You have to keep pushing. We can’t let ourselves down.”
On putting this game behind them:
“Obviously there are some players that are going away with national team duty, but I think it is more the time for some of the guys to step up. There is no time to dwell on this game. We have to be sure we are ready to go for 90 minutes, because it is going to be a tough game against LAFC and we know that they are a strong team, and they are at home. We definitely have the team to be capable of getting a result.”