Match Data
SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 3 - New York City FC 1
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Venue: Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field
Referee: Jair Marrufo
Assistants: Peter Manikowski, Apolinar Mariscal
Fourth Official: Baldomero Toledo
VAR: Jorge Gonzalez
Attendance: 39,528
Weather: 82 degrees and sunny
SCORING SUMMARY
SEA - Cristian Roldan 36’
SEA - Gustav Svensson (Nicolas Lodeiro, Harry Shipp) 51’
NYC - Jesus Medina (Joe Inge Berget, Jonathan Lewis) 68’
SEA - Harry Shipp (Will Bruin) 86’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
None
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei; Kelvin Leerdam (Alex Roldan 83’), Kim Kee-hee, Chad Marshall, Nouhou; Gustav Svensson, Osvaldo Alonso - captain (Will Bruin 76’), Cristian Roldan, Nicolás Lodeiro, Harry Shipp; Raúl Ruidíaz (Román Torres 86’)
Substitutes not used: Bryan Meredith, Clint Dempsey, Jordy Delem, Waylon Francis
Total shots: 14 (Lodeiro, 3)
Shots on goal: 5 (Five players, 1)
Fouls: 9 (Lodeiro, 3)
Offside: 3 (Ruidíaz, 3)
Corner-kicks: 4 (Lodeiro, 4)
Saves: 2 (Frei, 2)
New York City FC - Sean Johnson, Ben Sweat, Anton Tinnerholm (Jonathan Lewis 60’), Alexander Callens, Sebastien Ibeagha, Maximiliano Moralez - captain, Ebenezer Ofori (Ismael Tajouri-Shradi 64’), Kwame Awuah (Rodney Wallace 82’); Jo Inge Berget, Jesus Media, Ronald Matarrita
Substitutes not used: Brad Stuver, Maxime Chanot, Saad Abdul-Salaam, Thomas McNamara
Total shots: 19 (Medina, 5)
Shots on goal: 3 (Medina, 2)
Fouls: 10 (Awuah/Ofori, 2)
Offside: 0
Corner-kicks: 5 (Matarrita/Moralez, 2)
Saves: 2 (Johnson, 2)
Post-Match Quotes
SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER
On recent second half performances:
“Halftime is a chance for the coaching staff as a group, and also the players as a group, to come together and discuss certain things we’ve seen, both on and off the field, what we’ve felt, and what the players have felt, and make corrections. So, I think it’s just part of our sport where you go in, and we have the luxury of having Djimi Traore sit upstairs, and he gives me a visual of what’s going on from upstairs. We also have a very good sports science team, where they take snapshots and photos of certain set pieces and plays that we can also digest at halftime and make corrections on. Then the routine is you try to listen to some of the players as they’re talking amongst themselves, then you make your coaching points. And then, again, Gonzo [Pineda], Preki, Tommy [Dutra] with Stef [Frei], the assistants do their jobs and add anything that I may have missed. So, it’s a collaborative effort amongst the staff, amongst our sports science people, and then amongst the players themselves. I think they understand that there’s corrections that sometimes need to be made, and they’re usually willing to listen.”
On what spurred the second half performance today:
“Well, right before Cristian [Roldan] scored his goal, we were having a challenge trying to prevent them from having such good possession, because I thought they possessed the ball much better than us in the first half. And Cristian wanted to go move into the middle of the field and bring Nico [Lodeiro] out right, which is kind of opposite of what we did against San Jose. So, leading up to that I thought, sure, let’s make that little switch. It’s an easy switch to make. Both Nico and Cristian are bought into that. We were able to defend a little bit better, a little bit higher. And maybe that led to his first goal.”
On Harry Shipp:
“Well, he’s always been a good player. He’s always been a good kid. I think it’s always the players buying in, it’s Harry feeling confident. Certainly, he deserved that goal today. You know, it’s all of those little things, those little pieces. He trains hard. He’s always eager to learn. He’ll watch film on his opponents. He’ll watch film on himself. So, it’s all of those little things. I constantly say that this is a team game and a team sport. When the team starts playing well, players like Harry, players like Nico, players like Cristian, players like Kelvin [Leerdam], and on down the list, they all have that confidence, that little bit of swagger. And you can feel it within the group. That certainly has helped Harry as well.”
On Kelvin Leerdam playing a more attacking role:
“I think we’re trying to get him back to where he was last year. He is a very good attacking right back. He defends well. So, we’re just trying to get him back up into a good rhythm, a good fitness level, because he has had his share of injuries to start this year off. It was, again, I don’t like taking off a right back, but he was tightening up a little bit. So, that’s why we had to make the change. But he played well.”
On the presence of Raúl Ruidíaz:
“I think what you see in Ruidíaz first, before we go into that line of dissecting his game, I think what you see is a guy that’s hungry to score goals. I think a lot of that is, does he want to take the attention away to help his teammates? Yeah, he’s a team guy and everything. But the kid wants to score goals. But maybe by default it makes other guys dangerous. But to be fair, I thought in the second half we created a number of chances. We had some good looks on goal, and Gustav [Svensson], I think, hit one earlier in the year against [Minnesota United]. I think Harry deserved that goal.”
On the recent form of the team:
“I attribute it to the individuals that are sitting in that locker room over there. They are a proud bunch of guys and it’s pro sports. We get it. There’s a lot of things that go into winning championships, going to two MLS Cups. There’s all of this stuff: The World Cup year, the injuries, all of that sort of stuff. Without a doubt, without a question in my mind, that team, that group, never gives up. They always compete. All of them. And that’s what makes my job so much easier, when you have guys that are committed to winning. So, all of the credit goes to them.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER CRISTIAN ROLDAN
Overall thoughts on the match:
“It wasn’t our prettiest game. Defensively I think we put in the effort and then we took our chances when they came our way. Sometimes soccer is a funny game. I didn’t think we played well for the first 30 minutes. I thought we were pretty bad. A goal can change the game, and we needed it in the first half.”
On Maxi Moralez of NYCFC:
“He’s incredible. He’s a very simple player, his touches are clean. It was unbelievable seeing him in the first half, I thought he was by far the best player. A player that was at a different level. He had to make the game from a little deeper. We are more comfortable with him playing in the more defensive midfield.”
On being involved in another unbeaten run:
“They are all different. The incredible thing about this one is that we aren’t playing well, we are grinding out games, we are winning these games because we are playing good defesne and scoring that one or two goals. That’s the scary part. You think about six unbeaten and then if we start playing like we are supposed to, we can go on a really long run.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER HARRY SHIPP
On his journey these last couple of months:
“I was always someone who would do whatever it took to be out on the field. And I took a step back when I wasn’t playing and I thought about what I need to do to get back on the field and have this team win games. It was more thinking about how I can move off the ball and maybe not have 100 touches a game. That’s why the most proud I am is that since I’ve been playing again we’ve been winning games, and that’s what I take pride in.”
On the goal he scored:
“I saw the ball going to [Bruin] and I knew he was good at holding the ball up and I was just praying Nico was going to leave it. I felt that with the game I had today a goal was a fair reward and put the game away.”
On what NYCFC did well:
“Their movement. They did a really good job about getting behind our midfield. They didn’t create a ton of dangerous chances but they were doing a good job with movement. I was proud of how we responded once we gave up that goal in the second half and make it an easy win.”
SOUNDERS FC DEFENDER CHAD MARSHALL
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NEW YORK CITY FC HEAD COACH DOMENEC TORRENT
On the result:
“I’m very proud of my players because it is not easy to [travel]. I don’t have to make an excuse about that, it’s a fact. We have a big problem in the MLS if you want to play balanced in MLS, it’s not fair to play in three days, two games. At 2:00 p.m., it was very, very hot. After the long trip, six hours, and then three hours in jet lag. Okay, I accept because I knew that it was very difficult for us. Even for the opponent because the opponent has quality to play well. But I am concerned about the tiredness, the travel. It’s not easy. I don’t know the summary about the MLS when one team plays on the East Coast then West Coast, in July, at 2:00 p.m. But, okay, that is MLS. Congratulations, Seattle, because they were able to win the game. I think we have the control maybe in the first half, even in the second half. They use very well the counter. But, I am very proud, especially for the effort of our players. It’s not easy to play here after three days and the long trip.”
On whether the team could have performed better:
“No, we played well the first half. We played compact. They had problems in between lines that they don’t find the players who play inside because we played really well. We defend well. We defend compact. And after that, we are able to create three or four chances in the first half. But football is when you are more clinical than the opponent. That is football. The football is a goal. You try to score a goal. Sometimes you have the control, you keep the ball all the time and you have the control. But if you are not able to score, that happens. At the end, you lose the game. But I think the difference between this game and the last game we play, for me, in my opinion, is much better. But we lose the game. That is the summary for me. But I am very happy, especially for [Ronald Matarrita] because Mata is coming. He’s another player in this game because he had a lot of problems because he was injured for one month. That was news for us. Okay, I say to them, ‘Okay, eat well, rest well, sleep well, because we have to be ready for the next game.’ That is soccer.”
On why he was happier with this performance than in Orlando:
“I don’t understand the coaches when they say, ‘We won the game, we play well.’ Sometimes it’s not good to say something like that because you confuse your players. We didn’t play well against Orlando, and Orlando deserved to win the game. It’s my opinion. And today, maybe a draw is not bad. Okay, we were similar to Seattle, and the difference is the long travel and the tough field. You play another when you play on synthetic field because if you want to play fast, you need to control. But, okay. MLS is something like that. I accept. I move here, and I have to improve. And the players, of course, because we had many, many problems with the throw-in, for example. The first goal was a throw-in. Okay, we have to improve. It’s the best way to play the next game and then the next game. After that, I have a lot of experience when you lose the game. I say to them, ‘Keep your head up because we have to be very proud.’ Until the last second, they fight for every single ball. That is the way to keep going and to keep going. You have to improve if you’re playing that way.”
NEW YORK CITY FC GOALKEEPER SEAN JOHNSON
On the game and the week overall:
“Obviously a tough week for us. East Coast, West Coast, two games on the road. I thought overall the effort was there from the guys. Everybody that stepped on the field contributed in both games. The first game (at Orlando) I thought we played well in stretches, this game the same thing. The game of soccer sometimes doesn’t go your way. I thought Seattle was pretty clinical in their opportunities. We were unlucky not to put another one in earlier in the first half. I think the game would have changed a lot for us but we were chasing a bit after the first goal, in second (half) we were back in the game, and then they iced it with the third. It is tough, but that is the game of soccer. So, I just look to get back to New York, take a couple days, get guys back to full health and get the travel out of the legs and get ready to go next Saturday.”
On next week vs Vancouver:
“I have not really looked forward to that game at all. I am still digesting this past one. We will probably start preparing for Vancouver once we get back in. But for now I am just kind of analyzing the past few games, and then get back to it and then preparing for Vancouver.”
On playing in Seattle:
“Seattle is always a tough place to play. For me it is nothing with the weather, or the two o’clock timing. Nothing (of that) really matters, they have to play the game at the same time you know. No excuses. They were the more clinical team on the day. I thought we were good in stretches but credit for them coming out and getting the job done.”
NEW YORK CITY FC MIDFIELDER KWAME AWUAH
On his first MLS start:
“I just wanted to say thank you, obviously to the coach for trusting me to play this game. It was a tough game. We flew from Orlando on Friday. Seattle is a good team, and they were a good opponent. I just did what I was supposed to do, followed the instructions. Unfortunate not to get the result. It was mixed emotions. I am still happy that I was able to get my first start. I just gotta keep pushing from here, and just keep learning every practice, and working hard every training session and hopefully seeing where it will go.”
On playing more and if you are being rewarded for doing well in training:
“Yeah, I think that is the most important part. Just making sure I am doing what I have to do in training. And then whatever the graffer tells me to do on the field just follow it to the T, and I think that is the most important thing. Don’t stay in my element and play the way I know how to play and just continue from there, try to gain confidence and keep pushing, keep working hard.”
On your thoughts on playing with the recent transfers and your role:
“Yeah, I kind of keep that in the back of my mind. But honestly, I just focus on myself. That is how I have been since Patrick was here, since I first came to NYCFC. I just focus on what I have to do as an individual and hopefully the opportunity comes, just be able to be prepared for opportunity, just be prepared as much as possible. Whatever decision the coach makes, he makes, and just move on from it and just keep working hard in training.”