Match Data
SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 0 - New England Revolution 0
Saturday, July 7, 2018
Venue: Gillette Stadium
Referee: Nima Saghafi
Assistants: Jose Da Silva, Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho
Fourth Official: Silviu Petrescu
VAR: Alan Kelly
Attendance: 16,484
Weather: 63 degrees and clear
SCORING SUMMARY
None
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
NE - Diego Fagundez (caution) 41’
SEA - Nicolás Lodeiro (caution) 42’
NE - Kelyn Rowe (caution) 81’
SEA - Jordy Delem (caution) 90’+3’
SEA - Nouhou (caution) 90’+4’
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei; Jordan McCrary, Kim Kee-hee, Chad Marshall, Nouhou; Cristian Roldan, Jordy Delem, Magnus Wolff Eikrem (Clint Dempsey 61’), Nicolás Lodeiro - captain, Victor Rodríguez (Lamar Neagle 90’+2’); Will Bruin (Alex Roldan 71’)
Substitutes not used: Bryan Meredith, Waylon Francis, Tony Alfaro, Harry Shipp
Total shots: 6 (Nouhou, 2)
Shots on goal: 1 (Lodeiro, 1)
Fouls: 11 (Delem/McCrary, 3)
Offside: 1 (Dempsey, 1)
Corner-kicks: 1 (Lodeiro, 1)
Saves: 1 (Frei, 1)
New England Revolution - Matt Turner; Andrew Farrell, Antonio Mlinar Delamea, Jalil Anibaba, Claude Dielna - captain (Gabriel Somi HT); Luis Caicedo, Scott Caldwell (Juan Agudelo 56’), Kelyn Rowe, Diego Fagundez, Cristian Penilla; Teal Bunbury
Substitutes not used: Brad Knighton, Wilfried Zahibo, Zachary Herivaux, Krisztian Nemeth, Brandon Bye
Total shots: 9 (Rowe, 3)
Shots on goal: 1 (Caicedo, 1)
Fouls: 14 (Caicedo/Bunbury, 4)
Offside: 0
Corner-kicks: 4 (Fagundez, 3)
Saves: 1 (Matt Turner, 1)
Post-Match Quotes
Seattle Sounders FC Head Coach Brian Schmetzer
On his overall thoughts on the match:
Coach Schmetzer: “It wasn’t, at times, our best soccer of the year, but it’s a point – a point on the road. Probably a lot of people didn’t think we’d get anything out of this game, so it’s another testament to the group that’s in that locker room that they don’t quit. Lots of things have gone against them this year, but we’ve actually, if I looked at the stats, we have done pretty well away from home. Gutty performance by the guys, all the credit to them.”
On the defensive effort tonight:
Coach Schmetzer: “We always seem to talk about Stef [Frei] coming up big, I’ll add to that list of players. I thought Jordy Delem and Cristian [Roldan] did a really nice job in the middle of the field. I thought Jordan McCrary played all three games as good. Kim Kee-Hee, Chad [Marshall], and Nouhou came on and were solid. Then you start up front with Will [Bruin] and with Clint [Dempsey]. The whole team was dedicated to keeping a clean sheet. That’s impressive.”
On Magnus Eikrem’s returning to the starting lineup:
Coach Schmetzer: “You could tell he didn’t have quite a sense and feel for all the guys he was playing with. There were a couple of missed passes, but overall good. Again, he is committed to the group and that’s what we’re asking of him.”
On getting four points from the two-game road trip:
Coach Schmetzer: “Pretty good. I mean, we need every point we can get, so hopefully this one point helps us down the road.”
Seattle Sounders FC Midfielder Jordy Delem
On his thoughts on the match:
Delem:“I think it’s pretty good. We get some points. Of course, we wanted to win, but at least we get a point. It’s good. We have to keep going like that to get points to go to the playoffs.”
On his partnership with Cristian Roldan in the midfield:
Delem:“I think Cristian [Roldan] and I, we work very hard at training. We work good together and that was the goal for us tonight, to keep them in their half and I’m happy about that.”
On taking four points from the two-game road trip:
Delem: “It’s good, because we get some points. We know we are capable. The game before wasn’t too good. Now we have to keep winning, keep training to go to the playoffs, because it’s still the objective of the club and we know the position we are in now is not how [we can get to the playoffs].”
On looking ahead to Atlanta:
Delem:“It’s always good when you get points. You are happy, at training it is different – you want to play easy. It’s good, it’s giving us much confidence. Now, we have to keep going to keep this confidence, to start to build up something good to go to the playoffs.”
Seattle Sounders FC Defender Chad Marshall
On the match:
Marshall:“It was a grind. It wasn’t the prettiest game, but it was a good result for us to keep a zero against a talented offensive team. You know, third game in a week, travel across country, obviously it would have been nice to get three points, but to keep a zero and bring a point home, it was good.”
On how the team stepped up:
Marshall:“We know they’re a talented team, we watched a lot of film on them. Obviously, after the Colorado game, we knew that we were going to have to be good at all three levels – defensively, because they’ve got talented players. They interchange well, it’s a lot of communication and staying with runners, and I thought we did a great job. I thought [Jordan] McCrary, especially, on the right side did a great job against their left winger.”
On the importance of claiming two road results:
Marshall:”It was huge, obviously we were disappointed with the rivalry game against Portland at home. But, it was a good bounce back. To get four of the next six on the road, it was huge and hopefully something we can build on and carry through the second half of the season.”
On taking momentum into the upcoming match at Atlanta:
Marshall:“I think just look at the results. Obviously, today we were sound at the back, didn’t give up too many chances, and in Colorado we were able to score some goals. So, positives to look forward to for the second half.”
Seattle Sounders FC Defender Jordan McCrary
—
New England Revolution Head Coach Brad Friedel
On Seattle’s approach to the game and why it was effective:
Coach Friedel: “We don’t have many games like this that aren’t exciting, so to speak. I thought the second half, we were better, actually by a long way. In the first half, I don’t really know what to say. I answered a couple questions at halftime and there was nothing to be seen. The onus was on us to go out and play. They only wanted a draw. Brian Schmetzer said even after the game, ‘Sorry we played like that, but we had to.’ I don’t know why they had to. I know they’re in a bad situation this season, but they still have some wonderful players on the team. But, any system that gets put in front of you, you have to try to break it down. I’ll watch the game of course. I thought in the second half, we were a bit better and there was more energy to the game. Saying that, positive to it is we had a clean sheet and we’ll take a point and we’ll move on to [LA] Galaxy next weekend.”
On what was lacking tonight and the mindset behind the substitutions early in the second half:
Coach Friedel: “Well, halftime was an injury. Claude Dielna, he passed a fitness test this afternoon and he made it to about to halftime and then said he couldn’t go anymore. So, Gabriel [Somi] came on, who I thought added a really good spark on the left hand side and made some very good runs in the second half. And the change, Scotty Caldwell, he did absolutely nothing wrong. There just wasn’t much of a defensive need in this game. We wanted to put Kelyn [Rowe] in the middle and we wanted to add another attacking player. That’s really where the substitutions came from. I think what we lacked was a higher tempo and teams are going to sit back. We also maybe need to take a few more shots from outside the box, get more bodies in the box, get more crosses in the box. I don’t think a lot of things that I need to sit here and tell you.”
On the apparent emphasis on opening things up and getting more crosses into the box:
Coach Friedel:“You have to soften up teams. There’s certain ways to do it. Three ways, really. There’s one, you can take shots from distance. Two, go around the outsides. Or three, try to attack that number ten space, which they were clogging up pretty well. There were a couple, three or four, opportunities for good crosses and with players in the box. Obviously, without seeing it again, I’ll have to see how many players we had in there. But the tactic on attacking a team that lies back, with getting good crosses, is a good one. You just have to get the bodies in the box and you have to have good service. Listen, you have to take your hat off to Seattle as well. They have a three-game week. They played in altitude on Tuesday or Wednesday, they came here and they had a plan. The plan was to kill the game from the get go, waste as much time as possible, and get a point. And they got it.”
On whether or not Kelyn Rowe’s level of play has changed from previous years:
Coach Friedel:“We played Kelyn [Rowe] as one of the front three today and I thought in the first half, he, along with the rest of the team, it was just sort of like nothing going on. I thought in the second half when we moved him inside, I thought he contributed a lot. I think he helped us get on the ball, get it forward, get balls wide. As far as goals and assists, in past seasons I wasn’t here, so I don’t know really what the system was and where he was utilized other than the fact that I know he was utilized in multiple positions. But he does have a tremendous strike on him. He has a very good pass on him. I’m sure the goals and assists will start to come soon enough.”
On whether teams are adapting to the Revolution style of play:
Coach Friedel:“Yeah, I mean, that happens with everybody. I think we do each and every time we play. If teams try to play through us, we cause them a lot of problems. If you look at the recoveries in our attacking third of the field and especially attacking half of the field, they’re amongst the highest, if not the highest in the league. Our chances created off of them, even if teams play through us. I said it many times in preseason. We will have exciting games because of that. We are going to concede some chances in games. That’s the way that my staff and I want to play the game. We would like it to try to be exciting—a lot more exciting than we saw there tonight—and there’s going to be chances created at both sides of the field. We have to do better once we recover and then stopping the chances in the other end. We know that. As teams will scout us and we scout other teams, we get a sample size of other teams as well. I don’t think there’s any issue with that. Then, it’s just about being able to implement our tactics onto them.”
On the level of concern dropping more points at home:
Coach Friedel:“No, I think the team has a very good resilience about it and I think when we’ve gone away from home, we have a determination. It should not matter where you play, home or away. I know this is an American thing in all sports, where you go away from home and it’s difficult to win games, things of that nature. That’s not the way that I look at it. That’s not the way my staff looks at it. We look at it as, we have a good enough team to win home or away. The players are starting to buy into that. We attack the same exact way on the road as we do at home. I think some of the results, Chicago [for example], we could’ve very well gotten the three points. At San Jose, we could’ve very well gotten the three points. At Vancouver, we could’ve gotten the three points. We got three points at Houston. I still think if we don’t have the early sending off against Philadelphia, we get at least a point or three there. So, no, it does not bother me. I don’t care what stadium, what venue, whether it’s home, away, or neutral, and nor do the players.”
New England Revolution Defender Jalil Anibaba
On Seattle playing defensively and if it was frustrating trying to break them down:
Anibaba: “I can only speak to what we were trying to do. Everybody put everything they had into the game, I thought. Even from the backline, we were pushing forward and trying to push the initiative to get the three points. You just can’t really break a wall down, and you end up walking away one [point].”
On securing the club’s fourth clean sheet of the season:
Anibaba: “It was big. I was talking to [Andrew] Farrell and some of the guys after the game that our job as a back unit in games like that is to make sure that we’re clean, make sure that we don’t give away anything cheap or give away any mistakes. From that standpoint, I thought the guys were solid.”
On if it is difficult to adjust when a fellow defender such as Claude Dielna exits the game at halftime due to injury:
Anibaba: “Sometimes it can be, but obviously [Gabriel] Somi is very experienced. He’s been playing with great rhythm, so it was a seamless transition for us. Obviously, any time someone like Claude [Dielna] comes out, that’s a big loss, but like I said, it was a seamless transition Somi played. I thought he had a phenomenal half.”
On if it can be easy to switch off mentally when the opponent is not pressing offensively:
Anibaba: “It can be, but in my years, I’ve been burnt on many counter attacks or half-winded chances throughout the run of play in games like that. So, I’ve learned from experience to make sure that throughout the 90, I’m staying switched on, and my job is to pretty much keep everyone around me and in front of me switched on as well.”
New England Revolution Forward Juan Agudelo
On what he saw from Seattle once he entered the game:
Agudelo: “I thought they had creative players that were able to recover and also defend. They worked as a unit to come back. They never allowed a 1-v-1 situation ever to happen, credit to them for coming in and looking like a very fit team.”
On how difficult it is to play against a bunkered in opponent:
Agudelo:“It’s not difficult, it’s just frustrating. Chad Marshall won so many headers. It’s tough when a team packs it in for us to get some crosses in and to actually get on the end of things when you have such a veteran back there and such a tall, strong guy. That was a part that we couldn’t get past.”
On what they need to do to break down such a defensive opponent:
Agudelo: “I think we just have to be a little bit more aggressive once we won the ball, because once we let them get bunkered in, it made it more difficult on us to try to go through. We should have realized that wasn’t working. When I had the ball, I tried to accelerate as much as I can forward, but they were still able to close down.”
On the frustration of not getting the attack going at home:
Agudelo: “Yeah, It’s always frustrating at home because we know how good we are at home. We know what quality we possess individually as players, so we definitely take this as a loss.”
New England Revolution Midfielder Diego Fagundez
On trying to attack Seattle through the right wing:
Fagundez: “It was tough overall, throughout the whole game. It was tough for us to take shots. I don’t think we took a lot of them. It’s just one of those games. It doesn’t feel good right now.”
On attacking down the left hand side with Cristian Penilla:
Fagundez:“I think Cristian [Penilla] always does a good job every game to try to beat guys one-on-one. [He] just takes that little step to get open and take shots, but today I don’t think we were all perfectly there, not 100 percent. It’s a disappointing one. We wanted to get nine points out of these three games and to take a point today, it’s just not right.”
On facing a packed-in defense:
Fagundez: “Coach [Friedel] said it at halftime, if we want to be champs, you have to beat teams like this. When we went out there, we were trying to—we weren’t getting a lot of chances. I know I was getting frustrated when you don’t create chances to score goals. We just have to keep going now. Still a long ways [to go in the season]. At least we didn’t lose, so now we have to move to the next one to make sure we win.”