Match Data
SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 2 - Colorado Rapids 0
Saturday, March 9, 2019
Venue: CenturyLink Field
Referee: Baldomero Toledo
Assistants: Mike Rottersman, Felisha Mariscal
Fourth Official: Alejandro Mariscal
VAR: Fotis Bazakos
Attendance: 37,725
Weather: 42 degrees and mostly clear
SCORING SUMMARY
SEA - Kelvin Leerdam 5’
SEA - Raúl Ruidíaz 8’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
COL - Keegan Rosenberry (caution) 17’
SEA - Gustav Svensson (caution) 25’
COL - Benny Feilhaber (caution) 33’
SEA - Jordan Morris (caution) 52’
SEA - Cristian Roldan (caution) 59’
SEA - Kelvin Leerdam (caution) 65’
SEA - Nicolás Lodeiro (caution) 90’+3’
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei; Kelvin Leerdam, Kim Kee-hee, Chad Marshall, Brad Smith; Gustav Svensson, Cristian Roldan, Jordan Morris (Román Torres 85’), Nicolás Lodeiro - captain, Víctor Rodríguez (Harry Shipp 68’); Raúl Ruidíaz
Substitutes not used: Bryan Meredith, Will Bruin, Jordy Delem, Handwalla Bwana, Nouhou
Total shots: 13 (Ruidíaz, 3)
Shots on goal: 3 (Ruidíaz, 2)
Fouls: 14 (Kim, 3)
Offside: 2 (Smith/Ruidíaz, 2)
Corner-kicks: 7 (Lodeiro, 7)
Saves: 3 (Frei, 3)
Colorado Rapids - Tim Howard; Keegan Rosenberry, Danny Wilson, Deklan Wynne, Dillon Serna; Benny Feilhaber, Jack Price, Kellyn Acosta (Andre Shinyashiki 77’), Nicolas Mezquida (Niki Jackson 85’); Diego Rubio, Kei Kamara
Substitutes not used: Clint Irwin, Sam Vines, Sam Raben, Johan Blomberg, Cole Bassett
Total shots: 15 (Kamara, 5)
Shots on goal: 3 (Kamara, 2)
Fouls: 18 (Feilhaber/Rubio, 4)
Offside: 0
Corner-kicks: 3 (Feilhaber, 3)
Saves: 1 (Howard, 1)
Post-Match Quotes
Sounders FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER
Opening statement:
“At some point, we will get on to opening statements that have good news attached to them, or better news. But again, we lost another member of the Sounders family in the last day, Jack Daley. Jack Daley was from my era and we had a good relationship, a good working relationship and you know he was one of the guys who signed me to my first contract, so we are all sad a little bit that he passed. Such is life. We want to move forward and try to honor people who have done a good job with this club, so this is my way for thanking Jack for what he did in my time.”
On Kelvin Leerdam scoring in two straight games:
“Well, I mean I love it. [Leerdam] puts himself in good spots and he does the defending. I think it helped today a little bit with the way they played with two forwards, we had Kim [Kee-hee] and Chad [Marshall] and then I had Gustav [Svensson] in front of them, so they played two for three and [Colorado] didn’t have any out and out wingers so that allowed us to get forward. Who is going to mark Kelvin, who is going to mark Brad [Smith]? We messaged that to the group and I think he took full advantage of that and the thing I always say with all of our outside backs is that yes we love when you get forward but make sure you’re a defender first.”
On the early scoring:
“I’m going to compliment my team, that was a pretty tremendous opening 10 minutes, they were up for the game. They were fast, they played fast, the quality of the goals and the quality of some of our play was tremendous. So yes, I did think we would get another goal. I won’t say how many because I respect our opponents and [Colorado] actually has a good team, and they didn’t quit so I will refrain from those remarks, but yeah, I thought we could get at least one more.”
On potentially having more goals:
“We left a little meat on the bone in the sense that, yeah our play is great in the first 10 minutes but it’s still early. It’s the second game in. The attacking movements are always the hardest thing to do. In soccer, the goals are the hardest thing to come by. And so we will watch the tape and make sure that our movement in the box is in the right spots. You know, make sure that the guys who are crossing the balls are picking out the right guys. Making sure that we pick out the right balance because we are really dangerous from outside but what if teams start noticing that? We have to find Raul [Ruidiaz]. The yellow cards, I told them it got a little chippy. I mean last week Colorado came back from a man down to tie it up 3-3. They are a team that doesn’t give up. So at 2-0 it’s a dangerous lead and they are still kind of chipping away and there’s some fouls in midfield that could have caused the game to get out of control a little bit. Some of the yellow cards for throwing the ball away. I like my team to settle down. You know, we want to play soccer.”
Sounders FC GOALKEEPER STEFAN FREI
On the first moments of the game:
“Yeah, it was really good to see. I think that both games we have come out on fire right away. Impose our style and threaten. It’s really nice to see and today we rewarded ourselves early on and got some goals, it was great.”
On scoring more after fast starts:
“That should be the mindset, we don’t want to let our foot off the pedal. I think today we are going to be happy because I thought we played a good game. Six points is great. Once we analyze and see what we can do better, we can be more clinical with our chances, I think it can be three or four or five [goals]. But that’s a good problem to have. To have missed opportunities and still walk away with a victory.”
On the chippiness of the game:
“I think that we were dictating the pace and they grew frustrated, obviously. They are trying to do something I think and what they found that getting under our skin would help, who knows? But we’ve got to stick together, we’ve got to not let that bother us. We said this after analyzing last year that silly red cards cannot happen. We can’t get baited into stupid things. So it is what it is, it’s fine. I think we handled it well and if that’s what all the teams have, or they are resorting to that, then that means we are doing something right.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER CRISTIAN ROLDAN
On first 10 minutes:
“It felt like we were going to score a goal. I felt that we created a lot of chances. We were pressing really high. We were eager to run for others and you know when you commit so many guys you are bound to score a goal. We are happy to score twice in the first 10 minutes but credit to our guys for establishing dominance early on.”
On dictating tempo:
“I want to dictate the tempo every game but sometimes we just go, go, go and that’s frustrating for us midfielders because we work so hard to get the ball back and all of sudden we are having to chase the ball back. There’s an instance where I’m yelling at our front four to really slow down the tempo because besides Jordan [Morris] we aren’t a fast break team. Obviously Nico [Lodeiro] and Victor [Rodriguez] find their areas, find their pockets. But they are fast players. At times we really got to slow it down and I felt like it was frustrating because we were up 2-0 and we weren’t controlling the tempo of the game.”
On forwards playing defense:
“It makes my job a little bit easier. It’s a pleasure to see. These are two luxury players that we have. Guys that are known for their attacking prowess on the field and all of a sudden you see them track back, you see them winning balls, you see them winning headers from bigger players. We ask a lot of Jordan [Morris] and Raul [Ruidiaz] and today obviously they did their thing attacking-wise. In the end if you have those guys helping out defensively it helps the whole team.”
SOUNDERS FC DEFENDER KELVIN LEERDAM
On the biggest difference this offseason:
“Getting in shape. No questions. I was not fit [in 2018]. I had six assists last year, I was happy with that. You always try to give the team more. When you feel your body isn’t right, it sticks in the back of your head. I feel happy now, my family is here now, I feel good. So, let’s keep it going.”
On his permissions to go inside the penalty area:
“I just do what the game gives me. On the pitch you make the decisions. If I make a mistake, I’m responsible for that, the coach is always going to give you a temper. We make the decisions on the pitch, sometimes good, sometimes bad. It’s how it goes.”
On overall thoughts on the shutout:
“For me as a defender, it’s important. It’s maybe the most important thing of all. I want to put myself in positions to succeed.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER NICO LODEIRO
Overall thoughts on the game:
“Now I feel good. I’m feeling tired. It was a strange game, but in the end we feel happy because winning is very important.”
On why the game was strange:
“The reason was because we scored early and fast and then we needed more control of the game. We needed to keep possession and play with the ball. This was the reason the game was strange. Because if they score, it’s 2-1, difficult so we have a lot of chances to score that third goal and we needed that last pass.”
On the different pacing of the two halves:
“We found ourselves with two goals really early in the game and then we were not able to keep calm and keep control of the game to increase the score. We need to be more patient, especially on the last pass so we can have an opportunity to score a third goal and make our goal difference wider so we don’t get in that difficult situation of being 2-0 up.”
—
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH ANTHONY HUDSON
On tonight’s game:
“Well I think the biggest part of tonight was we just started poorly. We started slow. The first 15, 20 minutes killed us. Beyond that it was the basics in terms of they were first to the second balls, they were just a lot more aggressive in that first period. I think as the game went on and certainly the second half, I think we were a lot better. I can’t fault the players’ effort. They quite easily could have folded. They showed a lot of character in the second half. We created chances. As the game wore on, you know we get toward the end of the game, we put a third striker then a fourth striker. The players kept trying to push for a goal. We had some chances. We did have chances. You come to a place like this against a team like this, when you start slow and then a little bit passive, it is very, very tough to get back in the game.”
On the first two goals:
“I think it was a catalog of pressure that we had on us and we just started off the pace. When we would be pressed we would dive in and sell ourselves and they would get out easily. When a long ball would come in we would not compete and win the header or the second ball. It was all little basics. They started the game incredibly fast and we never matched it. That was the simple thing. It wasn’t a good start but beyond that there was some good stuff.”
On playing better in the last 80 minutes but not scoring:
“I actually thought we created some good situations. I think there were a couple in open play. There were a couple of situations from our press that we created some chances. Good chances. I think three or four from our press in the first half, even one in the first five minutes where Benny [Feilhaber] thinks the ball and his pass gets cut out. Diego has a really good chance and gets the free kick on the edge of the box. So there were some good situations and for long spells in the second half we outplayed them for periods. We took risks and they are going to hit you on the break and we knew that. I think when we went to three and then four strikers, I think it took us a little bit of time to figure out. We were taking risks there and we needed people to take risks rather than be so honest. I think we were probably a little too honest late in the game. We just need to know when we put attacking players like that on the pitch and three four strikers that we want to go for it and take risks. Again, the actual mentality and the attitude of trying to go out there and get in the game was there, it was definitely there.”
On positive aspects to take into the game next week vs. Sporting KC:
“Well again I think second half there were periods when I watched us I thought we passed the ball very well, we played in a manner that was trying to get back in the game. We looked to control the game. We got into some good situations. I think our final ball could have been better. Certainly some of our crossing. But the players stuck to it and they kept driving forward and kept trying to get in the game. I was pleased with the response, I was not pleased with the start.”
COLORADO RAPIDS FORWARD DIEGO RUBIO
On tonight’s game:
“Well you know it is a loss. It is very disappointing after what happened last week. We need to stay positive. It is just our second game. Seattle is a good team the last couple of years, they have been in the finals and competing all the time. We need to stay positive and take the negative things and try to turn them into positives.”
On your thoughts on the team playing well later in the game and not scoring:
“Well of course. We always try to score goals. That didn’t happen tonight. I hope that doesn’t happen the next time. What I said before, we need to stay positive. I think we had some good plays in the game.”
On positives moving forward:
“We don’t want to lose two games in a row. We are going to go with everything. It is soon to talk about Sporting. We are going to come into the next week to see how they play, how they do it. I hope that we can play a good game and what I said before the season. I think we need to win every game in our stadium.”
COLORADO RAPIDS DEFENDER KEEGAN ROSENBERRY
On tonight’s game:
“It was disappointing for us. I think that is the first thing everyone thinks in the locker room for sure. We wanted to come in here with the mindset of competing for at the very least a point and if not a point, three points. I think we killed ourselves in the first 15-20 minutes. That is what is most disappointing, we didn’t compete in the right way in the first stage of the game and after that, you know, it was zero, zero for you know how many minutes. Disappointed but we will move on quick and look forward to next week.”
On the first two goals:
“I think it is difficult to break down goal scoring plays, piece by piece, especially not seeing it back and just thinking about it from my perspective. I will be the first to hold my hand up in both instances. I think we can do a better job of closing the ball down, and getting close to guys and making it difficult on them to make plays. I think that was a problem across the board for however many, the first 10-15 minutes that we struggled. I am not going to pin point it on anybody or any certain play but we just need to be more aggressive and work together as a cohesive unit, a little bit better.”
On creating chances and not scoring:
“We were a little bit unlucky. It is always difficult to get results and goals and points on the road. Again, I think it just boils down to us competing better after the first stage of the game and us playing together as a group better and being more aggressive and sticking to our game plan and focusing on the little things we need to do better. Again, after that first part I think we did those things better and played to a 0-0 draw. Again, disappointing because the first however minutes got away from us but we were better because of it.”