Match Data
SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 0 - Vancouver Whitecaps FC 0
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Venue: BC Place
Referee: Robert Sibiga
Assistants: Kyle Atkins, Michael Barwegen
Fourth Official: Ramy Touchan
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
Attendance: 24,803
Weather: 54 degrees and sunny
SCORING SUMMARY
None
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
VAN - Felipe (caution) 90’+1’
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei; Kelvin Leerdam, Kim Kee-hee, Chad Marshall, Brad Smith; Gustav Svensson (Handwalla Bwana 83’), Cristian Roldan, Jordan Morris, Nicolás Lodeiro - captain, Víctor Rodríguez; Raúl Ruidíaz (Will Bruin 87’)
Substitutes not used: Bryan Meredith, Román Torres, Nouhou, Jordy Delem, Alex Roldan
Total shots: 14 (Ruidíaz, 5)
Shots on goal: 3 (Three players, 1)
Fouls: 11 (Ruidíaz, 3)
Offside: 1 (Smith, 1)
Corner-kicks: 7 (Lodeiro, 7)
Saves: 3 (Frei, 3)
Vancouver Whitecaps FC - Maxime Crepeau; Jakob Nerwinski, Erik Godoy, Doneil Henry, Ali Adnan; Felipe, Jon Erice, Russell Teibert (Hwang In-Beom); Lass (Lucas Venuto 61’), Fredy Montero (Joaquin Ardaiz 87’), Victor Giro
Substitutes not used: Zac MacMath, Scott Sutter, Brett Levis, Yordy Reyna
Total shots: 12 (Montero, 4)
Shots on goal: 3 (Three players, 1)
Fouls: 12 (Felipe, 3)
Offside: 0
Corner-kicks: 5 (Felipe, 3)
Saves: 3 (Crepeau, 3)
Post-Match Quotes
SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC
HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER
Thoughts on the match:
“It was hard fought, yes. There was a little bit of excitement at the end. But for 80 minutes of the game there wasn’t much excitement. So it was hard to break a team down that was playing defensive, but I thought there were some things that we certainly could have done better trying to unlock the game and score a goal, and that would have made them come out.”
On halftime adjustments:
“There was some space down the left hand side, but I didn’t think we were clever enough. Teams know what we try and do – go down the left. So we need to attract him over to the left side then change the ball quickly over to Jordan [Morris] on Kelvin [Leerdam]’s side. I don’t think we did that with the right timing, playing in between the lines, having them have a little bit more patience. It’s hard for them to play with patience sometimes. There were little adjustments we tried to make but they didn’t.”
GOALKEEPER STEFAN FREI
On the hectic last five minutes:
“Great hustle by Kim, that’s what I saw. Their guy cuts to the inside and it’s essentially one-v-one versus the keeper, sometimes players tend to shut down and hope for the best, but he kept going and made my save count and made sure the ball stayed out. But the referee said right away that Kim came from behind, but I knew that Kim came from the left and he was in that whole struggle on the left side there. So there was no way that he came from behind on that tackle, but I’m glad that they had a look at it and overturned it. But great hustle by Kim, and I really appreciate that.”
On the challenge of not having much action, and then having to make a big save:
“I think it’s important that you stay engaged in a game when you’re not feeling the ball as much. You can still move with the flow of your team and communicate and things like that. So I think it’s important that you do that when you’re not seeing the ball, and when you’re called upon you’re still ready to go.”
MIDFIELDER CRISTIAN ROLDAN
Thoughts on the match:
“I think it was a frustrating game on our part. I thought that we created quite a few chances, a Vancouver player was just in the right spot for a block. In the end it felt like we lost two points. But back to the drawing board and refocus for next week’s game.”
On halftime adjustments to their attack:
“You want to find the right balance between sending all your guys forward and being susceptible to the counterattack. And finding the right balance between getting guys into the box and trying to score that one goal to put you through. I felt like we did a really good job until the end. I thought we were a little bit sloppy then, and Kim kind of makes up for it and we end up saving two points.”
DEFENDER KIM KEE-HEE
—
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC
HEAD COACH MARC DOS SANTOS
On getting their first point and the defensive organization:
“It’s always a relief to break the ice because you don’t want pressure to accumulate too much. If you look at results in MLS, you see games at 3-0, 4-0, 5-0. You will see in the three losses that we had, it’s little details. What I criticized last week was sometimes, I felt that not the full team at the same time had the commitment in the defensive organization part. And sometimes, we were detached so we spoke a lot about this during the week. We went over video. The mentality, the commitment, the players were at the level of the fans tonight.”
On creating opportunities:
“Could we have created a little bit more opportunities? Yes. In moments, we didn’t hold the ball well enough to allow the team to move up. We weren’t that clean in the first half, especially in their half. Did we have big moments to create chances? Yes. There’s this big chance from Ardaiz in the final stages of the game that led to the VAR decision. I think overall, it is a step forward.”
On Doneil Henry’s and Érik Godoy’s performances:
“Normal. I work with them everyday. I believe in them. Doneil has shown signs all year of great defensive plays. He’s grown. If you see Érik training sometimes, you think it’s too easy for him. I think what’s happening is they’re getting an understanding of one another. I think everybody was a monster on the defensive side. Jake worked hard, he did a lot of plays. Ali looks like a player who’s been here for two years. The mentality was incredible today.”
On the strategy to keep Seattle in front of them:
“There’s a team playing at home with fans that are incredible, who showed up and were there to support the team after three losses in a row. And then there’s a Seattle team that scored 10 goals in the first three games and dominated fully their first three opponents. So there was a strategic part of our game to keep them a lot in front of us, so their possession was a lot in front of us, and a lot side-to-side, so we did a good job and that was very strategic on our part.”
On the decision to play Russell Teibert:
“Inbeom was tired from the Bolivia and Colombia games. I sat down with Russell and said look, in my heart, it’s crazy to play you because you haven’t been a lot around the team but my heart tells me to play you. And he says, ‘You’re taking the right decision,’ so it was easy. We took the decision together. Rusty, I think is sometimes underrated because his work ethic, his mentality, the way he addresses training and his willingness to work is always there for the team.”
GOALKEEPER MAXIME CREPEAU
On viewing the draw as half-full or half-empty:
“It’s a type of game that could go both ways at any time. It could go from a stupid mistake to a great shot. It could go both ways so from where we are, everyone is good with the fact that we didn’t concede, that’s for sure. Can we win it? Yes, we have that feeling as well. It’s pretty 50-50. There’s some positives, and we’ll take that point definitely because coach said it, and we all know it, we aren’t hiding it, Seattle’s a great team. It’s half-half, I think we have some pride defending, and we had some great moments going forward, I think it could go both ways in this kind of games.”
On his first MLS clean sheet:
“I didn’t think about this. It feels good but it’s just the beginning. Going to USL last year was great for me personally as a goalkeeper, getting the games was fantastic, and I grew from there. In MLS now, it’s about getting some momentum, getting the clean sheets if we could get clean sheets. Championships are won by defence, we all know that. It’s about details going forward.”
On Doneil Henry:
“He’s been solid so far. Tonight he was fantastic. Two blocks on shots on goal, so many interceptions on crosses, so merci, thank you Doneil.”
CENTERBACK DONEIL HENRY
On the feeling in the dressing room:
“We take it as what it is. We played Seattle, a top team, and we got a point. They had their chances, we had out chances, but I’m satisfied with the result. We go forward with this same momentum for our next game on the weekend.”
On getting their first clean sheet in MLS play since April 2018:
“As a defender, we get put in touch situations all the time. We’re the villains when we get scored on, and we don’t get the praise when we win. Of course as a defender, we really look forward to getting clean sheets. But we go in every day at training and we try to perfect our craft. Tonight was a full team’s effort in defending and in transition. So eleven months, whatever it is, every time we go out there we’re looking to continue to get clean sheets. So today, definitely it felt good.”
On the chemistry in team defending:
“I think we’re getting more comfortable. The same presence within the core group of guys are playing. I think with more repetition between the same guys, we understand each other’s tendencies more. I think that we’re really understanding how we’re wanting to play.”