It was a forgettable night in the Bronx, where the Sounders started reasonably well but fell apart toward the end.
MATCH SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 0 - New York City FC 3
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Venue: Yankee Stadium
Referee: Rubiel Vazquez
Assistants: Logan Brown, Jose Da Silva
Fourth Official: Lorant Varga
VAR: Guido Gonzales Jr.
Attendance: 18,217
Weather: 84 degrees and sunny
SCORING SUMMARY
NYC - Maximiliano Moralez (Jesus Medina) 58’
NYC - Jesus Medina (Valentin Castellanos) 77’
NYC - Ebenezer Ofori (Alexander Ring) 87’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
SEA - Nouhou (caution) 4’
NYC - Alexander Ring (caution) 42’
SEA - Kim Kee-hee (caution) 73’
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei; Saad Abdul-Salaam, Kim Kee-hee, Xavier Arreaga, Nouhou (Kelvin Leerdam 72’); Jordy Delem, Alex Roldan, Henry Wingo (Víctor Rodríguez 55’), Harry Shipp, Joevin Jones; Justin Dhillon (Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez 82’)
Substitutes not used: Bryan Meredith, Román Torres, Brad Smith, Gustav Svensson
Total shots: 14 (Three players, 2)
Shots on goal: 4 (Four players, 1)
Fouls: 7 (Nouhou, 2)
Offside: 2 (Abdul-Salaam/Dhillon, 1)
Corner-kicks: 7 (Rodríguez, 4)
Saves: 1 (Frei, 1)
New York City FC - Brad Stuver; Anton Tinnerholm, Sebastien Ibeagha, Alexander Ring, Maxime Chanot, Ronald Matarrita; Ismael Tajouri-Shradi (Jesus Medina 55’), Maximiliano Moralez, Keaton Parks, Alexandru Mitrita (Ebenezer Ofori 62’); Valentin Castellanos (Ben Sweat 84’)
Substitutes not used: Luis Barraza, Daniel Bedoya, Juan Torres, Justin Haak
Total shots: 20 (Castellanos, 9)
Shots on goal: 8 (Castellanos, 2)
Fouls: 14 (Ring, 6)
Offside: 2 (Moralez/Tajouri-Shradi, 1)
Corner-kicks: 8 (Moralez, 8)
Saves: 4 (Stuver, 4)
SEATTLE SOUNDERS HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER
On the second half…
“It seemed like after that first goal our guys dropped dead a little bit. I’ll have to look at the play again to see exactly what happened, but on the corner their guy chased it, won possession of the ball, then had a little give-and-go lead to a deflected shot that went over Stef’s [Stefan Frei] shoulder. We weren’t able to do what we did in the first half, I wanted to get a little more possession in their half.”
On today’s substitutions…
“We were trying to get Victor [Rodriguez] some minutes since he didn’t play Saturday, when we brought Kelvin [Leerdam] on we went to a back three to get the guys out wide further up the pitch.”
On squad rotation…
“I could look at it now and say it didn’t work, it worked in the first 45 minutes, but the rest between Wednesday and Saturday is a little shorter. Had we played all the starters now, and you play some reserves against Columbus. Last time I played Gustav [Svensson] three times in a week, on short rest, he tweaked his hamstring. Obviously, Victor [Rodriguez] wouldn’t be able to go Wednesday and Saturday, and Nicolas [Lodeiro] had just flown 15 hours… the risk of injury is just too great. We decided to go with what we did, I accept the responsibility of my decisions. It didn’t work tonight, but we’ll keep after it.”
SEATTLE SOUNDERS GOALKEEPER STEFAN FREI
On tonight’s match…
“We did alright in the first half, on this pitch against this team [NYCFC]. It was a wide-open game, we saw it as back-and-forth. We thought all it would take was a maybe a slip or an opportunistic chance. One way or another they made the first goal. It was a decent first half, we had our chances, but we weren’t able to take advantage of them. I think they kind of created their own luck in the second half with opportunistic chances. It’s a lucky bounce, the second one is the guy [Valentín Castellanos] shooting and completely shanking it and going straight to the guy [Jesus Medina]. Those goals count the same way, that’s what I mean by creating your own luck.”
On the difference in the second half…
“All things considered, it was an open game and we made mistakes, but so did they [NYCFC] and we’re in the game. It was a good first half, or did it all unravel for us and work for them? We got a little tired, a little stretched. They [NYCFC] pushed and found an opening goal and then it makes things difficult.”
SEATTLE SOUNDERS MIDFIELDER ALEX ROLDAN
Thoughts on tonight’s match…
“I think they came out in the first half; we did a good job of containing them. It’s a small pitch so there’s a lot of transitioning moments. We also had some bright moments in the first half, but ultimately we fell apart in the second half and we allowed some goals we shouldn’t have allowed and unfortunately lost the game.”
How NYCFC was able to pressure Seattle and get into transition in the second half…
“This is on our side; we lost the ball a little too much. We let them have the ball and we kind of got tired, our legs got a little heavy just by inviting them to our side of the field. They [NYCFC] pressed really well and they also contained the ball. They moved the ball pretty well and have good movement. I think sticking to our transition games into such a small field would have helped us a little more. But overall, they got the better of us in the second half.”