Just like they did a year ago, the Seattle Sounders eliminated LAFC in the MLS Playoffs by a 3-1 scoreline. The Sounders got goals from Nicolás Lodeiro, Raúl Ruidíaz and Jordan Morris, while Stefan Frei made a save on a Carlo Vela penalty. The Sounders will next play FC Dallas on Dec. 1.
Match Recap
Seattle Sounders FC 3 – Los Angeles FC 1
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Venue: Lumen Field
Referee: Kevin Stott
Assistants: Mike Rottersman, Jeff Hosking
Fourth Official: Alex Chilowicz
VAR: Jorge Gonzalez
Attendance: Closed Door
Weather: 45 degrees and cloudy
SCORING SUMMARY
SEA – Nicolás Lodeiro (Jordan Morris, Raúl Ruidíaz) 18’
SEA – Raúl Ruidíaz 66’
LAFC – Eduard Atuesta (Carlos Vela) 77’
SEA – Jordan Morris (Raúl Ruidíaz, Nicolás Lodeiro) 80’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
SEA – Nicolás Lodeiro (caution) 88’
LAFC – Mohamed El-Munir (caution) 90’+2’
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC – Stefan Frei; Alex Roldan, Yeimar Gómez Andrade, Shane O’Neill, Nouhou (Román Torres 90’+1’); Cristian Roldan, João Paulo, Joevin Jones (Brad Smith 70’), Nicolás Lodeiro, Jordan Morris (Jordy Delem 90’); Raúl Ruidíaz
Substitutes not used: Stefan Cleveland, Miguel Ibarra, Josh Atencio, Ethan Dobbelaere, Will Bruin, Jimmy Medranda
Total shots: 13 (Morris, 4)
Shots on goal: 3 (Three players, 1)
Fouls: 18 (Three players, 3)
Offside: 2 (Morris/Ruidíaz, 1)
Corner-kicks: 4 (Lodeiro, 4)
Saves: 3 (Frei, 3)
Los Angeles FC – Pablo Sisniega; Eddie Segura, Jesus David Murillo, Tristan Blackmon, Jordan Harvey (Mohamed El-Munir 56’); Latif Blessing, Eduard Atuesta, Mark-Anthony Kaye; Carlos Vela, Bradley Wright-Phillips (Kwadwo Opoku HT), Christian Torres (Adrien Perez 56’)
Substitutes not used: Kenneth Vermeer, Dejan Jakovic, Antonio Leone, Erik Duenas, Bryce Duke, Francisco Ginella
Total shots: 12 (Vela, 4)
Shots on goal: 4 (Vela, 2)
Fouls: 14 (Kaye, 3)
Offside: 2 (Kaye/Wright-Phillips, 1)
Corner-kicks: 8 (Vela, 6)
Saves: 0
POST-MATCH QUOTES & SOUNDBYTES: SOUNDERS FC 3 – LAFC 1
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020
LUMEN FIELD – SEATTLE, WA
SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER – LINK TO SOUNDBYTES
On having any extra satisfaction on beating LAFC back-to-back in playoffs:
“No, I mean look, they were missing a few guys. Obviously we were missing a few guys. Bob [Bradley] has had coaching experiences that I haven’t. I’m blessed to be here in Seattle, in my home town. [The press]… have written about that, so thank you. But tonight’s game is symbolic of, again, just our club, the players on the field, the coaching staff that comes up with the game plan. It’s a combined effort. LAFC is a great organization, I mean they took the league by storm. Atlanta, LAFC, two tremendously successful expansion franchises. But, I mean, I just have to bring it back to the guys on the field tonight. They were the ones that perform. I mean, my job is actually pretty easy. When you go through what we do in a four-day lead up to the game and you work on your tactics and you do the physical preparation and you do the mental preparation, then it’s up to the players on that day to make plays, and tonight our guys made plays. That’s the bottom line. I said that before the game. I said the team that’s going to make more plays. And look, I can tell you that we could have had a couple more goals. I mean, post here, Jordan [Morris’s] miss, there were some really good attacking movements that I’m going to try to really emphasize in the preparation for our next match.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER NICOLÁS LODEIRO – LINK TO SOUNDBYTES
On how he thought the team played today:
“I’m always going to be happy with a goal, but I get much more happy when we have a win and also when we play as a team really well and I think tonight we played really well. We showed a lot of maturity as a team, we showed a lot of control. There were certain things we still need to improve, but in general I think we did a very good game beyond just the individual efforts that we put. As a team we played really, really well.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER JORDAN MORRIS – LINK TO SOUNDBYTES
On Schmetzer’s pregame message:
“I think we definitely had a good game plan and coming in [Brian Schmetzer] was telling us that we are at home, I think every time we play at home we want to be on the front foot. We needed to limit [Carlos Vela], we know he’s their most dangerous player and keying in on that, trying to double team him whenever possible and forcing the ball wide I think we had a good game plan. But really it was when we are at home we got to be on the front foot and be the dominant team and I think we did that tonight. But [Schmetzer] does a great job getting us on the same page ready to go out and play and I think we accomplished that tonight. Obviously like [Nicolás Loderio] said [there are] things we need to keep working on. When we’re winning a game we can’t give up chances like we were, we have to keep playing.”