For the third time in four games, the Sounders had a lengthy unbeaten streak snapped. First it was their record start to the season, then their home run of form and now their dominance over the San Jose Earthquakes is at least temporarily halted. The 1-0 loss to the Earthquakes was the first time they’d lost to the Bay Area side since 2015 and their once seemingly impenetrable home fortress has some obvious weaknesses.
MATCH SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 0 – San Jose Earthquakes 1
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Venue: Lumen Field
Referee: Joe Dickerson
Assistants: Chris Elliott, TJ Zablocki
Fourth Official: Matt Franz
VAR: Carol Anne Chenard
Attendance: 32,704
Weather: 72 degrees and cloudy
SCORING SUMMARY
SJ – Cristian Espinoza (Florian Jungwirth) 45’+1’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
SEA – Jimmy Medranda (caution) 31’
SJ – Luciano Abecasis (caution) 49’
SEA – João Paulo (caution) 53’
SJ – Cade Cowell (caution) 62’
SEA – Josh Atencio (caution) 90’+3’
SJ – Nathan (caution) 90’+4’
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC – Stefan Cleveland; Alex Roldan, Xavier Arreaga, Shane O’Neill (Danny Leyva 70’), Yeimar, Jimmy Medranda (Alex Villanueva 83’); João Paulo, Reed Baker-Whiting (Fredy Montero 55’), Kelyn Rowe (Will Bruin 83’), Josh Atencio; Raúl Ruidíaz
Substitutes not used: Spencer Richey, Andrew Thomas, Obed Vargas, Ethan Dobbelaere
Total shots: 11
Shots on goal: 3
Fouls: 17
Offside: 1
Corner-kicks: 7
Saves: 1
San Jose Earthquakes – JT Marcinkowski; Luciano Abecasis (Andres Rios 86’), Oswaldo Alanis, Nathan, Tanner Beason, Florian Jungwirth; Judson; Shea Salinas (Eric Remedi 86’), Eduardo Lopez (Chris Wondolowski 71’), Cristian Espinoza, Cade Cowell (Marcos Lopez 64’)
Substitutes not used: Paul Marie, Jack Skahan, Daniel Vega, Siad Haji
Total shots: 5
Shots on goal: 2
Fouls: 16
Offside: 3
Corner-kicks: 1
Saves: 3
SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER
On why it’s hard to get results at home this season:
“I wish I knew the answer. Look over the years I think our home record has been outstanding. It’s been very good, and so maybe that’s why it’s now big news that three draws and two losses at home is not good. You know I think that you could probably look at individual games and figure out some pattern or the injuries or you could make a hundred different excuses but I’m not going to do that, the players aren’t going to do that we are just going to try to regroup and refocus and make sure that we play better at home. Because normally that’s where you gain an advantage. You know I think the other thing that happened tonight, what I talked about them in the locker room, you know home, yes, that’s an advantage for sure. But scoring the first goal is an advantage, playing from in front rather than behind, because they control the tactics and the time wasting and all of that. That’s the other point I would probably add on to your point but no the home record needs to be better, for sure.”
On not begin able to put away their first half chances:
“Big… but I might disagree with you a little bit. I think we could have done even better in the first half. I mean, look. Coaches are judged by wins and losses and substitutions and lineups and all of that sort of stuff. And we expect that, we know that’s the deal. For me, could we have done a little bit better in preparation for the team?...Yes, we had some chances. Raúl [Ruidíaz] had a chance. Kelyn [Rowe] got in behind a couple times. [Jimmy] Medranda and Reed [Baker-Whiting’s] chance. You know we had chances to go one nothing, for sure. But again, we as coaches have to give them the tools to be successful. I thought maybe we could have done a better job on that tonight.”
SOUNDERS FC FORWARD WILL BRUIN
On how it felt to get back to playing:
“Yeah it was nice, it was nice to get back out there, awful circumstances to come back but you know it felt good to get back out there, felt normal again. I had two days of training so maybe a little bit of rust, but it’ll come off real quick.”
On whether they would lose now or later in the season:
“A loss is a loss to drop three points at the end of the day, obviously I think, when I think about it for a second, I think it would be better for us to win now so we can get as many points heading into a stretch so if we have a poor performance we can give ourselves a cushion if we start dropping points this week like we have. We were doing so well at the beginning of the year and then now we are getting a little complacent like, ‘Oh we are at the top of the league, we are doing well, we will show up and we will win.’ And teams come here, and they want to beat us, that’s their MLS Cup. That’s the second week I’ve heard teams chanting in here and honestly, it’s kind of pissing me off. I think we need to get back to basics of just being hard to play against. You know we had the stingiest defense, I don’t know numbers, but nobody could score on us. We just need to get back to being hard to play against, hard-nosed, and just hit the refresh button right now. But we still have time so it’s good that guys are upset about the loss given the circumstances that we are in, we are still in a good position, and we understand it and we need to fix it.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER KELYN ROWE
On the differences between the two halves:
“It’s a tale of two halves I guess you could say. If we put those chances away we, obviously it’s a different game. If we don’t give up that goal at the end of the half, it’s a different game. I feel they changed a little bit, they weren’t pressing as hot. And we weren’t connecting the passes we needed to and unfortunately it was one pass too many, one pass too little… they did well by blocking shots… Congrats to them they did well in the second half, we got to put away our chances.”
On San Jose not playing its normal man defense:
“I think they changed it up a little bit, there is still a man-to-man sense to it, there’s a little bit of a zone man to man. Their center backs were matching up, their outside center backs were matching up with myself and in the first half Reed [Baker-Whiting], in the second half it was with Fredy [Montero]. But like I said… whether they are man marking or playing normal position it just wasn’t our day.”