The Seattle Sounders were forced to settle for a 0-0 tie with LAFC on Saturday. That preserved their perfect defensive record at home and tied 2009 for the fewest goals allowed through the first four matches of the season. Offensively, it was less positive as the Sounders have now gone scoreless in two straight.
MATCH SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 0 – Los Angeles FC 0
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Venue: Emerald Queen Casino Pitch at Lumen Field
Referee: Ismail Elfath
Assistants: Jeremy Hanson, Kevin Lock
Fourth Official: Ramy Touchan
VAR: Geoff Gamble
Attendance: 32,515
Weather: 58 degrees and sunny
SCORING SUMMARY
None
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
SEA – João Paulo (caution) 35’
LAFC – Aaron Long (caution) 43’
SEA – Nouhou (caution) 43’
LAFC — Jesus Murillo (caution) 43’
SEA – Albert Rusnák (caution) 45’
LAFC – Kellyn Acosta (caution) 48’
SEA – Alex Roldan (caution) 56’
LAFC – Denis Bouanga (caution) 84’
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC – Stefan Frei; Alex Roldan (Fredy Montero 79’), Yeimar, Jackson Ragen (Xavier Arreaga 55’), Nouhou; João Paulo (Obed Vargas 63’), Albert Rusnák, Cristian Roldan, Nico Lodeiro, Jordan Morris; Raúl Ruidíaz (Léo Chú 63’)
Substitutes not used: Stefan Cleveland, Kelyn Rowe, Reed Baker-Whiting, Danny Leyva, Dylan Teves
Total shots: 11
Shots on goal: 4
Fouls: 15
Offside: 2
Corner-kicks: 7
Saves: 3
Los Angeles FC – John McCarthy; Jesus Murillo, Diego Palacios, Sergi Palencia, Aaron Long; Ilie Sánchez, Timothy Tillman (Jose Cifuentes 66’), Kellyn Acosta (Erik Dueñas 82’); Carlos Vela (Stipe Biuk 66’), Kwadwo Opoku, Denis Bouanga
Substitutes not used: Eldin Jakupovic, Denil Maldonado, Christian Torres, Nathan Ordaz, Julian Gaines
Total shots: 10
Shots on goal: 3
Fouls: 13
Offside: 0
Corner-kicks: 4
Saves: 4
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POST-MATCH QUOTES & SOUNDBYTES: SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC 0 – LAFC 0
SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER
On the performance of the team:
“Little bit of a mixed bag there. I think that we gave up some chances there at the end. I don’t know what the expected goals are but they had a lot of clear chances because we were trying to find a goal at that end of the field. I wasn’t real pleased about that. Look we’ve only taken one goal in four league matches, so that’s ok. That’s a good thing. If we defend well, we will collect points along the way. But it’s an interesting question, it’s something we will discuss. Did we worry too much about the referee, something that’s not in our control, did that get us fired up? Why doesn’t our soccer fire us up? The first two games were up here, and the second two were a drop. How do we asses that? How do we get back to playing the way we were the first two games? Those are the questions that I just asked.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER OBED VARGAS
On his return to the field after his injuries:
“Obviously I was very nervous, warming up. It’s been a long, long journey ever since I played my last game, and it was actually against LAFC. And then I came back against LAFC, and LAFC is a big opponent. I was just very happy and very nervous, too.”
SOUNDERS FC GOALKEEPER STEFAN FREI
On how shutout feels:
“You know I’m always an optimist and try to focus on the positives so it’s good keeping a clean sheet against an opponent that’s been very good offensively and scored an abundance of goals in their few games they’ve had this year. I think for us to stymie that offense is something to be proud of and good. And the flip side, obviously we are at home and when there’s such a decent defensive performance we [need] to somehow capitalize and get three points and we didn’t tonight. Three home games, zero goals against is a good thing and something to build on.”
SOUNDERS FC DEFENDER ALEX ROLDAN
On if this result is a positive or a negative:
“A little of both. I think obviously we know we are capable of winning this game, capable of winning against this team. Not getting the result is definitely not something we intended to do. We are coming out here to [get] three points. At the same time, it’s a point that we are going to need. I know last year, I know we want to stop talking about last year, but those are sometimes the points that we missed last year where we missed playoffs. So I think we are going to need some of these throughout the season. Hopefully there are far less ties than wins.”
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