Sounders at Timbers, recap: Just not good enough

Despite scoring first, the Seattle Sounders were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw on the road against the Portland Timbers. Albert Rusnák scored his 6th goal of the season to open the scoring in the 30th minute, but 6 minutes later Santiago Moreno equalized for Portland.

Portland and Seattle exchanged looks at goal early in the game, with the Sounders winning a corner from a dangerous cross by Alex Roldan that was intended for Danny Musovski, but the striker missed on his swing and the ball instead hit a defender and went out in the 4th minute. A few minutes later Juan Mosquera was the one looking for goal to finish off some quick play through the middle of the field by Portland, but his shot went wide of the far post.

Seattle’s goal came from Albert Rusnák in the 30th minute on a well-taken shot, but Rusnák hit a similar shot right at goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau in the 22nd. On the actual goal Cristian Roldan struck a fantastic ball over the top for Danny Musovski. Musovski was able to reach it first and fight off defenders to get the ball out of his feet and over to Rusnák at the top of the box. Rusnák took a couple of touches to control and set up his shot, then placed it perfectly in the bottom corner to make it 1-0.

Musovski nearly made it 2-0 quickly after the first goal, but his 32nd minute shot was saved by Crepeau and pushed out for a corner. Portland got their goal shortly after in the 36th minute when a disorganized Seattle back line resulted in Alex Roldan dropping too deep and keeping David Da Costa onside when he received a pass on Seattle’s left. Da Costa wasn’t immediately picked up as he’d run in behind Nouhou and got in a cross to a similarly unmarked Moreno as he ran through the center of the box to hit it home.

From there the Timbers more or less called it good on scoring another goal. Portland didn’t take another shot during the first half, and wouldn’t take their only shot of the second half until the 67th minute. Despite both sides seeing just about the same amount of the ball, Seattle remained the aggressors following the equalizer and throughout the second half. The Sounders took 7 second half shots to Portland’s 1, but the problem is that none of them were of a particularly high quality. Seattle had 4 shots that came from inside the area, but none were credited as “Big Chances.”

The only plays that seemed likely to turn into a goal came from substitutes Paul Rothrock and Pedro de la Vega. Rothrock ran onto a pass from Cristian Roldan in the 73rd minute and brought the ball down with his chest as he ran into the box, but he ran out of space and his shot was blocked by Finn Surman. Georgi Minoungou created the opportunity for De la Vega’s blocked shot in the 2nd minute of stoppage time, leaving a player on the ground in his wake before playing the cross to de la Vega.

With the 1-1 draw the Sounders find themselves in 6th in the West with 20 points from 14 games. They now turn their attention to hosting FC Dallas next Saturday, with a full week of training at home to prepare.

Key moments

4 - Chance! Alex Roldan sends in a cross that Musovski just misses as he swings at it, but the ball goes out for a corner off of a defender.

8 - Chance! Portland play quickly through the midfield via Antony who gets the ball to Mosquera, but his eventual shot goes wide of goal.

22 - Shot! Seattle work the ball from the right to the left channel via Ferreira, but Rusnák’s shot is easily caught by Crepeau.

30 - GOAL! Musovski runs onto a ball over the top from Cristian Roldan, controls it and lays it off for Rusnák at the top of the box. Rusnák takes a couple touches to set up his shot that nutmegs Surman and finishes low inside the left post! 1-0 Sounders

32 - Shot! Kent plays the ball across from the top of the box for Musovksi, who lines up a shot that forces Crepeau to push it out for a corner.

36 - Goal, Portland. Alex Roldan keeps Da Costa onside as the Timbers drive at goal, and Da Costa finds Moreno who finishes easily from close range. 1-1

HT - Subs. Portland take off Kamal Miller and Joao Ortiz and bring on Dario Zuparic and Cristhian Paredes.

59 - Chance! Kent and Vargas play a quick give-and-go to put Kent in behind the defense, but his cross into the area is grabbed by Crepeau.

65 - Shot! Cristian Roldan gets a pass from Rusnák near the top of the box and has a go from distance that flies just over the bar.

67 - Sub. Antony exits the game for Portland and is replaced by Jonathan Rodriguez.

70 - Subs. Jesus Ferreira and Ryan Kent come out of the game, replaced by Paul Rothrock and Pedro de la Vega for Seattle.

73 - Chance! Rothrock runs onto a ball from Cristian Roldan, does well to control it with his chest as he enters the box, but his shot is blocked by Surman.

78 - Sub. Eric Miller comes into the game for Portland, taking the place of Juan Mosquera.

81 - Sub. Danny Musovski exits the game and Georgi Minoungou subs in.

88 - Shot! Minoungou puts the final touch on a sequence as PdlV and Rusnák work the ball across the box in transition, but Minoungou’s shot is just kept out of the near post and put out for a corner.

90+1 - Subs. Claudio Bravo and Omir Fernandez come on for Portland as Jimer Fory and Santiago Moreno exit.

90+2 - Chance! Minoungou puts a player on the ground before hitting a cross that reaches de la Vega, but his shot is blocked.

90+4 - Chance! Nouhou sends in a dangerous cross that Rothrock jumps for but can’t get enough contact to turn it in on goal.

Quick thoughts

Lacking chemistry: It’s obviously good to have quality in depth and competition for spots in a squad. It’s great to have more players who could start than can actually start, and different options in how you combine them to suit different skills or circumstances. One issue, though, when for one reason or another you are frequently changing the makeup of your lineup is that it’s particularly hard to build familiarity with one another and develop the kind of chemistry that has allowed for some of the fantastic football we’ve seen from this team in the recent past. For all that the Sounders created chances against Portland, and we’ve seen what Ryan Kent and Jesus Ferreira can offer individually – they each even showed flashes in moments tonight! – but deploying the two of them as the wide attacking midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 on either side of Rusnák produced less quality than the sum of their parts. Both are still relatively new to the group, particularly Kent, and there will inevitably be bumps in the road as they integrate, but the team could use a little more stability in the front four.

An unfulfilling wager: The Sounders took a risk, made a gamble when they rotated their squad so heavily against LAFC. They may have felt like that group could have gotten a result on the road, but they got pummeled and pretty clearly made a statement that this game was the higher priority of the two. When you make that kind of decision and then get thumped in midweek, it’s pretty important that you back it up on the weekend. Seattle gave it a good go, they were pretty clearly the team likeliest to get a winner at the very least, but they didn’t get what they needed. They couldn’t hone the edge they held into something sharp enough to actually fell the Timbers. Maybe they are able to use this week as motivation to get back to the form they were on 7 days ago, and at the end of the season it’s just a blip, but today it wasn’t enough.

Cristian Roldan’s evolution: Brian Schmetzer pumped the brakes a little bit on the latest Cristian Roldan Hype Train as it leaves the station during his press conference. While he praised Roldan’s passing, particularly his long-range distribution, he also noted that he’s got to clean his passing up a bit still, saying that he can be even better. Roldan definitely had a couple of passes that either very nearly were or led to turnovers that put Seattle under pressure, and that’s pretty clearly what Schmetzer’s talking about. But those live alongside some truly fantastic passing to put teammates in position to make something happen. His pass over the top for Musovski was key to the goal tonight, and he created several other opportunities with his long passing. Roldan completed more passes than any other player (78/90), including going 10/12 on long passes. Especially with Jackson Ragen unavailable, his ability to step up and provide that kind of distribution from deeper areas has been a key to Seattle’s approach with the ball. In his 11th MLS season he continues to find new ways to be a key part of the Sounders.

Notable quote

Brian Schmetzer on if this was a point won or two points dropped: “Well, there’s no such thing as a moral victory, perhaps, because I do believe we outplayed them for large parts of the game... at the end of the game we were on top of them, we had numerous chances, statistically we were better than them, so points dropped."

Player spotlight

Danny Musovski – Musovski didn’t get a goal tonight, but he did really well to set up Rusnák’s goal for his first assist of the season.