MLS has historically been a league where there’s a considerable home-field advantage. Just this last weekend, for instance, home teams went 10-3-2, and that came on the heels of an opening weekend in which road teams claimed just five points in 14 games.
In that context, the Sounders losing their road game against Real Salt Lake was not all that shocking of a result. The Sounders also created plenty of chances and were an offside goal away from equalizing. That RSL were missing several potential starters — while the Sounders were closer to full strength — adds a layer of concern, but over the course of the year results like this are going to happen.
“The story of this game is we just needed to make plays in the game – both offensively and defensively – and we came up short,” was how Brian Schmetzer fairly summed things up.
And yet, there is an undeniable frustration about this result, and that’s the historic context.
The Sounders last won a road game against Real Salt Lake on May 28, 2011. In those roughly 15 years since, the Sounders have now played 16 regular-season games in Utah and only even managed to get a point three times. The goal they scored in this game — a well-taken header by Cristian Roldan off an Albert Rusnák corner kick — was their first in Utah since 2020.
The Sounders certainly weren’t perfect in this game — both goals against were the result of some correctable defensive mistakes and their finishing wasn’t as sharp as it could be — but it also didn’t feature some of the obvious gaffes of previous years. Last year, for instance, Nouhou scored a totally unforced own-goal. There have been years where the Sounders could barely string passes together.
This time, the numbers suggest the Sounders played pretty well by most standards. According to American Soccer Analysis, the Sounders put up 1.96 xG, which was the fifth best total of any away team this year. They also had 1.29 xPoints, which was the eighth most of any road team this year.
The Sounders also dominated field tilt, 64-36, made more passes into the final third (35-26) and had more passes in the final third (96-55), while forcing RSL goalkeeper Kevin Cabral into eight saves.
It wasn’t that the Sounders were particularly unlucky, but if Paul Rothrock keeps himself a foot more onside or Snyder Brunell’s volley doesn’t go right at Cabral, a point would have felt like a perfectly fair result.
“It’s just the little details,” Brunell said in the postgame press-conference. “We had most of the possession today, but we need to score goals. If we can just limit the mistakes, we can win here.”
That’s obviously easier said than done.
I don’t know why the Sounders can’t figure out how to win at RSL. Sure, the stadium is at altitude and sometimes the weather is pretty bad, but that hasn’t kept the Sounders from winning plenty of games in similar conditions. It’s not even as if RSL have a particularly strong hold on the Sounders, who have been nearly as dominant in the reverse at Lumen Field (they are 13-4-3 in MLS play).
There seems to be some sort of special dispensation that applies to home fixtures when these teams play each other. Sometimes, it’s better to just shrug your shoulders and move on.
