RENTON – The film of the Seattle Sounders’ 1–1 tie with CF Montreal on Saturday wasn’t much kinder than the real-time experience.
Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer deemed the match “a fail” while bemoaning the missed opportunity to fortify their position in the table. He was particularly disappointed with his players’ inability to execute basics like connecting passes and moving without the ball. Tuesday’s training session focused mostly on some of those basics.
“I’m going to try and turn it around into something that is a learning moment, coachable moment, but it’s hard sometimes when [it’s] some of the stuff that normally they’re proficient at like passing the ball,” he said.
One example Schmetzer highlighted was on the Montreal goal. The sequence started with Ryan Sailor sending a pass that forced Hassani Dotson to lunge. His pass then left Albert Rusnák in an awkward position. Rusnák then mishit his pass back to Dotson, and Montreal picked it up and were allowed to counter.
“We challenged them,” Schmetzer said. “There’s four games left. It’s a beautiful day out here. Your goal in the warm-up — even with the simplest of warm-up exercises — is don’t make any mistakes. Train the brain that every possession is critical. These last four games, every time you pass the ball, put some thought into it. That was my reflection.”
Thanks to most of the teams around the Sounders in the standings also tying their matches, the result didn’t necessarily hurt them and they remain in the No. 7 spot. But a win would have kept the No. 4 spot – which would give them homefield advantage in the first round of the playoffs – very much in play. For the Sounders to make any kind of move up the table, they will will need to maximize their points down the stretch and must avoid slow starts like they had against Montreal.
“It’s frustrating at this part of the season to lose points like that at home, especially in a game where we felt like we we should have won,” Sounders attacker Jordan Morris said.
“At this point in the season, we’re not in a place to have a half like that. We just need to be better about when the ref blows the whistle, just being ready to go.”
The first test comes on Saturday when the Sounders visit San Diego FC, a team currently on an eight-game winless run and who slipped to 12th in the table. This is a virtual must-win game for them just to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“Obviously, they’re struggling a little bit this year,” Morris said about San Diego. “But they’re such a dangerous team. You look at where they are in the table; it can be deceiving. We know they’ll post a lot of challenges for us.”
Injury updates
- Alex Roldan came out of Saturday’s game at halftime with his calf wrapped in ice. He’s questionable for Saturday after Schmetzer described him as “beat up.”
- Despite taking a kick to the face toward the end of the match, Cristian Roldan was deemed “fine” and was a full participant in training.
- After missing Saturday’s game with an undisclosed illness, Jackson Ragen was a full participant on Tuesday. Schmetzer said Ragen had lost some weight and remains somewhat weakened, but will likely be available.
- Stuart Hawkins also missed Saturday’s game with a muscle injury and was able to participate in training. His availability will be determined later in the week.
- Paul Rothrock continues to be a bit ahead of schedule and was a limited participant in training. Schmetzer said he was hopeful that the midfielder would return before the playoffs.
