 |
| You fucking wish, John Champion. |
If you’ve heard anything about the Seattle Sounders in this
game, believe every word. First, yes, they really did only draw this game by
the mercy of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s 71st minute miss and the David
Bingham-Jorgen Skjelvic tag-team-super-fuck-up-own-goal 10 minutes or so later.
Heightened moments aside, and ignore the box score, because that
shit absolutely did not happen, Seattle sucked on both sides of the ball. On
the defensive side, players bunched, blocked each other out of the game, and
generally couldn’t decide who should do what. The lying box score says they
posted 21 shots, but I remember only one or two of the six they put on goal.
What really stood out was the general, universal disconnect among Seattle’s
players. At some point, Jane Campion mentioned something about Gustav Svensson
and Cristian Roldan getting into a tiff about who should do something (their
theory: push into the offense). The bigger issues came on offense: way too many
of Seattle’s players simply did not see simple, useful, available options – whether a
long, cross-field diagonal to a fullback open as all outdoors, or even the next
obvious one. When that’d gone on long enough, players stopped making the runs –
because why would they? – and, when they did, they just got burned all over
again, like Lucy yanking away the goddamn football on loop.
I will not let myself believe the Sounders will be so
magnificently incompetent when they come to visit Portland. There lies folly.
(How does one use “folly” fancy? Asking for a friend.) And, to start a little
gossip, they might be missing Gustav Svensson, who had his leg wrapped in ice
after limping off for reasons I missed through random fast-forwarding. (I put
in the time; if this was porn, I would have caught, like, 3/4 of the actual plot.)
Still, the team Portland will face looked decidedly average, both on Saturday
and of late.
For context, here’s a table that should look familiar to
people:
SEATTLE SOUNDERS,
11-8-7, 40 points, 40 gf, 39 ga, (8-2-3 home, 3-6-4 away)
Last 10 games: WLWWLWLDLD (4-4-2)
Last 10 at home: WWLLD
Last 10 away: LWWLD
W
|
L
|
W
|
W
|
L
|
W
|
L
|
D
|
L
|
D
|
v VAN
|
a NYC
|
a CLB
|
v ATL
|
v POR
|
a HOU
|
v SKC
|
v NE
|
a RSL
|
a LAG
|
1-0
|
0-3
|
2-1
|
2-1
|
1-2
|
1-0
|
2-3
|
3-3
|
0-3
|
2-2
|
Who They Are in One Sentence: I count one win to be
proud of in those last 10 games – Atlanta, way back – plus a stray or two. The
key thing to remember: Seattle used to shut down teams. They’ve given up 11 goals
over their last four and, as nearly everyone’s pointing out, they’re usually
surging right now.
Their Last Game: See above. And weep.
Next Games. @ POR (8/23), v LAG (9/1), @ COL (9/7), v
RBNY (9/15), v FCD (9/18), @ DC (9/22), @ SJ (9/29), v MIN (10/6)
Allowing for, let’s face it, fairly consistent error, the
above shows the results and opponents from Seattle’s last 10, along with the
teams they played. I threw in the rest of the Sounders’ 2019 regular season schedule
to add value, while omitting the strength of schedule stuff I tried to include
in the Form Guide ULTRA. Enough about me, here are some more big picture
thoughts on Seattle:
The New Guard Nods Off (a Bit)
There are some “stats are lies” static in the thin
collection of numbers (e.g., Seattle rocked a 44 gf, 43 ga in its 2016 championship
season), but Seattle had its most success by keeping the goal allowed down and running
up the goal differential as far as their latest trick-pony could raise it. Last year was their best, with a +15 goal
differential on 52 goals for, and 37 goals against. They’d stay tight, keep out
the goals, and find some special player or another – e.g., Clint Dempsey, Raul
Ruidiaz, Nico Lodeiro; someone always seemed to show up – to either score or
create enough goals to cover it. While the scoring side has…mostly held up –
with eight games left, they’re on 40 goals scored, so they probably won’t be
far off their actual (four-year) average. It’s the defense that thwarts ‘em. I’m
aware that Zlatan does it to most defenders (i.e., 20 goals – X penalty kicks),
but Kim Kee-hee died out there tonight. That’s the real story with Seattle,
they’ve got 39 goals against already – just four goals shy of their worst
defensive season, goddamn 2016, when they allowed…oh, see the beginning of the
paragraph...
“Star”-“Power”
I went hunting to find the players who might be letting
Seattle down this season, only to find that most their key players – barring Joevin
Jones due to absence/injury – are pretty much on pace for their “Sounders-version”
of normal numbers. Both Lodeiro and Ruidiaz should match their output from 2018
– more fodder for the “blame the defense” theory – while, with Morris, it’s
tricky. He put up crazy numbers for a rookie, only to have a pair of lost/semi-lost seasons between 2016 and today. Like the rest, Morris is on pace for 2016 numbers in
2019, but…
What Does “Elite” Even Mean Anymore?
The fascist-adjacent hacks at MLS (I’ll only do that once,
promise) didn’t include it in the highlights, but Morris spurned a “just-touch-it”
header early in the game, and that was before throttling two to three promising
plays in the crib by bumbling offside.
Morris also played a hand in Seattle’s only coherent and
reliable attacking move of the night – e.g., a ball over the top of a high line
to a fast guy (gave 'em their first goal) – so he’s a weapon – one, coincidentally, likely to aim at the
heart of one of the Portland Timbers’ most famous weaknesses.
Overall, though, he mattered about as much as the rest of
the Sounders tonight, which is to say neither much nor often. And that’s where
I want to close this out, the question of Seattle’s collection of actual
talent. With Chad Marshall retired to save that magnificent cabeza and Roman Torres taking time off to get huger(!!),
Seattle has relied on Kim Kee-hee and 24-year-old new kid, Xavier Arreaga, at
centerback. Arreaga had at least a half dozen punishable mistakes, and I’ve
already noted Kim’s game. They look exploitable...for the right collection of players...
Roldan, Harry Shipp, and even a guy like Svensson are the “stars”
of this team, the players tasked to hold together the newer parts on either side of them. With respect to all of them – precisely because they’re the guys that make
any star player better – these are reliable parts, not a nitrous boost. When
you think about it that way, it’s less surprising that Seattle’s not entirely
holding together. They’re vulnerable. And they should be doubly-vulnerable playing in
Portland…against that, there’s the meth-esque rush of the rivalry to consider…
That’s it. I’ll fill in Portland’s side in a twitter thread.
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