Sounders get first shutout of the season in punchless 0-0 draw with Houston Dynamo

The Sounders’ good news is that they extended their home unbeaten streak with the Houston Dynamo to  18 consecutive home matches. Unfortunately, in those 18 matches, five have been draws. Basically speaking, draws are dropped points, as was the case in last night’s 0-0 draw.

PREGAME FESTIVITIES

At first glance, it makes sense that the game ended in a friendly draw. Before the game, the Sounders honored former club legend Nicolas Lodeiro in the pregame warmups. The club also honored Jordan Morris for breaking the club record for most goals scored across all competitions before suffering a leg injury during the team’s CONCACAF 4-1 loss to Club Azul. Cristian Roldan was also honored for making 353 club appearances on March 15^th. Morris and  Roldan were honored at halftime.

SLUG FEST FROM THE GET GO

While pregame activities happen all the time it is always hard to summize they will or can have on the players  More times than not players concentrate on the business at hand. On Saturday, the gloves were immediately thrown off when the whistle blew. The first twenty minutes of the game turned out to be a classic slugfest due to the physicality of the game. The midfield was packed, and sustained possession was hard to come by. As a result, the game was disjointed.

KEEP FOCUS ON THE GOAL

A slight shift in strategy by the Sounders did turn the game in their favor. Rather than staying narrow, the Sounders wingbacks Paul Rothrock and Alex Roldan stayed wide, opening up space in the middle for Albert Runsáck, who profited from the extra workspace.

GOOD CHANCES, BUT NO GO

The Sounders had their best chances of the half within a span of five minutes. In the 37^th minute, Alex Roldan rambled down the right flank and fed Albert Rusnàk a perfect pass, which the midfielder laid off to Joao Paulo, who skyed the ball over the  Dynamo goal. Less than a minute later, the Sounders were back on the attack. Jesus Ferreria hit a perfect slid rule pass to Danny Leyva, trapped it with his right foot, composed himself, and hit a left-footed shot that forced a ladder save from Dynamo keeper  Jimmu Maurer.

The Sounders’ third-best chance of the half came in the 42^nd minute. Rusnàk slid a pass across the Dynamo goal box for an onrushing Alex Roldan, who shot the ball into the waiting arms of Maurer.

CHANGE IN SECOND HALF STRATEGY

With his club on the front foot, Schmetzer did not want the halftime break to cool off his team’s commitment to scoring, so he called for a high line of confrontation, looking to force a turnover and a quick strike to take the lead.

“Well, we want to raise the intensity a little bit; we wanted to put pressure on them, which I think that’s what you probably saw, “said head coach Brian Schmetzer in his post-game interview. “I mean, it looked like we were uh pressing and obviously trying to score uh, but, you know, I thought the team came out of the second half and did fine, but we need to score.”

MORE OF THE SAME

The high press kept the Sounder’s eye on goal, but in truth, it was more of the same—a pass here and there and then a wasted half-chance.  Rusnák had a half chance six minutes into the second half, but his shot from the right side of the box went wide. Schmetzer inserted  Georgi Minoungou for  Danny Leyva in the 60^th minute to bring on some creativity. The move brought instant energy but nothing sustainable. Lacking in the Sounders attack was players winning their battle in midfield and then finding runners. Neither of those things happened at the same time. At times, one player occasionally ran into the box; with no possession, the run was wasted.  When the Sounders had possession, no one made a run into space in the final third.

“We couldn’t even get the ball from our primary assist zone in areas that we try and, you know, get to. We couldn’t even manufacture those starting points for our attack., “ said Schmetzer. “So, yes, it’s numbers in the box. 
It’s also about us unable to  get the balls into the right spot, so the attacking movements can be good.”

BIG PICTURE

The Sounders are lacking the courage, conviction and belief that they are  going to score on any given play. In soccer, when a goal is  scored, one or more players believe that they can create that moment of brilliance to score. Right now, the Sounders are lacking the belief that they can score.

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