By Mazvita Maraire Posted on

If Sounders are to play a full 90 and win they have to pay attention to the small details

The Seattle Sounders are winless in their last four games and will host Cascadia Rival Portland Timbers on Saturday Night at Lumen Field.   Saturday’s match will make it two consecutive matches in which the Sounders will face a Cascadia Rival.  Last week, it was the Vancouver Whitecaps. Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer is looking at last week’s two-two draw with the Whitecaps as a growth point.

“ Mixed emotions, you can probably spin this a ton of different ways, Vancouver maybe the best team in our division, and it almost felt like the guys were in shock in the first half , “ said Schmetzer in his post-game interview. Schmetzer was reffering   to back line injuries  to  right back Alex Roldan and center bac Yeirma Gomez. Both players went down  with injuries within the first 18 minutes of the game .

“ It took us a while to get going, and in the second half, the kids got to learn that we are giving away too many soft goals . “ Schemtzer was referring to Snyder Brunell’s giveaway that led to the Whitecaps scoring the game’s first goal in the 52nd minute.

NEED MORE THAN RESILIENCE TO WIN GAMES

The Sounders should have shown their resiliency and fight back by scoring two goals in a span of just three minutes. The Sounders’ ability to bounce back after being knocked down has never been an issue. It’s actually the opposite, when winning the fight the Sounders back up and allow their opponent time and room to breathe.  Giving your opponent a moment to gather themselves has always led to bad endings.   In their last four matches, the Sounders squandered commanding leads against the LA Galaxy and  Vancouver  Whitecaps.

 In the 3-1 loss to Inter Miami, the Sounders gave it their all but were simply outclassed by a team hell-bent on revenge.  In the 2-1 loss to Austin FC, the Sounders equalized early in the second half but conceded a soft goal in stoppage time, ultimately absorbing a straight-up gut punch.

 LACK OF PLAYING THE FULL 90

To finish an opponent, a team needs to have courage, fearlessness, and tactical awareness of game time and pitch position.

“
Well, I think it’s a combination of things. Number one, we’ve let in some what I term soft goals. You know, we’ve given up too many goals too easily the teams. 
We have to be hard to beat. That’s probably number one. The individual mistakes have come from different players, so you can’t just remove one guy out of the lineup,’ said Schmetzer. “  
You got to think about the whole thing.

And then, yeah, the message of trying to, you know, when you go up two to one, like we did against Vancouver, not allow them back into the game, stay on the front foot, you know, all of those things, yeah, we talk about it all the time. But at the end of the day, it’s sports, and sometimes it works, and, you know, we had a really good run and the Leagues Cup because everybody was really super focused. 
So we’re trying to focus that in training and pay attention to detail.”

PLAYOFF IMPLICATIONS

Paying attention to detail is what the Sounders will need to do if they are to maintain their grip of fifth place in the Western Conference. The recent poor run of form has seen the Sounders lose ground in the battle for a top-four position.   LAFC  is fourth in the conference with  53 points. Seven points ahead of the Sounders, who have played one more game.

 The Timbers have aspirations of moving up from seventh place in the Conference with  44 points, just two back of the Sounders.  The Timbers have played more games than the Sounders, so Saturday’s rival match is not just about bragging rights.   Playoff seedings are on the line. One bit of good news according to Schmetzer is that rigth back Alex Roldan is availabe for the Timbers match.

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