By Mazvita Maraire Posted on

Brian Schmetzer looking for more from his players as post season begins

With the Major League regular season in the rearview mirror, Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer wants more from his players in the team’s first-round playoff series with the Minnesota Loons. The series begins Monday night  at Alliance Field, game two will be  Monday, November 3rd, at Lumen, and game three, if necessary, would be back in Minnesota on  Friday, November 7th .

Minnesota’s reputation and history

The Loons swept the season series with the Sounders after a historic 3-2 win at Lumen field. It was the first time Minnesota had ever won a game at Lumen Field. A tightly contested 1-0 win at home saw the Loons secure the two-game season series. In game one, the Sounders were lax in marking, and Loons striker Tanie Oluwaseyi scored the game’s first goal on a wide-open sitter. Stefan Frei ‘s rebound save resulted in a second mop-up goal for  Oluwaseyi, and John Bell gave up a penalty.

Of the five goals scored in the contest, the Sounders scored one —a clinical finish by Kalani Kossa-Rienzi. The fifth goal in the contest was an own goal by a Loons defender. Nicolas Romero. In the 1-0 loss, the Sounders  had multiple chances to score but were unable to get the ball in the back of the Loons’ goal  

“They’ve got the reputation of, you know, playing conservatively back,  long throw in, set pieces, all that. That’s obviously they’re calling card, but they’re more than that. They’ve got some good players and some technical players,”  said Schmetzer. Everybody’s gonna have to do more. We’re going to ask for more on the training field, because we understand what it takes to win in the playoffs and MLS.”

Changing formations in-game possibility

All season long, the Sounders have struggled with breaking down teams in a five-backline. While they have won the possession battle when attacking teams with five in the back , the Sounders’ end product has been lacking.   There has been a lack of numbers and creativity in the  opposing goal box. One strategy the Schmetzer and his coaching staff are contemplating is starting with two forwards.

“Well, the two forwards is, you know, something that we’ve toyed with, you know, especially against teams that play a back line of five, you know, provided Minnesota go back to back line of five. I mean, that’s success against us, in a regular season, back line of five, but they’ve been toying around with a four. We’ll just see, said Schmetzer.

Playing two forwards will require the sacrifice of a player in the backline or midblock. The deployment of two forwards would allow make for a tactical change when defending and in transition.

“
We’ve done a little bit of work with two forwards. you know, it just gives us another forward, but you got to take something from somewhere else”, said Schmetzer .”  And whether that’s in midfield, whether it’s a pocket guy, whether it’s, you know, a defender coming off and Alex inside, I mean, there’s multiple ways to take a player off to add a forward. It just depends on the game, how it’s flowing, you know. 
There’s lots of different factors.”

Set execution and defending will be key

The Loons led MLS with 19 set pieces during the regular season.  The Sounders, on the other hand, have given up soft goals due to poor defending of set pieces.

“ We’ve trained against, you know, corner kicks, long throw s and all that, but you can control set pieces, and this is what I mean by that. 
No silly fowls in and around the box. When Andy’s ( asssitan coach Any Rose) doing a clearance exercise with the defenders, just the simple idea of clearing a ball has to go up, out, but how far up the field,” continued Schmetzer.

 “ You know, or can you even, in the best case, scenario  is when you clear the bowl, can you get it up, out, and keep the ball in play? 
So one of your teammates, a center forward or attacking player, has a chance to actually challenge for the ball. So keeping the ball in bounds eliminates a lot of long throws, you know, fouls, eliminating that part of it, because Joaquin  Pereyra has got a good left foot. I mean, he’s very good at it .

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