By Charles Hamaker
Chicago, IL – The Seattle Sounders continue to look lost, as they fell to the Chicago Fire 1-0 to end their poor two game road trip. The Sounders backline seemed uncharacteristically unreliable, and Seattle still cannot find a final ball. The Sounders have gone 300 minutes without a goal, and need to find someone to step up offensively with All-Star Raul Ruidiaz out with another injury. With the loss, Seattle remains outside of the playoff picture, currently sitting one point out of seventh in the Western Conference.
The Fire celebrate their goal (Photo via Chicago Fire FC)
Offensive form remains atrocious
Simply but, the way that the Sounders have been playing offensively has been bad. Seattle has not scored a goal in 300 minutes. The Sounders have underperformed their expected goals, and failed to generate any big chances at all in this July 16th loss. Three losses in a row is poor, but three losses and no goals at all? While the loss of Raul Ruidiaz is a large one to say the least, there should be no excuse. There is plenty of talent on this Seattle roster to at least pick up a decent portion of the attacking load. This quote by head coach Brian Schmetzer sums it up.
“I didn’t see enough. We just didn’t have that one bit of quality to get a goal."
Jordan Morris looked dangerous in several spots, but couldn't find the back of the net (Photo via Seattle Sounders)
Defense resembles swiss cheese
Last year, the Sounders defensive unit was one of the best in the league. Seattle’s backline helped them to a Concacaf Champions League Final victory earlier in the calendar year. In their last few matches, the defensive unit has looked dazed and confused, allowing poor goals and letting attackers into the box like they were crazed fans heading into a concert.
The same could be said for the showing that we saw in this match, as there were several opportunities for Chicago to have a multi-goal game. The Fire had several breakaways and possessions in the box that were narrowly cleared or Stefan Cleveland had to make solid saves. While the players are the same for the Sounders backline, something is wrong with the defense.
Injuries or not, something has to change
A few factors need to be noted when overlooking this match. The first being that the Fire have been in good form in their last five home matches, and have been better all-around as of late. Secondly, Seattle in this match was without four key contributors, two of which have already been out for a decent chunk of the season due to long term injuries in Obed Vargas (lower back fracture) and Joao Paulo (ACL tear). Not having Raul Ruidiaz and Stefan Frei are big impacts, but having the attacking quality the Sounders possess on their roster and a solid backup keeper in Stefan Cleveland, there is no excuse to look this poor.
What’s next?
The Sounders return home following their terrible two game road trip to face the Colorado Rapids on Saturday, July 23rd. Kickoff is at 7PM PST inside of Lumen Field, as Seattle looks to bounce back from their three-game losing streak as they take on the eleventh best team in the Western Conference.
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