Crepeau-y end to 2023 for Seattle

The Seattle Sounders ended their 2023 season on a down note on Sunday, falling to LAFC 1-0. Despite having possession for almost 70% of the match, the Sounders couldn’t get anything into the goal – a familiar story for this season. Meanwhile, Denis Bouanga got a breakaway in the 30^th minute that he easily converted into what ended up being the game-winner.

Offensive woes sink Seattle

Seattle started off the game around even footing with LAFC, but they quickly lost a bit of the plot on offense. Often, when they would have the ball up front in the box, only a few players would be engaged in the play, while others would just stand around waiting to see what their teammates would do, rather than expanding the attack.

The offensive woes also differed between halves. In the first half, the Sounders would often frantically chase the ball around up front, losing cohesion and giving the ball away. In the second half, the Sounders would get possession and hold the ball around two-thirds of the way up the field, passing between themselves but not creating many chances.

Two of the strongest chances during the game came in the first four minutes. In the 2^nd, Leo Chú crossed to Atencio around the middle of the box, who got off a strong shot that Maxime Crepeau dove to knock away. In the 4^th, Jordan Morris got a breakaway, passed a through ball to himself, got an excellent position for a shot – and Crepeau deflected it. Crepeau stymied the Sounders throughout the entire game, getting 7 saves in total.

Outside of that initial flurry, their best opportunity came in the 76^th. JP hit a free kick near the box that eventually found its way to Yeimar with a clear shot, but his kick didn’t have enough juice, giving Timothy Tillman more than enough time to boot it out of danger.

Seattle used its dominance in possession to get off plenty of long shots from around the edge of the box, but they all, like their earlier shots, met with a stop from Crepeau. The difference here was that their long shots probably would have gone off the crossbar anyway, but it was another display of Crepeau’s immense talent.

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Defense is solid – except for one fatal mistake

The defense and midfield, as they have almost all season, played beautifully for the Sounders. JP was cooking as always, Ragen played extremely well, Nico connected as soon as he came into the game, and the entire back line spent all night breaking up LAFC’s attacks.

Yet they made one giant mistake. And in the playoffs, mistakes can end your season. In the 30^th, Denis Bouanga broke away from Alex Roldan on the right side. Carlos Vela saw this and sent him a ball. Bouanga drove all the way to the box and fired a shot right past Stefan Frei to put LAFC on top. LAFC didn’t get another good chance until the second half of stoppage (another Bouanga shot that Stef saved), but because of what happened on the other end of the field, it didn’t matter.

Albert Rusnák had a similar recap of the matter.

“Other than the goal, I don’t think they had a clear chance in the first half, even though we did give the ball away more than we would like to. I don’t think they really created a clear chance, even in the second half, you know, we lost balls in the second half, which was normal because we pushed forward. I feel like we stopped their counterattacks pretty well” Rusnák said. “Honestly, it was that one chance. And that decided the game."

Frei pointed out that it might have done the Sounders well to adjust their positioning because of Bouanga’s presence, but also that Bouanga played his chance beautifully.

“Maybe we have to slide over more and cover that a little bit because it just so happens that their best player is kind of on that side, right?” Frei stated. “To be fair, he picks up the ball and we’re almost a little over half field, so a pretty innocent location, just kind of turns on the jets and a very determined run.”

Ted Unkel did Ted Unkel things

I’ll be honest here, the reffing was not very good. Specifically, Ted Unkel did was Ted Unkel does best, which is to call a game extremely inconsistently. Far too many times, he would miss an obvious foul, and then, a few minutes later, blow the whistle on something either completely soft or without any contact at all, then repeat.

The fans certainly felt so, and chants of “ref, you suck” rung out in the second half. It wasn’t just ECS being rowdy, the entire stadium belted it out as their anthem for a solid few minutes. I daresay it approached the volume of a “Yankees suck” chant in Boston.

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Last ride for Nico Lodeiro

Schmetzer brought on Nico for Chú in the 57^th and Nico did his part – the Sounders dominated possession after he came on.

Nico has already announced that 2023 would be his last year with the Seattle Sounders. With the team eliminated, Sunday was his last game. The legendary no. 10 had complicated feelings about his final game. He expressed sadness in losing his last match in Seattle.

“We lost. I thought the team deserved a little better, and also the fans, because we wanted to win tonight,” Nico said. “It was my last game in front of beautiful fans and a beautiful city. I’m really sad, but it’s life.”

But he also expressed positive feelings as he reflected on his time in Seattle.

“I’m not thinking about my legacy, but I feel very good. Very satisfied, because separate from the trophies and the team, what’s more important for me is that people like me as a person. I try to do my best every time on the field and outside the field in the city.”

Nico’s departure marks the beginning of the end of an era of Sounders legends. Ruidíaz’s contract status is still up in the air. Frei and JP are both essential to the team’s success, but Frei is 30 and JP is 32 – they won’t be here forever. The way this off-season goes will tell a lot about the team’s plans for the future.