Sounders Offset Loons Early in Game 2, Force Game 3 with 4-2 Win

SEATTLE — Adjustments and counter-adjustments. That is the story of every sport, and for the Seattle Sounders on Monday night, that story defined the ups and downs of an overall solid Game 2 win against the Loons in the first round of the playoffs.

After three games (two in the regular season and Game 1 the previous week) where the Sounders couldn’t break past Minnesota’s ultra-low block, Schmetzer switched it up in Lumen Field. Instead of the team’s usual 4-2-3-1, he opted for a double-nine formation with Obed as an eight and Ferreira as a versatile midfielder and attacker.

Seattle Counters Haramball Early

The Sounders started off on the attack and kept more of their men upfield inside of MNUFC’s parked bus, but two Anthony Markanich interceptions, an Alex Roldan overshoot, and a sloppy run up the box by Jordan Morris kept Seattle from a full chance during the first two minutes. After a stoppage and Minnesota free kick took things into the defensive zone for a brief moment, Seattle got a set piece by the seventh as Morris forced a corner.

Rusnák’s cross came in and was quickly deflected by Nicolás Romero, but the deflection found Obed Vargas. Obed may be 20, but he clearly has the ability to slow things down and make the right decision in the biggest moments—and follow through with execution. He torched the ball with his left foot, sending a skipper through the crowd and towards the right corner of the net. 

Dayne St. Clair dove and got his glove on the ball, but the strike was too quick even for one of the league’s best, and Seattle was up 1-0.

“The objective was to score the first goal, or one goal against them, because they’ve kind of made it a storyline—you guys have made it a storyline—that we couldn’t score against teams that have packed it in,” a somewhat sassy Brian Schmetzer said in the postgame presser. “I think the intensity in our intent to try and score goals is probably the biggest takeaway.”

As Mikel Arteta will tell you, “Haramball” is a quite effective style of the beautiful game, to the lament of fans all across the world. But one thing that such teams have trouble doing is playing from behind, and on Monday night, that was clear to see between Seattle and Minnesota. An attempt at a counterattack fell through for the visitors, after which they seemed indecisive as to their approach, lacking much pressure against Seattle’s follow-up attacks in the middle minutes of the first half.

Seattle needed to pounce on their opponents’ miscoordination in that moment, and with 30,085 loyal fans cheering them on, the Rave Green got it done. Cristian Roldan, who had an incredible work rate all game, powered forward on the right side before delivering a cross back to the middle. Ferreira and Morris both got on it, and it was Morris who knocked it in to go up 2-0 in the 21st minute.

“The message from the guys was ‘keep going, keep the foot on the pedal,’ once we got the first one, get the second, get the third,” Jordan Morris said after the game. “You saw in the end, we needed it.”

There were spurts of life in the visitors’ play by this point, as they realized that getting breakaways would be more fruitful against a Sounders team with forward-oriented formation. Still, they weren’t able to capitalize as the minutes went by, and as regulation first half wore towards its conclusion, Seattle regained the momentum.

The ball flew up the right side as Morris tapped it forward for Cristian near the endline in the 41st minute. Cristian beautifully and heroically redirected it back towards the center, this time Ferreira and Danny Musovski. The former tried to tap it leftward towards the net, and although he missed, the Moosiah was perfectly placed to shoot it into the back of the net. It was looking like a simple Sounders victory as the home crew led 3-0.

The Other Side of Not Using a 4-2-3-1

Seattle’s attack-heavy structure got them a big lead early on as the Loons were unable to make a quick adjustment to falling behind before 10 minutes had passed. But by the time stoppage rolled around—a lengthy eight minutes of it, mind you—their breakaways clicked. Taking advantage of Jordan Morris over-running an already shoddy pass from Obed, Nectarios Triantis redirected the ball around to Robin Lod, who rocketed forward, faked out the remaining Sounders defenders, and tapped it back to Triantis. Stef Frei had no chance to keep the shot out of the net.

MNUFC got their second goal just four minutes later. Yeimar got to a contested ball in the defensive zone but tried to blow past two Loons with a dribble, losing a ball that ended up in the net off Robin Lod’s boot within five seconds. Visions of an all-time collapse began coalescing. Before stoppage was up, the visitors got yet another breakaway, but an errant shot kept Seattle’s lead intact.

Business as Usual in the Second Half

Once the guys were in the sheds, things calmed down. They went back into their usual formation for the second half, with Kalani subbing on for Alex Roldan to start the final 45, and Minnesota found themselves much more contained. Seattle found themselves putting a high press on the visitors whenever Minnesota had the ball, and by the midpoint of the second half, Seattle was in a familiar position of dominant possession—this time with a one-goal lead. 

Unlike the previous matches against the Loons, however, they broke through their opponents’ low block even then. Paul Rothrock, in for Musovski, rocked forward up the left side in the 86th minute and nonchalantly whipped it to Obed. Vargas stared at the upper left corner, drawing St. Clair’s eyes away, and then tapped it along the right lane off a deflection from Hassani Dotson. Dayne St. Clair was too slow to react as it caromed into the back of the net.

Things ended pretty calmly. In the end, the Sounders cleanly dealt with their opponents by catching them off-guard, and Minnesota’s adjustment came too late in the first half for the visitors to build enough momentum. Once the Rave Green went into the sheds and settled down into a strategy, the Loons were left looking to Game 3.

“The first goal was crucial, open them up a little bit, forced them to come out of their shell a little bit,” Obed Vargas said. “After that first goal, we were dominant. The ball was moving quick, we were attacking the right spaces, and the second and third goal were huge.”

Game 3 is in Allianz Field, however, and Seattle has already showed the Loons a bit of their hand when it comes to the team’s game plan. It very well may go to penalties, but for those wondering if Andrew Thomas will make an appearance in that scenario, Brian Schmetzer played coy.

“Andrew Thomas is a really talented goalkeeper, but I’m sure these guys can come up with some pretty good statistics about Stefan Frei, too,” Schmetzer said.