Sounders start year with frustrating tie

The Sounders’ home opener was 2023 déjà vu, but there are some hope spots.

The Seattle Sounders played a frustrating game of soccer on Saturday, March 2 – it was one of those ties where it’s losing two points. It was an absolutely winnable game that Seattle should have won by a decent cushion. However, a mix of untimely hesitation up front and slightly off-target shooting left Seattle with a big ol’ goose egg on the scoreboard. Luckily, Austin FC didn’t even sniff the back of the net, and the Sounders at least walked away with a point. Unluckily, Pedro de la Vega sustained an injury during the game of unknown severity – Schmetzer will deliver an update on March 5.

With JP, Frei, Yeimar, Rusnák, Nathan, and Braudilio unavailable, Schmetzer’s starting XI looked like this:

Jordan

Leo Chú – Pepo – Cristian

Josh – Vargas

Nouhou – Ragen – Arreaga – Alex

Thomas

Seattle was aggressive in the first half, as Pedro de la Vega showed off his talents. He connected well with Atencio and Chú while putting strong pressure on Austin’s midfield. Though this energy produced a plethora of chances for the Sounders in the half, they were unable to get one in the net. Several times, however, the Sounders came within feet of a goal. In the 16^th minute, Josh got a cross in the box from Nouhou and sent it just wide. In the 21^st, a Pepo corner found its way to Ragen, who sent in a header that barely went over the crossbar. Seattle found the wrong side of the crossbar again in the 24^th minute, as Leo Chu worked his way around a defender before zipping a curler just over the target.

Perhaps the most unusual chance the team had was in the 19^th minute, as Nouhou took a long shot through traffic that Austin FC goalkeeper Brad Stuver easily nabbed. The Nouhou shot counter now stands at 2.

The Sounders’ larger issue was that although they worked their way into the box plenty of times, they often hesitated with the ball and didn’t get a shot off in time. A chance came in the 29^th minute when Seattle got the ball right up in front, first to Chú, who passed to Cristian, who passed to Morris, who hesitated and squandered the opportunity.

This pattern of frustrating near-misses and hesitations continued in the second half. In the 51^st minute, Leo Chú sent in an amazing ball to Jordan Morris in the goalie box, but Morris hesitated for just a little too long, and his shot bounced off Stuver’s foot. In the next minute, Josh Atencio essentially replayed his chance from the first half over again – solid shot, barely wide. During this time, Pepo was still playing amazingly.

In the 62^nd minute, however, Pepo fell to the pitch clutching his leg. Although he was able to get up afterward and walk off the pitch, Schmetzer immediately took him out of the game and sent in Raúl. Schmetzer said postgame that the prognosis won’t come out until March 5 after Pedro gets an MRI, but for now I am hoping that he’s fine.

Raúl, for his part, looked like his old self again. Though he didn’t score a goal, he was very quick and aggressive. He took a total of three shots during his third of the game. The first was a solid shot in the 65^th that was slightly wide. The second was his best chance – in the 92^nd, he took a pass from Josh on the edge of the goalie box and struck a laser, but it hit the crossbar and bounced away. Later in stoppage, he took another shot, but it bounced off a defender and behind the line for a corner.

Contrast that to starting striker Jordan Morris, who had been off all night. This continued in the second half, as in the 64^th, Chú sent in a beautiful cross to the front for Jordan, but two Austin FC defenders were able to catch up with him as he tried to plough forward with the ball. I’ll just chalk it up to a bad night for Morris, but it’s concerning to see him start the year in bad form.

The half continued, with “close but no cigar” as a unifying theme. In the 77^th, Chú sent a cross to Atencio in the box, who belted a strong shot towards the goal – but Stuver dove and batted the ball away. Seattle had another injury scare, as Leo Chú went down in the 80^th minute after rattling off another strong shot that Stuver saved. However, unlike with Pepo, Schmetzer indicated postgame that it was just a cramp and that Chú will be fine. Still, he left the game, and afterwards, Seattle’s attack lost a lot of its energy after that.

Despite outshooting Austin FC 23-3, the Sounders split the points. 0-0 final.

Despite the game being frustrating and unfulfilling, one unambiguously bright spot is that Andrew Thomas, in his first game with the Sounders, racked up his first clean sheet. Now, he wasn’t under a whole lot of pressure – Austin’s attack oscillated between “absent” and “nothing” – but it’s still a great milestone for Thomas and a good thing for the team.

“As far as clean sheets go, that’s a pretty easy one,” Thomas said after the game.

When it comes to the lack of scoring, Schmetzer’s been answering this question for a while. He chalked it up to a lack of quality on the shots and crosses – in his view, the Sounders had a lot of chances, but not a lot of good ones.

“A lot of the shots were from outside, balls coming out, they had packed defenders off set pieces,” Schmetzer said. “Some of those crosses from deep in that corner are not very good. It’s what’s been plaguing us since last year.”

The game on Saturday was a disappointing tie against what was essentially a replacement-level team. But I still can’t help but be excited for this season. A Sounders side down JP, Frei, and Yeimar looked like a team last year that had those players. If Raúl continues to play well, and JP and Frei and Yeimar return, and Pepo isn’t injured, then we could be looking at a very strong unit. Seattle has a high ceiling in 2024.

The next game is on Saturday, March 9 against the Philadelphia Union.