It is not uncommon for a team\u2019s goals to shift throughout the season. Everyone, for instance, will at least pay lip service to the idea that they want to win MLS Cup at the beginning of the season. Once results start coming in, maybe just making the playoffs is enough. So it goes.<\/p>\n
For the Seattle Sounders, the season started out with open talk of trying to win the Supporters\u2019 Shield. After a 6\u20131\u20131 start that left them just two points off the pace, Shield talk became almost normalized.<\/p>\n
Following the Sounders\u2019 3\u20131 loss to 14th-place Austin FC on Wednesday, which left them with their first four-game losing streak since 2014, that talk feels like it may as well come from a different season entirely. Seattle’s record now stands at 7\u20135\u20133, just five points above the playoff line and 14 behind Shield-leading Nashville SC. <\/p>\n
The talk now is far less grandiose. The Sounders are just figuring out how to stop their slide.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith four losses in a row we may need to shift the focus to more result than performance,\u201d Sounders midfielder Albert Rusn\u00e1k said. \u201cI don\u2019t think any of us really give a shit how it happens, we just need to get a win. If we play ugly for 100 minutes, none of us care. At this moment, we need a result. That\u2019s the only way to get out of this hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the humiliating 5\u20131 loss to the Portland Timbers last Thursday, Paul Rothrock asked fans and media to judge he and his teammates on their reaction to the loss rather than the loss itself. He admitted that there was a lack of fight, competitiveness and energy in the Timbers loss. <\/p>\n
Rothrock didn\u2019t guarantee a win, but he felt those basics would be improved.<\/p>\n
By that admittedly low bar, Rothrock was pleased with the Austin performance. It obviously wasn\u2019t enough to change the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough a large part of the game I thought we responded well,\u201d he said, bristling at the idea that the two games were comparable beyond the lack of points. \u201cCollectively, the mentality was a lot better. I thought we were more aggressive, backed each other up, were more of a collective. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a tough stretch for us. Albert and I have been in stretches like this before, been in holes like this as a team and we\u2019ve found a way out year after year. I still have the confidence we\u2019ll find our way out of this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps feeding Rothrock’s mentality, the conditions in Austin were downright brutal. Temperatures at kickoff were close to 100 degrees and it was well into the 90s even when the game ended around 10:30 PM local time. Players were dripping in sweat almost as soon as they took the field.<\/p>\n
If the Sounders\u2019 spirit had really been broken, they likely would have folded after Austin FC took an early lead off a set piece. Instead, the Sounders came back and tied it on a goal from Rothrock. <\/p>\n
During that sequence, the early-season play of the Sounders seemed to be on display. Stuart Hawkins, making his first-ever MLS start, played a line-splitting ball to Peter Kingston, who found Snyder Brunell on a cutback pass. Brunell struck his shot well, but it caromed off the post and into the path of Rothrock, who went to his knees to guide the ball in at the goal line.<\/p>\n
Over the next 60 minutes or so \u2013 even as the conditions were visibly exacting their toll \u2014 the Sounders looked at least as likely to get a winner as Austin. Frustratingly, it was a mistake by one of the veterans who had only been on the field for less than 20 minutes that proved to be the gamebreaker. <\/p>\n
After controlling a clearance from Hawkins and pushing the ball to the sideline, Paul Arriola appeared to try to hit it off the defender. But Myrto Uzuni jumped over the ball, allowing it to go straight to Owen Wolff near the top of the penalty area. A couple of passes later Uzuni scored the goal. <\/p>\n
Just to add insult to injury, Jackson Ragen picked up a wholly unnecessary second yellow card and will miss at least the next game. With the score already 3\u20131, there was virtually no upside to committing the foul. Instead, another presumed veteran leader put his team in a deeper hole.<\/p>\n
Giving up a late game-winner in a match they\u2019d already suffered through was bad enough. That it came on such an avoidable mistake only made it worse, but was also indicative of the kind of plays the Sounders need to make to turn things around.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need everyone to do a little bit more,\u201d Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said. \u201cI\u2019m not putting any pressure on the senior guys that isn\u2019t unreasonable to their status on the group. I\u2019m trying to make sure I don\u2019t come on too hard to the younger guys who need a little more seasoning and coaching and arm around their shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team has too many senior players on it. I\u2019m not Pollyanic. I\u2019m reality-based. We\u2019ll look for solutions and continue to work. We can\u2019t shy away from the position we\u2019re in. We\u2019re going to address it, but we\u2019ll address it in a fashion where we give them some ideas and some confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal of winning the Supporters\u2019 Shield is all but over. That does not make the season lost. In MLS, there\u2019s always a chance to redeem a season. More than half of the regular season is still left to play and Leagues Cup is right around the corner.<\/p>\n
The Sounders will eventually get back some of the injured players who could have surely helped in a game like this. But significant reinforcements beyond that are far from a sure thing and this season feels like it\u2019s in danger of truly spiraling out of control. The math and schedule say there\u2019s lots of season left to play, but there will be real costs if results don\u2019t improve.<\/p>\n
Rothrock, ever the optimist, refuses to think like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t agree with that narrative; that\u2019s a fearful narrative,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, we\u2019ve lost four games in a row but it doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re going to keep losing. We\u2019ve struggled with these games, but the way we talk about the future is important, too. That\u2019s not going to be our narrative. <\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent guys have to step up. I\u2019ve talked to some of the younger guys, this is a time for them to step up it\u2019s an opportunity for them to start making some plays. We\u2019re going to need those guys. I encourage you to be surprised and open to some of the guys who step up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is not uncommon for a team\u2019s goals to shift throughout the season. Everyone, for instance, will at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-781113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}