Missing starters, officiating were no excuse for Sounders’ latest loss

Nearly all the positivity shown by Seattle in its performance last week against Philadelphia was gone by the time the final whistle blew in Saturday night’s 3-1 loss to Colorado. The Sounders, whose attacking prowess has been underwhelming this season even with the team at full strength, went into the match without likely starters Clint Dempsey and Nelson Valdez. Colorado, on the other hand, has been flying high all season, even before Jermaine Jones and Kevin Doyle entered the picture.

Even though the Sounders’ attack had been improving in recent weeks, their defense had been rock solid for most of the season. I figured that, if anything, this match would be tightly contested and could even end with a 0-0 result. But the Sounders’ defense was in utter shambles, cemented by Brad Evans’ extremely stupid dismissal right before the final whistle. Evans and Chad Marshall erred badly in allowing Jones to score Colorado’s first goal, and they were exposed by Luis Solignac’s goal. Stefan Frei, who didn’t have the best of nights overall, did well to save Shkëlzen Gashi’s penalty in the second half. It should be noted that the actual penalty decision was rather harsh and was the type of call rarely made. Doyle’s goal was later shown to be egregiously offside, which was what had upset Evans so much that he admittedly used some harsh language with the referee.

The Sounders and Evans have a right to be upset with the referee and his crew for that call, but it shouldn’t cover up what was a downright horrible performance by the Sounders. It’s hard to believe that a team that had been pretty solid just a week ago looked so poor in this match. Andreas Ivanschitz, even before he was substituted in the 50th minute with an apparent hamstring issue, created zero chances and completed the same number of crosses in three attempts. Cristian Roldan and Oalex Anderson each created two chances, and only two other Sounders even recorded a single chance created in the match. Just like they have been many times this season, the Sounders were simply out of ideas way too often.

Many people are pointing to the late scratches of Dempsey and Valdez as reasons why the Sounders were so poor in attack, but this is grasping at straws. Valdez has zero goals despite starting in four matches and coming off the bench in another. Dempsey has one goal on the season but has looked lost in a number of matches. Herculez Gomez and Anderson weren’t much better on the day, but they looked about as dangerous as Valdez and Dempsey have all season. Gomez had one of the few solid opportunities for the Sounders early on, and Anderson created more chances than Valdez has all season.

My point is, presumed starters or not, the Sounders simply don’t have a potent attack right now. It starts with lack of creativity on the pitch. Ivanschitz seemed like he had finally come into his game against Philadelphia, but on Saturday he again looked toothless and unlikely to change the game. If the Sounders want to get any sort of handle on their season, Ivanschitz will need to step up his game or the club needs to sign a new creative player before the first window closes.

The one bright spot in Seattle’s game was rookie Jordan Morris. I asked this week if the floodgates had opened for Morris after he broke his scoring duck against the Union, and the young forward answered with his well-taken goal that gave Seattle a little bit of brief hope. Aside from his goal, Morris had a pretty solid match, but it just wasn’t enough to produce any more. He’s not at the point where he can be expected the rescue his team and bag a hat trick in a given match just yet, and the Sounders need to support him well while he still finds his feet as a professional.

It’s hard to even come up with any suggestions for the Sounders. They simply need to be better than they were against Colorado in every area of the pitch. The Rapids are a good team right now, much to everyone’s surprise. They sit at second place in the Western Conference just below FC Dallas, while the Sounders are second-to-last in the conference, barely above the Houston Dynamo at the bottom. The Sounders were beat well by a good team, and reducing it to such a statement admits that they are not a good team. Luckily for the Sounders, Major League Soccer is a long slog and they have time to figure things out. But if the ship isn’t righted soon, Seattle could miss the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time in franchise history.