Latest loss underscores Sounders’ issues on offense, need for help

For most of the season, or since the Sounders’ losing streak that kicked it off, coach Sigi Schmid has stressed that his team had been unlucky to lose despite playing pretty well. Things have ebbed and flowed for Seattle since, and Schmid has suggested at times that things were starting to even out for his team. But at this point, nearly halfway into the season, the lows have outnumbered the highs. For a variety of reasons, this team is simply not good enough.

Schmid said in training last week that his team would be working on finishing, that just getting players confident in front of goal could change things. But just as it was last week against the Red Bulls, the Sounders were not good enough in front of goal in their 2-0 loss to NYCFC on Saturday.

Jordan Morris, who was brimming with confidence when he was on his four-game scoring streak earlier this season, cuts the same dejected figure we saw in his first few matches as a professional.

Nelson Valdez, who came on as a substitute in the last two matches, hasn’t shown himself to be worth the hefty Designated Player contract he’s on. More troubling than his poor play is what his style of play signifies for the team’s style as a whole. Oddly enough, it even looked like the Sounders were playing the type of game that suited Valdez … before Valdez was on the pitch.

Goalkeeper Stefan Frei seemed instructed to punt the ball forward for Morris, hoping he’d latch onto it or manage a header to one of his wingers. The first few attacks after Valdez came on as a center forward were well-worked passing sequences from defense to midfield to attack. Joevin Jones was constantly crossing the ball in for Morris, but having him drop back to left-back when Valdez came on meant that he was putting in fewer crosses.

Brad Evans intimated in his post-match comments Saturday that there were members of the team that were okay with losing, and that they didn’t share Evans’ urgency and drive to turn the season around. The captain can only do so much to inspire his team, and it takes a change in dressing-room culture to create a winning mentality.

A solid signing could change this, but it needs to be someone who can take a match by the scruff of the neck and drag it towards victory. That is what players like Obafemi Martins did, what Clint Dempsey used to be able to do in his prime. But there isn’t a player like that on Seattle’s roster. Members of the front office have apparently been working hard to find that kind of player to sign in July. They have to think long and hard about whether or not the players they’re trying to acquire can have that impact on a match.

The bottom line is that the Sounders are not good enough in two areas related to scoring goals: finishing and confidence. The Sounders continue to completely miss easy chances on goal, which is having an effect on their confidence. Get those two in line and it will be much easier to get goals regularly. The first is physical – getting into a rhythm that makes scoring goals natural, like a second nature. Confidence is all about mentality, which is down to having players that lead with their words (like Evans) and with their play (which is the kind of signing they need).

The front office should keep this in mind and sign a player in the summer transfer window with the skills to change the team’s attacking mentality on the pitch.

Spenser Davis also covers the Sounders for Sounder at Heart.