Challenges never end for Sounders FC
Aug 23, 2011, 8:43 AM | Updated: 9:52 am
By Sigi Schmid
Special to 710Sports.com
The travel continues as we go from Dallas to Monterrey, Mexico. However, travel is a lot easier when coming off of wins. The win in Seattle in our first CCL game was a great start to our group play.
Beating Dallas and moving into second place was a high priority for our team. It was hard work and we could have made the game easier on ourselves. After the game I tried to explain what happens in certain games when you are trying to change your team’s mentality.
We scored a good counter-attack goal to take a 1-0 lead. After that goal we allowed ourselves to drop back and we absorbed a lot of pressure. We started the second half the same way, and even when Cruz from Dallas got red carded it was hard to change our approach. The team had settled into a style. As a coach you want to change it and get more possession and put the pressure on them. But Dallas was motivated and kept the pressure on us. Our defense held solid and we won.
Back on Tuesday in Seattle we were the team that was a man down and scored three goals due to our attacking mentality. Different games and different performances. Isn’t soccer beautiful?
Now we play Monterrey, the defending CCL champs, and then home to the East leaders, Columbus, and then a U.S. Open Cup game. The challenges never end. We need to manage our players and give rest to some of our players in Mexico. We want to get a good result, but we also want to continue to get points in MLS and get to another Open Cup final. Player management over this next week will be very important. See you Saturday.
Take care
Sigi