Sounders @ Portland 4/5/14 (P/I/P)

Kah could be out as well if the DisCo suspends him.

 

That's too bad, he's often a red card waiting to happen (although him not playing does reduce the risk of injury to our guys).

 

I missed it, what did Kah do? It seems to me that Kah could get a suspension after every game he plays in, so I'm curious as to what might actually get him one.

Also, Portland said that they will be appealing Harrington's red card, so depending on how that appeal goes, he might be in the game.

 

Looks like Kah won't be suspended which is a joke as there were 3 studs up tackles this past weekend only one is getting suspended due to red card

 

Tough game. I think being a rivalry game at home Portland wakes up unfortunately. 3-1 to the bad guys. Here is to hoping I'm wrong.

 

I'm not sure what to make of this game.. Portland's defense has been rather bad this year and being without Harrington and Ricketts is going to hurt them further. That being said, Portland's offense is better than it has been performing this season and it wouldn't surprise me if they use a rivalry game to motivate them to playing better than they have.

That's not even taking into account the lack of finishing quality for the Sounders.. We had easily our best half of the season last week and we created a ton of chances, but were only able to get the ball into the net one time. We also showed that despite the complete overhaul, our mental lapses on defense that plagued us last season are still there this season.

 

Harrington is playing saturday. His red card got tossed.

 

So I tuned in to see how Dempsey looks for his club. I have to say Im wondering where it all went? Yes he scored a goal, but mostly because somebody forgot to pick him up but other than that, he looks slow, uninspired and generally out of it. The pace of this game is too much for him and it makes me worried about the WC this summer.

I will go further... Cooper is outplaying him bigtime. Cooper looks more the NAT quality player than Dempsey.

Anybody know if he's hurt? Something isnt right

 

And this is why i dislike the 4-3-3. Its fine and dandy when you keep possession of the ball.

 

Wow who had that happening 4-4 with all action all 90mins

 

Cooper had a great first half. He was a one man band out there. Left, Right, hustling back on defense. He was all over the place.

Defense was the sloppiest I have seen them this season. Whatever Traore faults may be, I do think he brings leadership and some calm to the back line. The Timbers had Yeldin for lunch in the first half, glad is was somewhat able to redeem himself in the second and Leo looked about a half a pace behind for most of the game.

I need to go back a rewatch, but why was there no foul called when Urruti plowed through Anibaba from behind to get the ball on the Timbers fourth goal? I thought Portland's second half goals were gifts from the Sounders defense....way too much space and time. I liked what I saw from Neagle on the right, spreading the play, created a couple of nice opportunities. Unlucky for Martins on several occasions but I thought he did a good job drawing the defense and distributing (ala dempsey first goal).

Just looking at the Stats, I would say not a bad game, Outshot, outpossessed, outpassed the Timbers on their home turf... More importantly, did not fold when it seemed all was lost.
GO SOUNDERS!

 

That is it could have turned out a lot worse.

 

Dempsey looked pretty damn good from about the 70' mark on.
I like that he's playing the same role for Seattle that he'll more than likely be playing for the U.S.

 

Yedlin was left exposed all game neither cooper or azira were giving him any help on the overlapping run of Harrington. That said Nagbe was spun him into the ground several times. Anibaba was just awful. Ozzies love push spoke volumes! I though Clint had his best game playing off Martin very well plus I thought was showing leadership by keeping his cool. Love to know what he and yedlin were chatting about at half. Cooper was very good on the attack. Pineda was not playing fast enough leading to several bad turnovers. Pappa was decent in his minutes. Neagle brought some pace which was needed and it allowed to us play wider.

 

How did Yedlin look in the 1st half?

 

Overmatched.

 

Happy we got a draw at the end but honestly for a good majority of the match the Sounders were playing their worst match of the season. Dempsey and the team stepped up big when it really mattered to salvage the afternoon but man did they look bad for a good chunk of play.

Anibaba was terrible! Would much rather have Traore out there. Azira and Pineda were dismal as well.

Can't say it wasn't an exciting match though that's for sure!

 

If Seattle started more of a 4-2-3-1 like they did in the second half against them the game would been much different.

 

4-3-3 was the issue against portland.

 

I agree to the extent that you can only play that system when you have the right players, and we don't. I understood Sigi's decision to play that system against Montreal bc we didn't have Dempsey, Evans, and in a way Pappa is not "there" yet. Looking at the players we had available back then it made sense. It made zero sense today, and I really hope he's not falling in love with that horrendous system.
The bad: Yedlin's 1st half. Frei doesn't inspire any confidence. Anibaba was a disaster, a disaster helped by the fact that ahead of him there was a headless chicken named Azira running all over the place, doing nothing productive other than fouling. Pineda was terrible today, and that was two out of three in our midfield. No wonder Chara did what he did.
1st or 2nd touch by Pappa from the right side and he turns it over in a dangerous situation. He looked less of a liability when he played on the left side, and Neagle on the right. Please keep it that way if we're gonna make him play at all. Obafemi needs to put himself more in scoring situations and on a header...aim down for Christ sake.
The good: Cooper for being consistently good, and in the right place. Neagle for making that final push with his fresh legs. He looked like he knew what he was doing, unlike the rest of our midfielders, and finally Dempsey for playing the entire game after playing on Wednesday for the NT, scoring a hattrick, and being a leader by example regardless of the fact that his game is not the best at the moment.

 

We roster wise do have the right players for the 4-3-3 though of course just replace ariza with Evans once evans is healthy.

Trouble is 4-3-3 just doesn't work against the team like Portland. Azira is a rookie and he's only started cause Evans and Rose are out hurt.

Pappa is a Left sided player not right. Evans plays on the right.

You can't blame Yedlin for having a bad first have cause he wasn't geting any help and that should change once evans is back.

Seattle will be going away form a 4-3-3 once Evans is back starting.

 

Courious on how you see that. It still leaves Yedlin very exposed.