Who: Seattle Sounders v. FC Dallas Where: Frisco, TX When: Sunday, 4:30 pm Watch: FS1 Well, all we need is a draw so that's good. Although, I'm not holding my breathe for an Alonso or Evans return. I think we are probably going to need Martins and Dempsey to carry us for this game to advance.
Saw that coming, can't bunker for 90 minutes without Dallas scoring on you. Attack is sometimes the best defence
THAT. I though Sounders look scarier in on offense in the first half. Dallas in the second. Dallas through the OT. Frei looked lost out there on the PKs... acharacteristic of him.
Out coached Out played Out conditioned Out trained Out classed Out just out. Seriously where the hell was the urgency? Dallas deserved this way more than we did. I have come around on Frei, but I never want to see him face a PK again. He was awful, but we should have never put him in that position to begin with. Dallas will be good for a long time coming.
We should have never bunkered. We didn't have the legs to go 30 extra minutes and we simply have always stunk at penalties.
I honestly don't understand Sigi at playoff time. He always seems to go bunker in the away leg and irmt invariably comes back to bite us in the ass. He needs to stock with what got us to the playoffs...
Well hard to stick with what got ya there when they are not on the bench. We did not bunker in the first leg and the start of the 2nd leg we did not either but it was obvious we had dead legs and Dallas pounced. That said that is Sigis MO to bunker. Why I hate the 2 leg series. The bigger question to me for the offseason is why do we always have guys with hamstring issues? This has been going on really since year one. I wonder if Sigi will resign to focus on his health. He does look slimmer. If Sigi does leave I have no problem with Kreis should we be able to sign him.
I don't know whether the Sounders' cluster of hamstring and groin injuries this year, or the rate since 2009, is really anomalous in the league once you control for confounding factors (player age, playing time, maybe even travel hours), but I do hope the ownership is paying someone to run those numbers. The Sounders have a reputation as a first-class operation from a training and sports medicine perspective - at least in terms of the money spent on facilities and staff - but to this uninformed observer it sure does seem like this money is not buying healthy performers.
On the Bright side... 90th minute Marshall brings down a header that appears to have put the Sounders through. Despite the second half being largely Dallas's game, the Sounders were 5 minutes away from the next round.
Another thought...would this have been a different game with Alonso, Evans, Gonzalez and Torres available?
Maybe. Some real wingers with speed would have been more of a difference. For us a "fast break" is Oba dropping deep and knocking it forward to himself. Also would have made us less vulnerable to their speed. Our best chance on penalties is to have Evans take all five. That's not really something we can worry about, though, in building for the future.
So with an article like this already appearing, the question becomes how much discussion was had at the end of last year, and what benchmarks were given to Sigi this season. How much do the various injury and suspensions buy him? With Lagerway on board, and Kreis perhaps unexpectedly available do we see a move in that direction (for better or worse). Is Schmetzer given the chance instead? I would think he is to much a part of the current staff to be given a fair chance, so where then does he land?
I noticed that as well. I was wondering if it was just my faulty memory, so I'm glad you noticed as well. I think the USMNT is a bigger issue. Dempsey and Evans both fell injured soon after their time with Klinsmann. I'm wondering about that technology they use to measure a player's health. I can't help but think they are sending players back in a bit too soon.
Can we really blame Klinsmann? Surely if they were feeling tightness in their muscles they just had to let him kn.... actually, never mind...
It could be if the players are not wearing the proper footwear for the surface. Alonso was not right all season, hard to say who really pushed for him to be back each time, but clearly he was not quite ready at any point. Here is hoping he comes back in better shape in 2016. Evans is really hard to say it could have just been one of those tweaks that happens, it could have the surface, it could have been the conditions, it could be the conditioning, or most likely a combination of all of the above. Yes he does look trimmed a bit, which is great for him. The message he is giving about wanting to comeback could easily turn into I really want to comeback but need to put my health first so I am stepping away for now.
I feel the Sounders are a record that keeps spinning the same beat year after year. Something has to change.