San Jose Earthquakes vs. Sounders FC blog: love ‘em & hate ‘em

Sounders 0 – Earthquakes 1

The Seattle Sounders dropped their first game of this still fresh season on Saturday night on the XBOX Pitch at Century Link Field. The loss brings the Sounders record to 2-0-1.

During the first two games for the Sounders, they were able to score 5 goals, yet couldn’t manage a single one Saturday night.

Let’s hope this isn’t their form to come while suffering through all of the injuries the team has sustained so far this season. (The Sounders currently have six players out with injuries.)

If not for a weak penalty call, the Sounders could have managed a point in this match, but like I said earlier, the season is still fresh, and points will be hard to get in this ever improving MLS.

Love ‘em

Control of the game early

Despite the injuries to a couple of starters, the Sounders were able to control game play early. A thing they certainly lacked at the beginning of the Houston game the week before.

The defense seemed to be calm and collected, waiting for the exact moment when they had the Quakes drawn up, before they would send the ball forward.

Three games in, and we have seen three different offensive approaches so far from coach Sigi Schmid. Definitely a strong point for the Sounders, playing to their opponents strengths and weaknesses.

Christian Sivebaek

Sivebaek, wtih his best Mauro Rosales impersonation, played well in his first start for the Sounders. Not quite the same speed as Rosales, but his creativity on the ball is just as special.

He had a couple of good crosses, but just came up short from finding a head to put the ball in the net. To me, a good cross is just as exciting as a penalty kick, and to have a good supplier is key to this game.

Three games in, three different offensive approaches from Sigi Schmid. - (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

Sticky fingers

Once again, keeper Michael Gspurning was huge in net for the Sounders. I’m really beginning to love this signing by the Sounders. He has done everything right so far this season. Even his aggressiveness on the penalty kick was something to be proud of.

Hate ‘em

Early yellow

The early yellow card given to Osvaldo Alonso really took him out of his normal role of mid field aggressor. Alonso is the glue that keeps the mid field and defense together, and with him unable to defend aggressively, the Sounders were definitely lacking strength.

Lenhart’s theatrics

As mentioned before, if not for a weak penalty, the Sounders could have earned a point in this game. As San Jose forward Steven Lenhart was running through the box, he ran into Marc Burch, and immediately went into flailing convulsions trying to draw the penalty.

It worked, and the Quakes scored.

There is no replay in soccer, yet, and these kind of calls are part of the game. Some times they go the good guys way, others, like Saturday night, go to the foes.

It’s unfortunate to lose a game on such a bad call, but so is the way of the beautiful game.

Sounders look to bounce back next Saturday against the DC United at RFK stadium. Game is at 4:30 local time, and will be aired on KONG.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE SOUNDERS CLUBHOUSE AT NWSB!!

http://theflyingv.com/ Kevin Vanstone

Good call or bad call, it’s always tough to lose a game on penalties. Soccer needs to adapt with some sort of replay system ASAP.
Clinton

FIFA is finally looking into a goal line replay system, which will be good i think, but they currently do not look at penalty calls till after a game, which does no good to game play. If baseball can do it with fair or foul calls, then soccer should definitely be able to do it too. But it’s one of those things where they like to give all control of game play to the four officials. But yes I agree with you, soccer needs some sort of replay for both goal line calls, and for penalties. I know that a lot of refs won’t give a penalty like that particular one in the final minutes of a game if it will affect the outcome of a game, but within the first 30 minutes of a 0-0 game, it’s more likely to happen.
One day it will be improved I think, but until that happens, we will have to suffer through the bad calls, and rejoice the good ones I guess.
shanmatt72

The fact of the matter is, the “foul” was off the ball and had nothing to do with the play, the correct thing to have done was stop play, issue the card and continue. The fact that this ref called it a pk is embarrassing to the MLS and refs in general. Far too often the refs in the MLS make themselves a story in the match. In regards to the match, our backline was horrible, the offense lacked creativity because Rosales was not there to control the ball through the field. Montero was frustrated and lacked any pace which he does far too often when he gets upset.
- Clinton
  
  The back line was bad, but that has been the weak link so far this season I think. Gspurning has been amazing, and he has bailed the d out on more than one occasion. I was pleased with the offense though, there were a ton of chances to score, but we just couldn’t finish. Any time we can put the ball in the box for multiple scoring chanses, the offense is doing its job. Sure we will be better when Rosales is back, but until then, we have to make do. Scoring will always be tough, and it just so happened that we couldn’t put one through. It was a tough loss, that could’ve been a lot worse than it was.

San Jose Earthquakes vs. Sounders FC blog: love ‘em & hate ‘em