Anyway you look at the game Saturday afternoon in Seattle against the Chicago Dive, this should've been a win and 3 points at home. The Rave Green created many good opportunities, including 2 crossbar-clangers, 2 goal-line clearances and a point-blank shot on goal, following a Nate Jacqua header that should've scored (and probably would've on any other day). And yet, the result was the club's first scoreless draw in its history.
I can't say the Sounders dominated this game, but they controlled it. We worked the ball down both sides of the field, throughout, and maintained a pretty consistent level of posession. Like Tuesday's cup game, it seemed that we just couldn't buy a goal. Chance after chance came up just wide, just over, or saved one way or another. And yet, after Tuesday, I had confidence that we were going to score.
Nate Jacqua continued his hard work up front. Though, he ended up shooting blanks, I felt he had a good game. He was denied by some good goalkeeping. He did a lot of little things off the ball (he was first to the ball to clear a dangerous corner in the dying minutes) and he did a good job posessing the ball and linking with Montero and the midfield.
Steve Zakuani's speed caused the Chicago defense trouble all game long. Unfortunately, when he did get into shooting position, his shots were pretty tame. Maybe he's tired after three games in a week, but we need better shots from #11.
Alonso. It's great to have him back. Watching him rip posession from guys twice his size is just a treat.
Freddy Ljungberg had a solid game, but loses 2 points in my book: one for shooting straight at the keeper when the goal was there for the taking (Arsenal men have to do better than that), and secondly for getting ejected from the game. Yes, the ref was an asshole, but Freddy put us in a hole just minutes after we'd gotten a man advantage. Just walk away, Freddy. Yes, there is injustice in getting carded for a dive, while Cuahtemoc Blanco is treating the pitch like an Olympic-sized dive pool, but Freddy did dive, and not very convincingly.
There were some strange substitutions. LeToux for Zakuani. I felt Zak still had energy. Taking him off, just subbed speed for speed. Better to take off Montero, who largely wasn't involved (at least productively) after the 80th minute. Taking Jacqua off with a few minutes left also seemed odd. He was the only striker working hard at that point and he's proved he has the grittiness to grind away for 90 minutes until he scores. That, and with a man down, his height in the box was important in defending set pieces.
Tyrone Marshall did not play and I think that hurt us. Jhon Kennedy Hurtado has been inconsistent in recent games, particularly in marking runners up the middle of the box. Marshall seems to have better anticipation, and I think he pairs more effectively with Patrick Ianni.
And now, the ref. Disappointingly, I have seen some of the worst refereeing in my life in this first MLS season of the Sounders. Inconsistency, inability to control a game, unwillingness to prevent the diving and stalling tactics that suck the entertainment and enjoyment out of a match, and complete lack of concept of how to manage a game. Referee Baldomero Toro was all these things and more. Not once did he caution Chicago for their consistent, repeated diving, stalling the play on Sounders free kicks, or their own re-starts. Every kick Blanco is standing right in front of the ball. In 70 percent (I guesstimate) of the plays in which Blanco is challenged by a Sounders defender, he falls. Coincidence? Old age? Come on!
And then he awards Chicago a golden free kick outside the 18 in the final minutes of the first half off a horrible dive by Blanco (knocked off both feet by an inconsequential touch by a Sounders defender). When Freddy tries to get the same (and yes, it was a dive, but its consistency I'm on about here), he's carded and ultimately ejected.
Toro made some correct calls, but never in any consistency to amount to game management. And what's with the halftime conference with Blanco? That didn't look good at all.
And here's another problem with the MLS. While the game was exciting, the last 5 minutes were frustating and boring because of the time-wasting antics of Chicago. Seattle wanted to get on with it and try to score, but we had another plethora of on-field "injuries." As a fan, I find this really disappointing and un-entertaining. There are few teams in the MLS that play with the attacking style of the Sounders. Too many of them play the plodding, grind-it-out style. Throw the time-wasting antics in and you've got a problem for a league trying to build a fan base.
In England it's ok to be a Bolton or a Tottenham. You don't have to be exciting or particularly good because you've got decades of tradition and football's supremacy as a professional sport. In the MLS, you have a nation to conquer. They're not going to do it by asking people to pay $50 a seat to watch a bunch of men rolling around on the ground as the stretcher parade runs off the sidelines and back.
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