Sounders Commit Self-Destruction at Toronto

Poor, poor showing from Seattle Sounders as they lose on the road 2-0 to the Toronto Argonauts. Defensive mistakes were the order of the day as De Rosario capitalized on an uncharacteristic mistake from Alonso, who decided it was better to try to juke the 2-time league MVP in the box than to just clear the damn ball. Turned out to be the wrong choice. Former Argonaut player Tyrone Marshall committed the other Sounder assist laying the ball off to the opponents in the middle of the field. With Marshall and most of the other Sounders committed forward, the second goal was an easy order for DeRosario and the goal scorer O'Brian White.

While the Sounders had plenty of posession, they had very little to show for it. They got shots off, but I don't believe the Argonaut keeper really had to make a save. And when they went down a goal, they never looked to me as if they were confident in finding the equalizer. The team's poor offensive production from the end of 2009 has carried over to the new season and seemingly deepened. I think Sigi has got a definite crisis on his hands.

I liked the formation the Sounders started with, primarily because it kept Montero off the field, and because it kept Evans out of the midfield where he is most dangerous...to the Sounders. Nyassi, I thought showed energy and pace and should get more minutes. Evans is so clearly not a striker, however, he was also better in the position than Noonan, Levesque and Montero have shown themselves to be. Put him out there again, I say.

Tyson Wahl was a major disappointment for me. Is there a worse fullback in the league for distributing the ball? Twice in a row, late in the game he struck the ball directly into a Toronto player, squelching whatever attack might have been building. He had plenty of other giveaways during the game. Combine that with his almost complete lack of attacking instinct and you have a wasted piece of real estate when he's in.

Nathan Sturgis looked a lot like Freddie Ljungberg...at least he must've to the TFC players; they fouled him like he was Ljungberg. They hamered the poor kid so hard that when he was subbed off in the 72nd minute I was happy to see him get to the safety of the bench. Other than that, he didn't do much to either impress or otherwise.

Overall, I am pretty concerned about the state of things. The Sounders look like an expansion team this year. If they don't start turning things around, they're going to find themselves buried deep down the table with a long ways back to the top.