Sounders FC: Princes of Tied
Courtesy: VeryBadLady, from our Flickr pool
A tie, the saying goes, is like kissing your sister. So adept at kissing their sister the Sounders have become that the MLS might well consider moving the team to Mississippi.
Thursday night's 0-0 result against the Houston Dynamo was Seattle's 12th draw this season, but by far the worst. A physical, bloody, frustrating match that gave Sounders fans a Ljungberg-sized migraine, and now forces the team to win on Texas turf November 8 to stay alive.
Seattlest watched from New York City at an East Village bar called Nevada Smith's, which despite its reputation as the city's premiere soccer pub, had Game 2 of the World Series on 14 of its 15 TVs. We huddled intently in front of the rogue soccer TV along with two other Sounders supporters, a blip of Rave Green among the pin-striped ruckus. We also found a lone, bright orange Houston fan who we adopted into our pod because we are good, nice Seattleites, and not at all because she was sort of cute.
Back to the tie though, which Times' columnist Steve Kelley accurately describes as more of a loss. With three straight wins leading into the game, another revved-up record crowd at their backs, and an opponent they'd beaten twice before, the Sounders should have won.
Yes, the officials made some questionable calls--the biggest one a foul called back at midfield that negated a Sounders goal. Head referee Ricardo Salazar might've missed Day 2 of referee school when they teach what "advantage" means.
But the Sounders had their scoring chances, with one shot cleared just before crossing the end line, and another glancing off the crossbar. With 14 shots total and nine corner kicks on the night, you'd hope at least one makes it into the back of the net.
Head Coach Sigi Schmid downplayed the tie, saying, "You always want to win at home. Don't look at it as a missed opportunity. We played the first half of this series and didn't get a goal. We have to get a goal in the second half of the series now."
Somehow the Sounders need to shake off Thursday's inability to finish and find those clutch goals that won each of their final three regular season games. And they have to do it in Houston, where the Dynamo have but one loss, the impermeability of their net kicked up a notch.
So good news, we just watched the last Sounders tie of the season. They have nine days to wash the taste of sister-mouth away.
From here on, it's win--or let someone else claim the MLS Cup on the Xbox pitch.
Filed in News and tagged Soccer, Sounders FC, Sports
12th draw? My god. Do Sounders fans have a collective case of blue balls?
i heard there was a fight in the stands--so at least somebody won something!
Houston only has two less draws than Seattle, they have won 1 and lost 1 game instead.
There has been a lot of smack-talking about our team by the local media (typical Seattle), but the Sounders have played a hell of a season. We clearly led last night's game and will follow through next week!
GO SOUNDERS!!!!!!!!!!!