Sounders Lose in Puzzling Result

The Sounders lost a head-scratcher last night to the Colorado Rapids at home despite dominating most statistical categories.

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The Sounders lost again last night in a game they had multiple opportunities to put their opponent away. Fans have a right to be frustrated, the Sounders dominated the Rapids in almost all statistical categories. They possessed the ball 66% of the game, they out-shot Pablo Mastroeni’s team 17-9, and they sent 16 crosses into the box compared to Colorado’s one.

One of the two corner kicks the Rapids achieved produced their only shot on goal and the only score of the game, a 43-minute header by defender Axel Sjoberg. The result was the Sounders getting shut out for the third time this season. They remain in last place in the Western Conference in goals, with four less than the next-highest team.

As some of you know, I wrote an article here on ECS entitled, “The Sounders Offense is Just Warming Up“; the Sounders haven’t scored since. I will never jinx them like that again I promise, (unless you think a reverse-jinx will work). But if you watched last night’s game, you would have witnessed one of the best performances by Clint Dempsey this season. He missed two close chances, one a header pushed off course at the last second by the Rapids’ Marc Burch. However, for all their bluster, the Sounders couldn’t complete after creating dangerous chances for themselves. Again.

Sigi Schmid had the usual coachspeak after the game:

It’s tough to say [the issue is] this one thing. Experience for some of our players helps, because it makes you a little bit cooler, a little bit more deadly in key situations. At the end of the day, we did a lot of our training this past week, we put them in front of goal as much as we could.

Dempsey has plenty of experience putting goals away but it didn’t seem to help him and the Sounders last night.

Next: Can the Sounders Shake off Their Road Woes?

The Copa America is coming up soon next month, and both Dempsey and Nelson Valdez (who missed the Rapids game with an injury) will miss at least two games participating for their respective national teams. However, Jordan Morris and Brad Evans, who were both in the running for the US Men’s Team roster, were left off of the final 23 for the competition. The Sounders will make their annual East Coast swing starting next Saturday against the New England Revolution.