Seattle Sounders FC: 3 Takeaways From Eventful Second Leg in Dallas
By Paul Taylor
1) Early life for FC Dallas
When breaking down some of the keys to the second leg, the first thing we wrote about was not giving the Toros’ any glimpse of hope. In other words, don’t let them score an early goal.
Now in fairness to the Sounders, conceding in the 25th minute isn’t technically early in the game. Regardless, Tesho Akindele strike did give the hosts some belief that they could do the near impossible, and come back from the three-goal deficit created during the first leg.
Unsurprisingly, this lead to a siege on the Sounders’ goal the rest of the way. As head coach Brian Schmetzer told The Seattle Times‘ Matt Pentz afterwards: “It wasn’t really ebb and flow – it was more of one-way traffic. We were really under the gun.”
However, the Seattle defense deserves credit for not collapsing under the strain, despite the unrelenting pressure. Yes, they allowed a second goal 11 minutes into the second half, but by that point, FC Dallas still needed to score three more to avoid elimination.