In A Galaxy of Their Own: Seattle Sounders FC 0 – L.A. Galaxy 4 (5-8-10)

by Brian Anderson – @blyan – blyan@me.com

No, the title does not refer to the domination displayed this season by the Los Angeles Galaxy. Yesterday, the Seattle Sounders FC seemed as if they were mentally on a completely different planet, and not in a good way. Absolutely awful performances pretty much across the board let the Galaxy essentially walk to what was probably their easiest and most convincing victory of the season (and equaled the Sounders worst regular season loss in team history). The defense looked lazy, the midfield looked apathetic, the forwards were seemingly nowhere to be found, and even Keller looked lackadaisical in goal. I really have no explanation whatsoever for what happened. The crowd were silenced and stunned, save for a few spells of loud booing at the referees. Unfortunately, even the refs can’t take credit for the dismal performance put in by nearly every player on the pitch wearing the rave green. I think that the fan leaving the stadium next to me put it best in saying: “Someone needs to put out a missing persons report for the brains and hearts of our players today.” To be put simply: yesterday’s game was absolutely inexcusable and the fans of Seattle expect more.

That is of course not to say that the Galaxy didn’t deserve to win the game. Both Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle had stellar (no pun intended) performances, with Donovan notching a goal — his first of the season — and three assists. Both teams actually looked fairly even until the 22nd minute when Jovan Kirovski received a pass from Donovan and knocked a weak shot towards Keller, directly at his hands, who somehow let it through for the first goal of the game. Although this caused a bit of concern among the fans, things still seemed to be under control, and most of us chalked it up to an unlucky mistake. Even Kasey makes an occasional error. The slight concern quickly turned into a queasy feeling of a day going horribly wrong when Osvaldo Alonso, who up until that point had been by far the most offensively dangerous Sounder, went down injured and called for a substitution in the 35th minute. He was taken off to the sidelines and eventually subbed off in favor of Nathan Sturgis. It was later disclosed that Alonso suffered from a right quad strain.

The rest of the half was more of the same, over-passing by the Sounders, an absurd amount of offsides calls, and absolute ineffectiveness in just about every aspect of the game. Despite being down by a goal, the halftime statistics were actually even in many categories between the two teams. I won’t even bother with a recap of the remainder of the game, because we all know what happened. Absolute dominance from the visitors in combination with probably the worst defensive and offensive performance the Sounders have ever given ended in a 4-0 loss. There was, however, one or two really bright moments for the Sounders and their fans. In the 58th minute, Miguel Montaño was substituted on for fellow countryman Fredy Montero, making his first ever appearance in MLS at only 18 years of age, after his work permit finally cleared and he officially signed his Sounders contract on April 30th. Although the Galaxy did score another goal after his entrance, Seattle looked a much different team offensively and actually looked like they might score for the first time in the match. Montaño has great vision, excellent footwork, and even better speed down the wings, all of which contributed to his creation of several Sounders scoring chances. To help aid in the young speedy winger department, Sanna Nyassi was subbed on in the 70th minute to play opposite Montaño on the right wing. Both of them looked dangerous, creative, and actually tried to put the ball in the net. I’m not sure if it was part of the game plan or if players were just trying to be too cutesy and unselfish, but nearly every scoring chance that was created went by the wayside because of overpassing in the offensive third.

Sounders coach Sigi Schmid addressed this topic in his post-game press conference, noting that some players put in unacceptable performances and that changes would be made for the match next weekend away at New York. Being nothing more than a fervent supporter and occasional blogger, I obviously have no say in the matter but if I did, here’s what our lineup next week would look like:

Fucito – Montaño
Levesque – Alonso – Vagenas – Nyassi
Gonzalez – Ianni – Hurtado – Riley
Boss

I realize that this would be a fairly drastic change to the usual lineup and may not help out for this game in particular, but Sigi needs to send a message to Zakuani, Ljungberg, and Montero that their performances this weekend were absolutely 100% unacceptable as professional footballers. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not about to jump off the Sounders bandwagon in favor of greener pastures, nor will I ever. The reason we as Seattle fans are so critical (despite the fact that we now have no mens sports teams in Seattle that have ever won a major championship) are because we love them and want them to succeed. I’d love nothing more than to see our stars shine and get back into their top form, but sometimes a message needs to be sent, and this certainly seems like one of those times. The changes however, do not only reflect poor performances by some of the players who are supposed to be providing goals, but also a reward for some of the lesser known substitutes that have looked great so far this season. Fucito, despite playing in only a couple games due to injury, has looked absolutely spectacular (see: article on the game against Kansas City). Nyassi has looked dangerous, quick, and infinitely more confident that he did at any point last season. Montaño, as highlighted earlier, was one of the very few bright spots from yesterday’s embarrassing loss against Los Angeles. The Boss for Keller change is much less to punish Kasey and much more to just give him a week of rest and clear his mind, giving Terry a chance to redeem an unlucky performance against Dallas in which he was called in cold halfway through the game and asked to save a stoppage time penalty against last year’s golden boot winner, Cunningham. In short: Seattle Sounders, we still love you very much, but you need to wake up your stars and make some changes, because you should be dominating this league with the roster you have (aside from maybe the Galaxy, who really do have star quality and team effectiveness at nearly every position). We expect better. If you’re in the Tacoma area and you’d like to join us for the game next week, myself and members of Gorilla FC and Immortal Fury will be at Meconi’s on Pacific Ave at 4:30pm Saturday to watch a re-invigorated Seattle Sounders FC take on RBNY.