With the calendar turning to the month of September a few shorts day ago, the pressure on all MLS clubs has gone up a notch. For some clubs, it’s about securing as high a playoff seed as possible. For other clubs, it’s about just managing to secure a playoff spot at all. Although the Sounders have unfortunately found themselves in the latter of these two groups, the boys in rave green went a long way in improving their fortunes last night when they rallied from a 1-0 deficit to beat the Houston Dynamo 2-1 at Lumen Field. To say that these three points were badly needed for Seattle would be an understatement, as the Sounders are fresh off a three-match run where they collected one total point and dropped leads in all three games. “It seemed like we were trying to find ways how to lose games. That three-game stretch where we only took a point, those were gut punches. Those were three hard games to try and come back from, but credit to the players in that locker room. They’re firmly committed to try and make sure that we make a run at this and see if we can sneak into the playoffs,” said Brian Schmetzer.
The first 25 minutes of the game were relatively evenly balanced, with neither team establishing a strong upper hand or generating legitimately dangerous goal-scoring opportunities. This changed in the 26th minute when Adalberto Carrasquilla fired a shot at goal that was deflected in by Daniel Steres to give the visitors the early lead after a corner kick was not properly cleared by the Sounders. Houston’s goal marked the 17th time in the last 22 matches that the Sounders have failed to maintain a clean sheet, with Seattle’s last shutout victory coming against FC Dallas over one month ago. Although the boys in rave green had been playing decently in most aspects of the game for the opening half, the Sounders found themselves down 1-0 at halftime, with only 45 minutes to make sure that they find a way to keep their playoff hopes alive.
The opening 10 minutes of the second half felt like a continuation of the end of the first half, with Seattle maintaining a lot of possession but not proving to be as potent on the attack. Although Albert Rusnák had been given the opportunity to start the game in his more natural position as a winger, that didn’t seem to be helping the Sounders in creating clear-cut chances on goal. But when Fredy Montero was brought on in the 56th minute, things seemed to change for the hosts. The boys in rave green finally broke through in the 59th minute when Houston was unable to properly clear the ball and Nouhou had a right-foot strike on Steve Clark’s net to level the game at 1-1 and send the home faithful into a frenzy with his first career goal. “The crowd has been waiting for some time for Nouhou to score a goal, so when it happened the place was pretty nuts,” said Schmetzer. Goals change games, and Nohou’s first career tally did not only change the game, but it might prove to be the turning point of Seattle’s regular season campaign when all is said and done on October 9th.
Fredy Montero made his presence known again in the 74th minute when he did well to navigate into Houston’s 18-yard box before being taken down to give his side the penalty kick opportunity. Although Nicolás Lodeiro’s shot was saved and his perfect penalty kick conversion rate over his years as a Sounder came to an end, the home side did not lose sight or hope of the final 15 minutes of the contest. “Nico missing the penalty, he never misses. That could have been something that brought the team down, but credit to the rest of the team for believing that they could score another goal, and they did,” said Schmetzer. Seattle got the go-ahead goal in the 76th minute when Nouhou whipped in a beautiful ball from the left-hand side and Fredy Montero had positioned himself well to head it into the back of the net and give the Sounders the 2-1 lead.
Although Nouhou will be viewed as the man of the match in the minds of most fans due to his first career goal and game-winning assist, Brian Schmetzer does not want to lose sight of Fredy Montero’s significant contributions on Sunday night. “There are people that might think that he (Montero) is past his prime, but he scored a lot of important goals for the club over the years, and tonight was one of those vintage performances,” said Schmetzer. “As soon as he got on the field, I think the game changed. He was very, very good tonight.” Seattle’s manager was also highly complimentary of his center-midfielder duo of the youngsters Danny Leyva and Josh Atencio. With the two players competing for minutes and playing opportunities in the absence of Obed Vargas, it was certainly a different feeling to see them both start the match together. “There was a little bit of risk there playing two young players in the middle of the park. Danny over the course of the last 5-6 games has grown a little bit in his confidence. But I thought Josh was tremendous tonight. I thought he was very good from his first couple of sequences, his movement was good, his passing was good, so you could tell he was excited to play. So all around very good performance by both of them,” said Schmetzer.
At the end of the night, the Sounders got the most important thing, which was three points to keep their playoff hopes alive. Although Seattle is still six points below the playoff line, they do have one game in hand over the current 7th place club, which is the Portland Timbers. Ever since Brian Schmetzer took over as head coach in the summer of 2016, the boys in rave green have made a reputation for themselves as being a squad that seemingly always finds a way to go on a run late in the season to secure themselves a spot in the postseason and set themselves up for success in the playoffs. Although that process has taken noticeably longer this season, the Sounders are still alive and certainly in the hunt for a playoff spot. But with their next game against one of the best clubs in all of MLS this year, Seattle will have to make sure that Sunday night’s momentum carries over and translates into success when they face Austin FC at home next weekend, and Brian Schmetzer is well aware of that. “They’re going to be happy (after tonight’s win), but when we come back for training, they will be resilient, we’ll work hard, we’ll work smart, and try and get a game plan for a team that’s ahead of us in the standings. We need to collect more points, especially at home.”
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