Seattle Sounders take down Austin FC in impressive fashion at home, postseason push continues for Seattle

After getting back to their winning ways with a 2-1 win against the Houston Dynamo over the Labor Day weekend, the Sounders played hosts to another Texan team last night, when second-place Austin FC came into town. A lot of questions were asked about if Seattle will be able to successfully build on the result that they earned last weekend against Houston, which was answered in the form of a resounding 3-0 victory this weekend against Austin. The Sounders have now strung back-to-back wins for the first time since May-June, after an incredibly poor run of form and results during the months of July and August, which Brian Schmetzer spoke to after the match. “It was a step forward. I think even when we were losing games, I thought there were moments in all of those games where we played some good soccer, but we just had mental lapses, some goals that we gave up that we shouldn’t have given up. But there were some good moments even when we were losing games. So this was a step forward in the sense that the team rewarded itself for the hard work that they do in training,” said Schmetzer.

The hosts set the tone early on in the game, when Xavier Arreaga played a long ball down the right wing to Morris, whose deflected cross found the feet of Nico Lodeiro, who laid a ball off to Raúl Ruidíaz for a point-blank strike to put the Sounders up by a goal in the 12th minute. Seattle would go on to double their lead in the 34th minute, when a long ball from Alex Roldan found Jordan Morris behind Austin FC’s backline before Morris unselfishly squared the ball away to Ruidíaz for the easy finish to put the home side up 2-0. Schmetzer and staff knew that Jordan Morris could be a huge factor for them in Saturday night’s contest. “We thought Jordan had a good match-up against their left-back. Before the game, we thought that was going to be one of the keys to the game and it was true,” said Schmetzer. Seattle’s boss went on to elaborate on what the coaching staff has done recently with Morris in training sessions. “His movement on that right-hand side was a work in progress and we worked on some movements in the final third to get Jordan in behind more effectively more often. We’re really trying to focus on him and Alex playing together to make sure that that right side is effective and the proof is the game you saw tonight,” said Schmetzer.

The last time the Sounders held a 2-0 lead in the second half is when they collapsed in Orlando a couple of weeks ago to lose 3-2, but Seattle made sure to not let that happen again. Any chances of an Austin comeback were crushed in the 68th minute, when Nicolás Lodeiro’s free-kick service from the left-hand side was inadvertently deflected into the back of the net by Austin FC’s Ruben Gabrielsen to put the Sounders up 3-0 in the 68th minute. This final blow would prove to be too much, and Seattle would go on to see the match out. The 3-0 victory marks the first time the Sounders have won by three goals since June versus Sporting Kansas City and it also marks Seattle’s first clean sheet since the CONCACAF Champions League winners grinded out a 1-0 result at home against FC Dallas over a month ago. 

Keeping clean sheets is something that the Sounders have uncharacteristically struggled to do during this year’s regular season campaign, so keeping one of the league’s most high-powered offenses off the scoreboard was a huge plus to take out of last night’s game. “There were a couple of nervy moments. We’ll always digest the film. Andy (Rose) does a good job of getting film for the defenders and we’ll look at all the things that we can improve on. I’m a true believer that defense wins championships. We have to continue these strong performances defensively,” said Schmetzer. Although some Austin fans may point to Sebastián Driussi’s injury issues and the idea that the Argentine wasn’t able to start in Saturday night’s game as a reason why their team failed to generate goal-scoring opportunities, it would be important to keep in mind that the Sounders traveled to Austin last summer, started five teenagers, and still came out with the full three points.

Speaking of youngsters, Danny Leyva and Josh Atencio started together in central midfield for the second game in a row. Although the sample size is still small, Seattle is a perfect 2-0-0 and has conceded only one goal with that pairing anchoring the middle of the park. With injuries to João Paulo and Obed Vargas, one of the biggest challenges for Brian Schmetzer has been to find some consistency in those positions in the field. After Cristian Roldan’s recent groin surgery, Schmetzer has decided to push Albert Rusnák higher up the field to his more natural winger position, and this has given both Leyva and Atencio the opportunity to shine together rather than competing with each other for minutes and playing opportunities. “The question coming into the game was could Josh and Danny do that (success against Houston) together against a good team (Austin FC)? Well, there’s your answer,” said Schmetzer.

With the last two results, the Sounders have managed to stop falling further into the hole that Seattle dug for themselves during the past couple of months and hopefully, the recent victories will be a turning point for them to climb out of that hole and sneak into the playoffs once again. While Schmetzer’s squad is still four points below the playoff line, there are four matches left to be played so the opportunities are still there. It will be up to the Sounders to take them, which Schmetzer is feeling confident that his players can do. “I think the team’s in a good run of form. I think they believe that they can do this, that’s a credit to them,” said Schmetzer. “They understand that every single one of these games is critical and they’re putting in their maximum effort in every game.”