hawkfan68":28pyfbem said:
If this is the case, then they were grossly underperforming. Even though the early Sounder teams under Sigi didn't win the MLS cup, they were consistently winning the US Open Cups every year. They were also no lower than top 4 each season. Right now they are battling to be the #6 team (last playoff spot) in the division. Last year's team was Sigi's team. Yes he resigned and Schmetzer took over but largely was Sigi's team. Brian energized the team and to his credit they picked it up. But it's back to the lackluster play that caused Sigi to get fired in the first place. They have been starting seasons extremely slow. I guess with a playoff format all that needs to be done is just make to the playoffs. I hold my team to a higher standard. I want to see more from the team. There is too much talent on this team to see the lackadaisical performances week in and week out.
I agree with you. I think they were underperforming in part. Morris had a nagging ankle injury and was in poor form for most of the year, which is a big part of why our attack fizzles. When he's not out there, or when he's out there injured, there's no direct play. When he's out there healthy, they'll play more direct and try to let Morris beat guys, and the offense looks much better. Like, in that DC game the other night, we had tons of possession in the first half, but it was all ineffective possession where guys weren't advancing the ball into the box effectively or at least getting some decent shots off from outside the box.
The other thing is that they were injured, which combined with call-ups to put us in tough places. Morris was hurt, the back line has been ravaged by injury at times, and now Ozzie is hurt and Marshall was clearly playing hurt the other night, too. Maybe that will get better if we just slide Delem over from right back to CB more often to spell Torres and Marshall (where he looked way more competent in the Gold Cup from what I saw) and then let Leerdam hold down RB with Evans backing him up.
So yeah, injuries and slow starts in general have combined to make the start of this year pretty rocky. The talent here shouldn't be sitting in sixth right now. They can still make a run at the number one seed in the west, actually, but they probably should be first or second based on talent alone. They've also dropped a lot of points that they shouldn't have (at SJ, and home against Orlando City) just by underperforming.
To me, a team that drops points that it shouldn't and that wins games like the DC game or that gets a draw out of the NE game is a clear example of a team that turns it on and off and that needs to try harder for achieving consistency. I was so disgusted the other night watching the game and then after that third DC goal, they clearly just turned it on at will and won it. They have the ability to play attacking football, push the ball up the wings, and have these great finishes off service from the flank or set pieces or what have you, but they don't seem to try for that sort of play tactically all the time, and they don't perform consistently. Maybe it's a Schmetzer issue?
Re: Your point about the U.S. Cups that we used to win (sadly, I came in as a fan after those cups were won), I read something that quoted Lagerway as saying that he cares most about making the playoffs and winning MLS Cup. He said basically that he wasn't concerned about competing for the Supporters' Shield. I wonder if that seeps into how this team approaches competitions like the U.S. Cup. To me, my ultimate dream as a fan is for the Sounders to win CCL and play in the Club World Cup, so I don't like that way of thinking because any way we can win a ticket into the CCL, I think we should focus on to a not-insignificant degree...but that's probably unrealistic on my part, at least right now.