Dominance.
When the Sounders left Vancouver over the weekend, they might as well have left BC Place a smoldering ruin in their wake. Despite playing its third consecutive road game encompassing a dizzying 10,844 miles, Seattle managed to extract its finest performance of the campaign in a 2-0 win against a team that’s led the Western Conference for a good portion of the season. On the road. Again.
After taking three weeks winding its way across the country, Sounders FC finally returns to the blessed confines of Seattle next weekend. But the team’s lengthy road trip certainly didn’t curtail its performance on Saturday. Here’s a look at three things that emerged from Sounders FC’s finest performance of 2015.
Barrett an unlikely but welcome attacking champion
In the post-match milieu, goalkeeper Stefan Frei was asked his thoughts on Chad Barrett’s performance. He offered a single word.
“Clinical.”
In terms of the pure definition of the word, it doesn’t get much more clinical than the performance Barrett offered on Saturday. It’d be hard to frame Barrett’s performance as dominant in the sense that he only even attempted 22 passes, completing 72-percent in his 71 minutes of work. But sometimes soccer is a tremendously simple game, and the only numbers that matter at the end is whether the ball hits the back of the net.
Barrett took three shots against the Whitecaps’ vastly improved defense. He scored two of them.
Both of Barrett’s tallies - one in the fifth minute and another in the 38th - bore similar hallmarks. Tasked by Head Coach Sigi Schmid before the match to press between the centerbacks and try to pick out empty pockets for well-timed runs, Barrett could have hardly been asked to do more. On the first, he broke through a sliver of space and, aided by a perfectly weighted ball from Clint Dempsey, needed a grand total of one touch to finish his chance. Barrett applied a cashmere touch on his finish and Sounders FC led. Deservedly.
Barrett’s second was even more remarkable. While he has a history of popping up in fortuitous spaces in big games, the level of his goals on Saturday was especially notable. If the first was reminiscent of the calm brilliance of Leo Messi, the second harkened to the clinicians’ touch of a Robin van Persie off the volley. He left-footed a bouncing through ball from Marco Pappa to double the lead. BC Place fell eerily quiet in its aftermath.
The most notable thing about Barrett’s performance was its economy. Barrett took one touch on each of his goals, and both were placed perfectly. While Obafemi Martins’ return from injury should immediately accompany his return to the starting XI, Barrett’s tremendous game adds yet another arrow to Schmid’s quiver.
Quality of possession, quality of defense furnishes victory
Sounders FC’s growing reputation as a possession-forward team that intersperses paroxysms of counter-attacking soccer grew in its legend on Saturday. Gonzalo Pineda and Osvaldo Alonso attempted an astonishing 187 passes between them, and both had successful passing ratios between 93 and 95-percent, respectively.
Look at their combined passing matrix and marvel at the lack of red, signifying incomplete passes. There were, after all, only 16 of them.
That incredible level of efficiency is hard to keep up anywhere, let alone on the road in a hostile derby environment. But beyond its ability to feed the attack, it provided the vital cushioning in front of the back four. Despite the fact that the Whitecaps possess one of the finest, most dangerous and arguably the most varied attack in the league, they troubled Frei’s area with substantive chances remarkably few times. Much of that had to do with Sounders FC’s early tallies, which forced the Whitecaps into a more direct posture that played into Seattle’s desire to hang onto the ball.
Seattle’s quality of possession out of the back helped that, too. Rightback Tye Mears managed to complete 92-percent of his 66 passes. Dylan Remick, who’s quickly coming around to his duties on the left despite a lack of experience, came in at a cool 80 percent. With that level of efficiency on the wings, the Whitecaps were too often forced to peel off from their attack positions and deal with the threat at hand. And there were many threats.
Road Warriors
Sounders FC entered this road trip with swelling confidence but several questions lingering. While the Colorado Rapids win on April 18 proved the team could attack freely and the 1-0 win over the Portland Timbers a week later proved it could button up at the back when it needed, there hadn’t been a game since the March 8 opener against the New England Revolution that proved they could assuredly do both at the same time.
After Seattle’s 3-2 loss to Columbus Crew SC, there was an implicit thought that Seattle would have to sit back a bit to absorb some pressure on the road to escape Vancouver with a point, let alone three. But if anything, the team proved the loss to Columbus was probably more of an aberration than anything. Because if this was “sitting back,” no team in the league can do it better.
The better news for Sounders FC is that they return home for a lengthy home stand, where possession soccer is more assured on a familiar playing surface in front of expectant fans. Seattle currently faces three consecutive home matches against Sporting Kansas City, a return match against the Colorado Rapids and finally one against the New York Red Bulls on May 31. After a quick trip to Kansas City, Seattle’s home again for consecutive home matches against FC Dallas and the San Jose Earthquakes.
That’s five matches at home in their next six. After taking six points from three consecutive away matches to the far-flung reaches of the country, the next month should be particularly interesting for a surging Sounders FC team.
