Nothing’s come particularly easy for Sounders FC this season. This weekend’s unsuccessful flirtation with the postseason was as good an indication as any.
Seattle had two opportunities to make the playoffs this weekend. The first came and went on Friday night without incident when the San Jose Earthquakes kept their fading playoff hopes alive with a 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City. Seattle could’ve qualified for the playoffs outright with a San Jose loss, but the Earthquakes instead clawed within a point of sixth place in the Western Conference and a point back of Seattle with one week to go.
Seattle’s second opportunity came on a calm, sunny Sunday afternoon in Houston. A win over the Dynamo would’ve guaranteed Seattle a spot in the postseason, regardless of events elsewhere. That would’ve taken a considerable amount of pressure off the team headed into the final weekend of the season against Real Salt Lake next week.
That wasn’t to be, either.
The Dynamo snagged a 65th minute goal from Ricardo Clark, and the Sounders managed to equalize on a point-blank Obafemi Martins header in the 82nd off a corner kick for a 1-1 draw. The point was hard-earned, and it’ll keep the carrot dangling in front of the team’s outstretched hands with the playoffs just off in the distance. But it essentially deferred the playoff discussion until next weekend, when already eliminated RSL comes to town.
From that aspect, the draw was hardly a worst case scenario, and it did end Houston’s playoff hopes to take another horse out of the jumbled Western Conference race. And the race is, fittingly, still as unpredictable as ever.
The Sounders still have the inside track for a postseason berth, but there’s still the matter of clinching. The season will still unfold in the manner of Seattle’s choosing, since a win at home against RSL clinches a spot in the postseason. A draw (and especially a loss), though, and Seattle is clinging desperately to results elsewhere.
There’s a legitimately possible scenario still lingering on the fringes of reality that would shockingly leave Seattle home for the playoffs. If the Sounders only muster a draw against RSL, San Jose, Portland and Sporting KC all have avenues that would help them leap above Seattle and into the playoffs. The most unlikely of those scenarios? Real Salt Lake would have to draw Seattle next weekend, and RSL is one of the worst road teams in MLS.
Meanwhile, San Jose has to travel to Dallas to face an FCD team with a shot at the Supporter’s Shield. The Earthquakes would have to win that game for Seattle to even have a chance to miss the playoffs.
Neither are impossible. But playing the percentage game, neither are entirely likely, either.
Either way, the draw in Houston kept Seattle unbeaten in its last seven league games, which should help momentum as the team attempts to polish a seventh consecutive push toward the playoffs. And even now, that looks to be more of a likelihood than not.
As important as the game was, Seattle struggled with tempo until Houston scored. The Dynamo hung back and declined to engage directly, instead poking at the edges with unsuccessful through balls from Brad Davis and broken runs from striker Will Bruin. The game was sloppily played on the whole, and both teams were credited with 22 interceptions, though that only scratched the surface of the match’s uneven tenor. There were a combined 30 losses of possession - which is high - and a total 24 fouls kept the game uneven.
“Obviously we wanted to make sure that we didn’t open up too early,” Sounders Head Coach Sigi Schmid said. “We figured they had to come at us. But they really didn’t come at us that much, not as much as I expected them to. And as a result I thought our game was a little bit passive, a little bit slow. Once they scored I thought we became a lot more aggressive and we created more chances, and then got the corner that helped us get the goal.”
Both Clint Dempsey and Martins had opportunities to crack the safe with one-on-ones, but neither could put away key chances until Martins’ header. And after they found the equalizer, the Sounders had a final chance to grab all three points when Andreas Ivanschitz rolled a free kick to Dempsey just outside the box in the 89th minute. Dempsey whipped his chance near post from 20 yards, and keeper Tyler Deric was forced to make a save of the week-candidate parry when the shot deflected off a Houston player.
Neither team will count Sunday’s mashup as their prettiest or most memorable of the season, but the difference is that one is still driving toward the postseason. With forward Nelson Valdez on the shelf with an injury, Erik Friberg filled in on the right, while Dempsey and Martins continued their late-season dance in an effort to regain the white-hot form that made them such a record-setting combination over the first three months of the season.
So no, things haven’t been particularly easy for the Sounders this season. But they can declutter the process and move into the league’s second season by doing one exceedingly straightforward thing on Oct. 25: Beat Real Salt Lake.
