The opening five matches of the season may not have played out the way the Sounders had hoped but there is still plenty of time to sort things out.
In their first training session after playing to a scoreless draw against the New England Revolution on Monday, the Sounders FC spent a good deal of their training session working on finishing.
The Sounders remain winless after five MLS matches and have scored just two goals in league play. While every other element of play was working well for Seattle in their latest match, finishing was not. So head coach Sigi Schmid made that a focus of training as the team turned their attention toward their next match against the Colorado Rapids on Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
“Well we have to keep working on it,” Schmid said. “We just wanted to do some stuff close to goal, and work on finishing and some patterns and things like that that we have to continue to work on until the ice breaks.”
Early this week, those drills included forward Eddie Johnson and midfielder Brad Evans for all of the training session and forwards Obafemi Martins and David Estrada in limited action.
The potential of bringing them back into the lineup, whether it is this week or in their next match on May 4 against the Philadelphia Union, is reason for optimism within the team.
“We know what we have in the locker room. We know the potential we have on the team. The guys’ hungriness, the guys’ work rate, you can’t ask for more,” said midfielder Sharlie Joseph. “We know we’re one of the better teams in the league, but we can’t say that. We have to go out and prove it week-in and week-out.”
That locker room that was assembled throughout the offseason has not yet featured a 100-percent lineup, allowing the team to be patient while also having a sense of urgency.
“You always question things when you’re not winning, but I think the right group is still here in the vast majority,” Schmid said. “I think that there is enough talent here to get the job done. I don’t think there are many teams in the league that are saying, ‘Oh I hope we get to play the Sounders because they’re not very good.’ I don’t think there are.”
The Sounders return to training on Thursday before heading to Colorado for their match against the Rapids on Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
