NEW YORK — The Seattle Sounders fell 2-1 to New York City FC on Saturday, but third-year midfielder Cristian Roldan impressed yet again despite flood-like conditions at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
Roldan, 22, pounced on a loose ball and stormed full steam ahead toward the right side of the 18-yard-box and outran defender Maxime Chanot before firing a shot into the lower left corner past Sean Johnson. The tally was Roldan’s second of the season, each of which came in the last four games. United States men’s national team head coach Bruce Arena recently named Roldan to the preliminary 40-man roster for this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, an honor of which Roldan has consistently played worthy.
“He does all the little things that you don’t normally see,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said of Roldan. “Today, people are going to say, ‘It was a great goal, he took it well, he intercepted the pass, he ran down the field.’ But he does a lot of other things. He covers spaces for other guys, he connects the first pass that leads to the next pass that leads to a break. He does a lot of little, dirty things that need to be done to win games.”
Roldan’s mini offensive streak he has going — he also recorded his only assist of the season in Seattle’s last match before the international break against the Houston Dynamo on June 4 — is rather atypical for his role on the team. A true defensive midfielder in Schmetzer’s 4-2-3-1 system, the opportunities to go forward are few and far between, not so much because he can’t push farther up the field, but because he doesn’t necessarily have to do so.
“I don’t go up as much this year, mainly because we have so many good players going forward,” Roldan said. “My role is a little more defensive, but if I’m a little bit smarter on the ball and take my chances and take them well, I want to be clinical in front of goal and bury that one chance.”
Roldan’s 40th-minute strike gave the Sounders the lead heading into halftime, but they never felt like it was enough. They were frustrated offensively and felt like they didn’t generate enough chances. When NYCFC equalized on a penalty kick early in the second half, the momentum swung in New York’s favor, and Seattle could never quite connect as well offensively as it would have liked.
“We just felt like we could have played better,” Roldan said. “We opened the second half not so well, and then PK was obviously disappointing. It was a tough game because of the weather, but both teams had to handle it. It wasn’t very pretty.”
Still, despite scoring and another fantastic overall effort from Roldan, who entered Week 16 first in Major League Soccer in duels won, he is ready to put this game behind him and move onto Wednesday’s home match against Orlando City SC.
“I think you honestly just throw this game away,” Roldan said. “It was honestly just that type of game. The weather conditions, the puddles, the short field, the small field, you have to put this in the back of your mind and try not to think about it.”
