Seattle has been struggling recently for form after having a successful start to the season, which resulted in an unbeaten run of 6 games. But since a home defeat to Real Salt Lake on May 12th, Seattle has been on a slippery downward slope.
Out of a possible 21 points the Sounders have only managed to pick up just 3 points which meant the gap between the teams below them was all but wiped out, and resulted in Seattle dropping from 3rd overall to 7th.
Over the 6 game period, Seattle had to face a harsh reality, after receiving a few shocking results like the 4-1 away loss to Montreal Impact, and the first ever defeat in the Cascadia Cup to rivals Portland.
After their recent defeat to Portland I believe that the Sounders cant go any lower, but nothing drastic needs to be done.
Sigi Schmid has had an extremely successful time as Sounders head coach and obviously when things don’t go as planned, people get edgy. But I believe that the team needs to sit down and have a long hard think about where they are faltering.
I think the team needs to go back to the basics of the start of the season, and keep the solidness of the back four with the help of the rock solid partnership of Alonso and Evans in the midfield. Once the solidness is back in place the other key players in the roster will fall into place.
The main concern I saw from the 2-1 defeat to Portland was the lack of defensive coherence, which needs to be a tight bond for any title challenging team.
Now the Sounders have to face New England Revolution, and if they cannot get a win, they will have gone almost 2 months without a win. And after a demoralizing defeat to the Timbers, the team needs to come out fighting and show the fans and the coach how to win again.
(image courtesy of Getty Images)
