Sounders don’t ‘play up to their potential’ in scrimmage with opener looming
RENTON, Wash. – Instead of getting a season preview, the Sounders technical staff were left with more questions Saturday.
The team hosted USL Championship side Sacramento Republic FC with the visitors leaving Sounders FC Center at Longacres with a 1-0 win. The teams played a second match that ended in a 4-0 win for the Sounders, but the lineups were heavily rotated at halftime with MLS Next Pro side Tacoma Defiance filling in for Sacramento.
“I might have changed my mind now,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said of the starting lineup in the opening match. They open the MLS schedule with a road match against Los Angeles FC on Feb. 24 at BMO Stadium.
Schmetzer didn’t elaborate on which players might get pulled from the projected opening-day start. The team will be without center back Yeimar Gomez Andrade because of his late arrival to camp and right back Alex Roldan, who has a hamstring injury.
Nathan, a free-agent signing, played well with center back Jackson Ragen and Cody Baker was solid in place of Roldan. Next week, he could get the call to defend LAFC striker Denis Bouanga, who won the MLS Golden Boot last year.
But play between winger Leo Chu and Nouhou on the left side had multiple hiccups. Sacramento scored its goal off a free kick in the 44th minute.
“They didn’t play up to their potential,” Schmetzer said of the entire team. “The free kick, I’ll just use that as one example. We do a good job of making sure that all of the set pieces are organized, that everybody knows where they’re supposed to be. But there were a couple of guys that weren’t in the right spots. The wall wasn’t set up properly. Sloppy clearance that didn’t go and a foul that shouldn’t have been committed.”
Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan said there were still some positives to take from the match. He played in the attack with Albert Rusnak and forward Jordan Morris. The midfield was manned by Josh Atencio and Obed Vargas.
Ragen (Xavier Arreaga) and Atencio (Paul Rothrock) were subbed off in the 68th minute. Both substitutions were planned, according to Schmetzer.
“Mentally, when you’re in a stadium and under the lights, it’s easy to get motivated,” Roldan said. “But how can you get motivated at 12:30 p.m. on a Saturday a week before the (opener)? You need to have a good mentality going into these games because Sacramento will be ready … our mentality has got to be there from the get-go, and it didn’t seem like we were quite ready for that. Come Saturday, we have to be ready for that.”
Republic advanced to the USL Championship Western Conference finals last season. They are the fourth opponent the Sounders have faced this preseason. Three were European clubs during their training camp in Marbella, Spain.
“We got some different styles that we had to play against,” Frei said. “The Serbian team (TSC Backa Topola) was quite aggressive. The other team (Swedish side IFK Norrkoping) we handled well and the third (Danish side Odense Boldklub) was a good lesson for us.
“That’s what preseason is for, to try to grow to tryout new things and get ready for the season when things will truly matter.”