Armchair Analyst: Matt Doyle

Armchair Analyst: Seattle Sounders and the struggle of playing vs. a short-handed team

That tweet from Emperor Jerry is one of three that neatly sums up Seattle's perspective on Saturday's scoreless draw at FC Dallas (read the other two HERE and HERE). When you're going against 10, you almost always feel like you should dominate even if it doesn't often work out that way.


The Sounders were particularly handicapped by the absences of Clint Dempsey, Obafemi Martins, Osvaldo Alonso and Chad Marshall, who only happen to be the four best players on the team. And that's probably why Twitter isn't burning down right now – even Seattle fans can take the realistic approach to this one.


The Sounders themselves, however, struggled to break down a Dallas team that was nearly as short-handed. Mauro Diaz didn't dress; Blas Perez is with Panama; the starting left back's with Guatemala, and the guy who replaced him is the same dude who got the red card (still a big fan of Kellyn Acosta, but THIS isn't a good look). This should have been manageable for the visitors.


It wasn't, because at this point in the season they're dangerous pretty much only when they can play vertically. Dallas packed their lines deep and didn't let Seattle beat them over the top or up the gut.


One of the few times Dallas looked like they were going to get beat came from one of the few times Seattle made them defend the entire width of the field:



If you're going against 10, chances are that's how you're going to have to do that in order to create some danger. If you can't go touchline to touchline, best you'll do is a point.


As a wise man once said: it's not the end of the world. Not for Seattle, and not for Dallas who've completed an unbeaten March. It's just another not-so-small thing for both to keep in mind – on both sides of the ball – when red gets flashed in the future.