VANCOUVER, B.C. — It's been another tough start to the season for the Seattle Sounders.
Six games in and the Sounders are sitting on six points, with just one victory to show for their efforts following Friday's 2-1 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps.
It's a familiar story, of course. Seattle started last season with just one win from their first five matches, struggling in the first half of the year, before finding their groove down the stretch and ultimately winning the MLS Cup.
It's not that the Sounders are being outplayed; it’s more that the breaks and the finishing aren't coming. Does it feel different this season or does it boil down to the same kind of problems that led to their slow start in 2016?
"[It was] a little different last year," Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer told reporters after the match. "Just because Jordy [Morris] was new ... there were some other things. The team just needs to get that one breakthrough game. Certainly starting five out of seven on the road isn’t helping us. But look, there aree no excuses.
"I thought we played well in San Jose and we put ourselves in a position to grab points in San Jose, all three. And again tonight, before Fredy [Montero] scored his goal, I was comfortable with the way the team was playing."
Of all teams, the Sounders know that a slow start doesn't always mean too much in such a long season. Both Portland and Seattle have shown over the past two years that hitting form at the right time is what really matters.
But still, it’s not a spot that the Sounders want to find themselves facing too often. And goalkeeper Stefan Frei believes the club shouldn't be in this kind of position again.
"Of course we don't want to get into a hole like last year," Frei said. "That's a massive hole to climb out of. You don't want to create that challenge too many times. It's been a bit more frustrating. Not because we've been getting dominated in games, it's been more frustrating because we've played decent at times.
"We've gone down to San Jose and had a solid effort and scored, then we need to hold on for five minutes and don't. That's frustrating. We come up here and dominate for the first 20 minutes and having nothing to show for it. They essentially have two chances and score two goals. It's frustrating. Are we going to panic at this point? No, we're not going to panic."
The solace, if there is any after a defeat against a fierce Cascadia Cup rival, is that Seattle enjoyed the better of the play for much of the match against Vancouver.
The Sounders dominated possession 62-38 percent, had more shots on goal, and created well. But Schmetzer is painfully aware that those stats count for nothing if you don't put the ball in the back of the net and come away with the win.
"All the possession in the world doesn’t do you any good unless you can score," he said. "Having said that, seven shots on target, 15 overall, 10 corner kicks, we had the ball there. Credit [David] Ousted, credit their defense, credit them getting a timely goal to kind of throw us off.
"At 1-0 we’re not in panic mode, but 2-0, that’s a tough thing to swallow. But we’ve got to figure out ways to not let teams off the hook when we dominate them in some of the other stats that don’t mean as much as the score line."
