Seattle Sounders FC suffered the worst loss of their inaugural MLS season Sunday, dropping a 4-0 decision to the San Jose Earthquakes. An own goal by Osvaldo Alonso in the second minute and a red card to James Riley in the 33rd set the tone for the day as Seattle saw its six-game unbeaten string come to an end.
"I hate to get embarrassed, and we got embarrassed today," coach Sigi Schmid said.
"Absolutely, embarrassed for sure," agreed Brad Evans. "I think everybody (in the Seattle locker room) would say they'd like to have this game back. I think everybody wouldn't mind going out and playing again right now."
The game got off to a bad start for Sounders FC, when Alonso deflected a Ryan Johnson cross past Kasey Keller for the own goal in the second minute. Riley was sent off with a straight red card just past the half-hour mark by referee Paul Ward, forcing Seattle to play shorthanded the rest of the afternoon.
"From the first minute of the game we weren't ready to play," goalkeeper Kasey Keller said. "(San Jose) showed up and competed from the first minute to the end of the game better than we did. I can't say that too often this season, that we got beat."
Seattle didn't manage a shot in the first half, and were outshot 16-4 on the day. San Jose put the game away through second-half goals from Cornell Glen, Darren Huckerby and Chris Wondolowski
"We turned over the ball a lot, and (San Jose) were very good at winning one-on-one duels in the first half," Schmid said. "They jumped on most of the 50-50 balls and turned that possession into opportunities. We gave them a goal early, and we took ourselves out of it with the red card, but the opportunities they had, they finished well, which is what you need to do.
"Over the course of 30 games, sometimes you're going to have a shocker like we had today," Schmid continued. "We just to make sure that doesn't become the norm."
Sounders FC didn't manage a shot on goal until the 57th minute when Sanna Nyassi fired point blank on Joe Cannon. But that was the only save the Quakes goalkeeper was forced into making on the day.
"I don't know what the deal was today," Keller said. "From the first minute, we were second-best, and then we take another red card, and we do some stupid things on the field at different times and that's what probably what disappoints me more. You're going to have games where you lose, and the other team is better than you at different things, but we just don't give ourselves a chance sometimes, which is frustrating."
With the win, the Earthquakes were awarded the inaugural Heritage Cup, commemorating the soccer rivalry between San Jose and Seattle that dates back 35 years to the days of the NASL.
"We've played San Jose in three games, and we won two of the three, but somehow they won the Heritage Cup," Schmid said. "I don't know how that works. Maybe next year, we'll play the Heritage Cup and whoever scores the most goals between the 54th minute and the 78th minute of the second game wins the Heritage Cup, but I don't know.
"We want to win season series against teams we play," Schmid continued. "We won the season series here against (the Earthquakes). We want to go into Salt Lake next week and win the season series with them. If we win the season series against 75 percent of the teams we play, we'll be in the playoffs, so that's always our goal. But to bounce back from a performance like this, those guys have to have some pride in that locker room, which I think they do."
Seattle next faces FC Barcelona in a midweek exhibition match at Qwest Field, before returning to league play next Saturday in Salt Lake City.
"I'd like to say it's going to be a nice occasion against Barcelona on Wednesday, but to me, right now, that game is a pain in the [rear]," Kasey Keller said. "I could care less about Wednesday, to be honest. It's a great occasion for the fans, and for the guys. For me, personally, I'd much rather have a good hard week of training and get ready for the league game. For the fans, for the ownership group, for some of the guys, it's going be a fantastic experience and atmosphere. I think we have to go into that game like it's a hard training session, and hopefully we don't get any injuries, and we come out of it ready to play next weekend.
"This is the point of the season where you have to figure out where you're at," Keller continued. "Are you going to make a run in the playoffs, or are you going to wither and die? Today, it looks like we're going to wither and die, but there's a lot of fight left in this team, I'm sure of it."
Pete Ratajczak is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
