They dominated possession and had the better chances yet again. And once more, the result was a disappointing one for Seattle Sounders FC.
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Back home after a two-game road jaunt, Seattle blazed out of the gates against Columbus on Saturday night, scoring the earliest goal in franchise history in the fourth minute courtesy of Steve Zakuani. But despite a myriad of chances and outshooting the Crew 16 to seven, Seattle had to settle for a point.
“For the majority of the match we bossed the game,” lamented Pete Vagenas. “They were high-fiving and hooting and hollering with a point and we were upset.”
The draw leaves Seattle with two points from the last three games. And that point total doesn't jibe with their performances, said head coach Sigi Schmid.
“I thought it was one of our more complete efforts of the season for sure,” Schmid said in the postgame press conference. “But again, it was elementary mistakes on the goal. Those things are starting to become very bothersome and something that we have to address.”
What was lacking from the "complete effort," aside from the defensive lapse, seems to be finishing. Seattle only put three of their 16 shots on frame, and one of those was Zakuani's goal. Fredy Montero and Freddie Ljungberg both rattled the post with second-half shots, but neither managed to draw a save from goalkeeper Will Hesmer over the course of the match.
Vagenas pinpointed the opening 20 minutes as the time when Seattle let the game slip away. Columbus couldn't seem to cope with Seattle's quick start and the flat-footed Crew defense kept exposing Hesmer. Still, Seattle didn't build on their slender lead.
“We didn't drown them when they were down,” explained Vagenas.
In injury time of the first half, Steven Lenhart made Seattle pay for their wastefulness, heading home his first goal of the season.
“You keep teams in games, you get punished,” explained Sounders captain Kasey Keller.
In Seattle's last home match, an injury-time winner from Michael Fucito gave Sounders FC an unlikely win over the Kansas City Wizards. In the next match, FC Dallas earned a controversial penalty in injury time to scrape a draw out of what looked like a lost cause. Then Seattle warmed up for Columbus with a loss at Toronto FC last weekend.
Vagenas has no explanation for why the gutsier of his side's performances don't produce wins.
“The last two games we've played in, we felt like we had our foot on the game, and we came away with a combined one point,” Vagenas said. “Whereas three weeks ago we played against Kansas City, we walked off the field upset, not happy with our performance, and we had three points in our back pocket.
“If you can explain that," concluded the veteran, "you know more about this game than I do.”
