The long climb to the playoffs begins today. That’s certainly the hope for Seattle, who nabbed a 1-0 victory from D.C. United on a late Roger Levesque goal on Thursday night.
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Seattle have added three points to the standings only once in the past two months – a 3-0 victory over the New England Revolution in June – but they hope Thursday’s victory could be the catalyst that propels them up the Western Conference standings.
With the clustered standings in the West, the Sounders are now just three points back of third place.
“I thought we came out and…battled in the first half,” said Seattle head coach Sigi Schmid. “We had some chances and I thought we had a little more of the game in terms of possession. “I thought [that] in the second half, D.C. picked up the tempo a little bit. They had some chances as well, but we ended up getting a late goal. And we’ve been giving up some late goals, so it was nice to do the reverse this time.”
Schmid’s substitutions late in the game were vital to stem the tide. After burning one substitution to replace the injured Jeff Parke, Schmid’s final two moves had to pay off – and they did.
For his first unforced move, Schmid inserted Osvaldo Alonso in place of Michael Seamon to help lock down the middle.
“Alonso came on and did a good job on the new player DC brought in, Boskovic, so that helped us control the tempo of the game,” Schmid said.
The final substitution, Sanna Nyassi, triggered the play that led to the game’s only goal after he stole the ball in the midfield.
Those two moves turned around a game that had been slipping out of the hands of a Seattle team who were affected by the hot and humid weather of the East Coast. Luckily for them, they learned from their last experience, when they wilted in the second half against the Philadelphia Union.
“The Philly game [a couple of weeks ago] was a good learning curve for us,” said goalkeeper Kasey Keller. “[The United players] were a little tired, too – it’s impossible not to be. If you can play a game with this kind of humidity, against a team that likes to keep the ball [and] likes to pass it, and [you] come away with three points, it’s nice.”
Seattle were able to hang in the game due in large part to some great plays from Keller and his defensive line. As United poured on the pressure, the Sounders goalie responded with a gutsy performance and finished with five saves. The best save of the night, though, might have been Patrick Ianni's. On a play where Keller rushed outside of his box to challenge DC’s Andy Najar, the goalkeeper went down and Ianni, who retreated to the goal line, cleared away a shot that could have seen United pull ahead.
It was perhaps because of that knock that Keller suffered that Seattle’s newest signing, Swiss striker Blaise Nkufo, didn’t come into the game. Although Schmid had said he wanted to get his new striker into the match, he was forced to keep a substitution in his pocket in case his 'keeper couldn’t continue.
Looking ahead at the schedule, Seattle’s next four league games are all winnable: home against Colorado, at San Jose, home against Houston, at Chivas USA. Picking up valuable points in those matches could make the dream of the playoffs into a much more tangible goal.
