SEATTLE – The only team the Seattle Sounders say they were making a statement to was themselves.
It’s probably safe to say a few others probably noticed as well, though.
With a crowd of more than 60,000 and a national TV audience watching, the Seattle Sounders scored a 4-0 takedown of the LA Galaxy on Sunday. The Galaxy had entered this game having gone unbeaten in their last five and riding a 10-game run in which they had gone 7-2-1.
OPTA CHALKBOARD: All pistons firing in attack vs. Galaxy
“It’s just basically for ourselves – a statement for ourselves,” Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid said. “It’s us knowing, ‘Hey, here’s what we can do, here’s the commitment that we have, this is the potential that we can achieve, and this is what we do as we continue to move forward.’ It’s about ourselves. It’s about ourselves getting confidence in our ability to be able to take on big challenges, big games – we have another one on Wednesday – and respond well to those challenges.”
HIGHLIGHTS: SEA vs LA
Since emerging from a nine-game winless run, the Sounders have shown signs of turning it around. But no game showed that more clearly than this one, which ran their unbeaten streak to six games (3-0-3) and gave them sole possession of the third spot in the Western Conference.
It was as complete a game as the Sounders have played all season. The four-goal win tied the franchise record for largest margin of victory and it was their first shutout win in league play since beating the Philadelphia Union 1-0 on May 5. It also marked the second time the Sounders had beaten the Galaxy after going winless against them in their previous six league meetings.
While the Schmid admitted that the Galaxy were once the Sounders’ “boogey” team, that seems to be behind them now.
“To a degree you do start thinking, ‘Why are we not having the performances we want to have against them?’” Sounders center back Patrick Ianni told MLSsoccer.com. “I think a lot of that is due in part to them and their cohesiveness as a team. They’ve had big offensive and defensive performances against us. That’s a key part to us being successful now, getting efforts on both sides of the ball and playing together as a team. That’s really the key piece in having the confidence in the group.”
As if to put a perfect little bow on the performance that featured goals from veteran stars Eddie Johnson and Fredy Montero as well as youngsters Alex Caskey and Andy Rose, the Sounders also debuted their newest Designated Player Christian Tiffert, who logged 26 minutes.
When asked if he expects it to be like this every week, Tiffert smiled.
“I wish,” he said. “But today, against a good team, it was fantastic.”
Jeremiah Oshan covers the Seattle Sounders for MLSsoccer.com and SB Nation.
