Michael Gspurning called it "shameful" in a postgame tweet. Mauro Rosales deemed the first half a “disaster.” Sigi Schmid thought it might have been the worst half one of his teams had ever played.
Whatever they called it, there was no hiding from the fact that the Seattle Sounders were nowhere near good enough in their 4-0 loss to the LA Galaxy on Sunday. All four of the Galaxy’s goals came in the first half, taking virtually all the tension out of a game that was billed as a matchup between two of the league’s best teams.
“It’s absolutely not up to our standard and we have to sit together and talk about this one,” Gspurning told reporters. “It’s important we stay together and sometimes, instead of pointing fingers, we as a team need to join together and figure it out.”
OPTA Chalkboard: Keane, Galaxy dominate Sounders in every category
The Sounders’ flat performance seemed to come out of nowhere. They had come into this game riding a three-match winning streak – that featured back-to-back four-goal performances – and had not lost in their past six. That they were missing defensive midfielder Osvaldo Alonso seemed to be only a mild concern.
Instead, they turned in one of the worst performances in their five-year MLS history.
“I don’t think anybody had a good game on our team,” Schmid said. “I think [LA] were first to the ball. I think they were quicker. Second balls, they jumped onto. They reacted faster to the ball. They played through our midfield.
“When we did have the ball, we weren’t real sharp with our passing. Our passing was more negative and back. We tried to dump too many long balls instead of playing over the wings a little bit more. We never forced them to defend for periods of time, so we were constantly on our heels.”
The Galaxy dominated from the opening whistle and were able to turn into an early lead when Sean Franklin scored in the 12th minute. It quickly unraveled from there.
Robbie Keane pounced on a poor clearance off a corner to make it 2-0 and then buried a pair of penalties before the end of the half. It was the first time Seattle had given up four goals in a half or allowed an opponent to score a hat trick.
In addition to those inauspicious firsts, the Sounders allowed more shots (15) than they ever had before, took their fewest-ever shots (two) and tied the franchise-worst for margin of defeat (four goals) and shots on goal (zero). It also continued a horrible run of results on the road against the Galaxy, as they’ve now gone 0-5-1 and been outscored 13-2 in their last six games at the Home Depot Center.
“You can’t react to an individual game or an individual 10 minutes or a half or whatever,” Schmid said. “There’s got to be some accountability, and we’ll address that. The guys know they’re a better team than that, than what they showed in the first half. But on the same token, tonight they weren’t a better team than that. They got their rear ends handed to them.”
