The shorthanded Seattle Sounders fell 1-0 to Sporting Kansas City at Sporting Park on Saturday night. But for the visitors, most of the postgame discussion centered around two controversial calls that the Sounders say flipped the result.
The first came in the 66th minute after forward Lamar Neagle finished a cross from Marco Pappa, but was ruled offside. Even with the benefit of replay it was tough to tell which side of Sporting's last defender Neagle was on.
The next came on a penalty kick called by referee Ismail Elfath in the 83rd minute after Sounders ‘keeper Stefan Frei was whistled for a foul in the box on Kansas City’s Dom Dwyer after the two collided going for a loose ball that Frei was trying to clear away. Benny Feilhaber converted the ensuing attempt from the spot, ensuring SKC the victory.
Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid says both calls never should have happened.
“We scored a goal that was perfectly onside that got taken away. And that’s never a penalty,” Schmid said after the game. “I’m sorry. Our goalkeeper comes out, punches the ball. That’s never a penalty. But those are the way things go.”
Even with a depleted roster that didn’t include Clint Dempsey, Obafemi Martins, Chad Barrett, Osvaldo Alonso or Brad Evans, Seattle’s attack generated quality chances throughout the contest, making the result all the more frustrating for Schmid and his squad.
“I don’t know if we deserved to win, but we deserved at least a tie,” Schmid said. “I’m proud of my team. I thought we did a good job, missing a lot of players. We bent a little bit in the back, but we were okay.”
Sounders players seemed equally miffed following the game, the overall feeling seeming to be that they did enough to get the three points, even without their two best attackers.
“A lot of it is just stunned silence,” left back Dylan Remick said of the mood in Seattle’s locker room. “We had a pretty good game defensively. It looked like Stefan had a clean save on [the penalty kick call]. I saw Stef hit the ball and Dom ran into him.”
Hard as it may have been, the Sounders did try and highlight the positives that they can take from the performance as they move on to next weekend’s home matchup with FC Dallas (10 pm ET, MLS LIVE).
“We’ll look back on it and look at the positives,” said midfielder Andy Rose. “We had a lot of key players missing and guys had to play in different positions and put in a real shift against a very good team. We had some good chances in the first half, I don’t think they had too many big opportunities so we defended well.”
“We knew we weren’t going to play exactly how we normally play,” added center back Zach Scott. “I thought we had several better chances than they did today. It’s something we can build on. We’re going to keep our heads high and just look towards next week.”
Ari Liljenwall covers the Seattle Sounders for MLSsoccer.com.
