TUKWILA, Wash. – The first leg of the all-Cascadia Western Conference semifinal matchup between the Seattle Sounders and the Vancouver Whitecaps may not have featured any goals, but Sunday’s 0-0 draw between the sides at BC Place certainly wasn’t lacking in intensity.
There were shoving matches and double headlocks, hard fouls, yellow cards and plenty of trash talk to go around. At one point in the second half, ESPN broadcast cameras even appeared to pick up a bit of chirping back and forth between Vancouver head coach Carl Robinson and Seattle assistant Gonzalo Pineda.
On one level, that might be par for the course when it comes to a high-stakes Cascadia derby playoff series. But Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer also says his hope is that any extracurricular antics will be kept to a minimum in Thursday’s second leg at CenturyLink Field (10:30 pm ET; FS1 in the US | TSN5, TVAS in Canada).
“We as a club, and I as a coach, don’t want to have any of that sort of stuff happening,” Schmetzer told reporters this week. “I think we have to act in a standard that we set for ourselves. I would never talk to Carl’s players, I think that’s off limits. I don’t need any chirping between the two benches. I think that’s just a distraction.
“We need to focus on what we do rather than what the opposing bench or what the opposing team’s doing.”
Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan, who found himself in the middle of one second-half fracas on the field during Sunday’s first leg, said that a degree of added intensity is inevitable when it comes to playoff soccer.
The trick is walking the fine line between playing with passion and not letting emotions boil over to get baited into plays that could lead to yellow cards or suspensions.
“It’s the playoffs, it’s Cascadia, two teams that want to win, two teams that are extremely competitive,” Roldan said. “We have guys that are going to do anything for the team. If that’s getting into a tackle or getting mad at one of their players, it’s bound to happen. We just can’t do anything silly when that’s the case, when we get into those little fights, we can’t put hands to the face, we can’t do anything that will change the series.”
Aside from trying to avoid unnecessary cards, being smart about not giving away cheap free kicks is especially important for the Sounders when it comes to facing Vancouver. The Whitecaps represent perhaps the most lethal side in all of MLS in terms of converting set pieces into goals this season.
In the end, Sounders midfielder Gustav Svensson said he thinks Seattle possesses enough veteran savvy to toe those lines appropriately when it comes to Thursday’s do-or-die fixture.
“It’s experience. You have to know how much anger you can have on the pitch and how cool you have to be,” Svensson said on Tuesday. “You don’t want to give away easy free kicks and you don’t want to pick up yellow cards as well. It’s a delicate [balance]. It’s hard. But when you play a lot of games, you know, you have the experience. It’s probably harder for the young kids.
“But you have to have the anger as well because it’s an important game.”
