Lack of discipline, quality finishing. Seattle 1:0 Dynamo

Early missed opportunities.

Paulo stated before the game that the Dynamo needed to come out aggressive, and they did.  Early on the combo play in the midfield was crisp, and DQ working with Fafa and Sebas looked really nice.  Sitting in a high block, Coco and Ceren were aggressively chasing balls.  The Dynamo cracked their first shot early in the opening minutes.  After a nice sinking shot off the foot of Raul Ruidiaz, Steve Clark rolled it out left to Sam Junqua.  Junqua fired a terrific pass to Quintero right at the midfield circle, who turned and had Fafa racing to his right, and Sebas racing to his left.  Darwin worked a give and go to Sebas, and got the ball back right outside the 18. Nouhou Tolo was in a bind because he was in between Fafa who had worked to the edge of the box, and Sebas who was darting to the back post and had his man beat.  Darwin laid it off to Fafa, who cut back inside and fired a left-footer that went wide of the far post.  While the Dynamo got a decent shot out of this possession, they missed a huge opportunity, and it's a microcosm of what this team has been at times this year.  

(1) Sebas had his man beat and was calling for the ball.  Darwin goes the other way with it.
(2) After Darwin passes the ball to Fafa, he runs right in front of Sebas,  Not only did he block Sebas off, but 1 man could now mark 2, and Sebas was now offsides because of it.
(3) Even though the run blocked Sebas off, DQ was open inside the 18 cutting to his right.  Fafa had room to give it back to him but took a 20-yard shot with his weak foot instead.
(4) What starts out with great spacing and ball movement, ends with two players standing on top of each other inside the 18.  There needs to be better awareness and playing off each other here.

You have a 3v2 this early in the game, and the shot you get is a weak-footed bender from outside the box?  Darwin has his high profile striker cutting in the box with his man beat, to his strong foot, and he drops it outside the box to Fafa?  Fafa has our team's leading goal scorer cutting into the 18, and he instead decides to shoot a left-footer from 20 yards out.  It's just inefficient, and it needs to be better. While the play leading up to the shot was great, it's the lack of killer instinct inside the final third that does this possession in.  The Dynamo had them beat, and they needed to capitalize on this possession.

The defense was showing cracks early, but the Dynamo were playing equal:

Jordan Morris, Nicolas Lodeiro, and Raul Ruidiaz were all getting in dangerous positions from early in the game.  Lodeiro fired one across goal from just outside the 18 (6:00) with two sounders on the run, but neither could get on the end of. Jordan Morris found his way into the 6-yard box to get his head on a ball (9:29), but Zeka bothered him just enough that Morris didn't get a good head on it.  The header was soft and Clark was in position, but Seatle was dangerous from early on. 

The Dynamo were building good attacks on their own.  Darwin Quintero got an excellent look (13:24) from just outside the 18 with his left foot.  Memo had found Sebas in the box, and Sebas' tap back to Quintero just caught the foot of Kelyn Rowe to knock the ball off its path.  The Dynamo won the ball back minutes later and Zeka tried to connect with Sebas on a really nice cross (14:11) that was just a tad too high.  Coco found the ball inside the 6-yard box (19:44), and just couldn't beat the Seattle defense winning a corner, then turned the short corner into a great pass to DQ at the top of the 18 that Darwin couldn't control and gave back. Quintero had a terrific chance off some really nice combination play in the attacking third (22:51) That saw Zeka find Quintero, who found Sebas, who tapped it back beautifully to Quintero.  Quintero mis-hit a left-footer directly at Stefan Frei, and it was probably the best chance of the game.

Ruidiaz puts one home:

It was a beautiful team goal. The combination and movement are hard to guard, especially when both of your midfielders don't react, barely step inside the 18, and leave Ruidiaz with a ton of open space to work with.  Junqua did manage to get a foot on it, but you aren't stopping Ruidiaz inside the 6 yard box with that much open net.  There were several keys to this build-up, which allowed it to happen.

This is a quality goal from a really good team.  These are the types of goals that Champions score, and Seattle is a Champion team.  It was precise, it involved great movement off the ball, and took advantage of a slow-reacting defense and a great finisher too close to stop.  While the Dynamo built some really nice chances, they don't move off the ball anywhere near the level that Seattle does.  If we want to turn the corner as a team, we have to have this type of movement and passing.

Seattle really bogged down the box after the goal. Memo had a decent chance from about 25 yards out (39:38) that he blasted to the far post, but went about 12" wide.  Rusnak and Rowe were parked at the midfield line in front of the back four, making any opportunity for the Dynamo to counter extremely difficult. Fafa Picault got two more chances in the box, a header off a great pass from Zeka (44:14) and a sliding flick off a cross from Junqua (45:00+), before the half.  Despite being down 1:0, the Dynamo had been every bit the equal of Seattle for the first 45 minutes statistically.  There were 3-4 chances that the Dynamo just couldn't lockdown, and a couple they took where they missed better options.

Our opportunity ended early in the second half.

Paulo was visibly frustrated at halftime. When Dany Rodriguez asked what was keeping the Dynamo from scoring, he replied: "Uhm...adjustment and high pressure. Circulation of the ball....a little faster and more movement up front." When she followed up what was the main adjustment at the half, Paulo said "That's it, if we can't do it, we'll have to make some changes."  Nagamura had to make changes early in the second half, but it wasn't the type of changes we were all hoping for.  

Already on a yellow, Coco reached out and grabbed Nicolas Lodeiro (53:04) at midfield to try and stop a counter.  There was literally no reason to do it, he had Zeka breaking to the ball and 3 defenders in position.  It was a silly foul, and an especially terrible one already on a yellow.  Was it soft?  Absolutely.  But he'd already been warned about doing the exact same thing early in the game.  This forced Paulo to move Memo into the midfield, Sebas out wide, and DQ into a false #9.  

Credit to the 10 on the field, they spent the rest of the game chasing the ball. The Dynamo actually managed to create more chances over the final 40+ minutes of play despite getting crushed in possession.  Sebas nearly managed to equalize off a set piece (58:35).  Paulo began to get fresh legs on.  Tyler Pasher and Beto Avila (60:00).  Thor came on for Sebas (72:00) and Thiago (90+1).  None of them were enough to break through the Sounder's defense and snag a point at home.  Despite Alex Roldan's red card bringing the teams 10v10, Seattle spent too much time on the ball to get worn down in the 80+ section of the game. Beto Avila, Tyler Pasher, and Thor all had chances to score.  Pasher broke right down the box and got a perfect lob from Ceren (77:40).  Pasher had the ball on his left foot, inside the 18, with space, but rushed the shot and fired it into El Batallion.  

Ramblings:

Coco:

Not a good night from Coco.  He committed his first foul for pulling a guy down 3:30 into the game, never learned from it, and just kept doing it. He picked up a second one at the 8:18 mark coming in late on a challenge high in the attacking third. He finally picked up his Yellow for excessive fouling for grabbing Albert Rusnak 10:22 into the game.  Coco was getting beat badly on his challenges.  While you have to appreciate the tenacity he was playing with, he HAS to be smarter than this.  

It's a shame because on the other side of the ball Coco was really playing well.  He was poised in the midfield, always available as a pressure release, escaping pressure with the ball at his feet, and spraying passes all over the place (33/37 passing, and was hitting at all levels).  Coco was scooping up balls and winning back possessions (5 recoveries, 2 Interceptions) and was really active in the high press.  He had a part in several key Dynamo attacks early on, but he was awful defensively last night.  Early in the second half and right before the red he took the ball away from Lodeiro and drew a scissor kick foul on Kelyn Rowe.  Coco also failed to drop on Ruidiaz's goal, giving him a ton of room to operate.  Coco has to be better defensively.  The Dynamo just put a lot of faith in him, they've basically given him the keys to the midfield until HH gets here, and while he's making strides in terms of consistency going forward (go back and watch the Frisco, Austin F.C., and DC United games) he was terrible defensively last night.

Zeka:

Had another really solid performance.  Was very active on the ball and the backside of the defense.  Was also getting forward with the ball and getting crosses into the box.   Zeka has locked down the right-back position in my opinion.  He's active, he's composed on the ball, and he's beginning to take guys on and make penetrating passes from outside the box.  While there's still a chance we'll see Dorsey rotate through during the season, Zeka should get the Lion's Share of the minutes from here on out.

Darwin Quintero:

I didn't think DQ had a good game.  While there were times he was very active in attack, there were also large sections of the game where he was standing, lazy to the ball, and not making runs when he needed to.  He helped create several dangerous chances, but the Dynamo need more from him. Twice in the first twenty minutes of play Darwin gave the ball away with basically nobody on him.  Both created counterattacking opportunities for Seatle that the Dynamo defense was equal to.  

Darwin Ceren & Memo:

Both put in solid performances yet again.  Ceren has been really active defensively over the last three games while Mattias Vera has been out for personal reasons.  Ceren put in 90 really solid minutes against Nashville and was extremely active defensively against the Sounders again.  Many of us have been very critical of him even being here this year, but Ceren has stepped up and played really well in a pinch.  

Memo put in 90 solid minutes after playing 78 four days before.  Starting out at LW before moving back to holding midfield after Coco's red card, Memo did a good job in defense and helping the Dynamo control in attack.  Memo has put together really good performances here in May after struggling somewhat in April. 

Beto Avila

Simply put Beto is playing like he wants to start.  Beto had a great chance (69th minute) right after he checked in the game.  Beto was going right after Alex Roldan from the second he checked in and eventually got him off the field. Beto drew Roldan's first yellow blowing past him at the midfield line. Also earned Roldan a seat (82:36) by spinning past him and getting hip-checked to the ground.  I think Beto's earned a longer look, would love to see him start opposite Fafa for a few games to see what he can do over 60, 70 minutes.

Final Thoughts:

Losing 4 out of 5 (League Play) isn't any fun.  Losing at home in front of a 1/3rd full stadium on a mid-week game in which you shot yourself in the foot time and time again is really frustrating.  There were some moments in the game where we looked really good going forward against a really good defensive team.  Our finishing, movement, and passing in the final third was extremely lacking.  With 3 straight road games coming up, this is one we really needed to earn at least a point from.  Seattle is a perineal playoff team, a trophy-winning team, and one of the best teams on the continent. We had chances to take a point off them, but just didn't have the fortitude to do it.

Next Up:

La Galaxy @ Dignity Health Sports Park

Thanks again for reading,

Remember to #HoldItDown and stay #ForeverOrange,

Brian