Team Focus: Just What Has Gone Wrong for Sigi Schmid's Sounders Side?

It’s somewhat difficult to comprehend the turmoil the Seattle Sounders now find themselves in, given the swagger with which they started the 2015 Major League Soccer season. As recently as May, they were the team to beat in the West. Now they are the team that everyone can beat. 

Indeed, Sigi Schmid’s side are on an astonishing slide down the league standings - with nine defeats from their last 11 games. Contrast that to their record of five wins from their opening eight fixtures this season - and the Sounders’ decline is blatantly apparent. Few sides suffer such capitulation - especially those with Seattle’s starting lineup pedigree.  

But what is the explanation behind the Seattle Sounders’ staggering slump? Why are one of MLS’ best teams - expected to be challenging for the MLS Cup by the close of the post-season - falling away from contention so dramatically? In their current form they won’t even make the playoffs. 

It’s true that the Sounders have been rather unlucky with both injuries to key players and international call-ups at just the wrong time. Seattle have one of the league’s deepest squads, however, and should have been able to absorb those blows much better than they have. 

Many focus on the absence of both Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey up front for much of the campaign so far, with the two strikers providing Seattle’s cutting edge. The Nigerian and the American are the Sounders’ joint-top scorers with seven goals apiece, illustrating just important they are to an inherently attacking side. 

Without the two strikers, Seattle simply don’t have the options to sustain their style of play. Dempsey averages 2.9 shots on goal per game, with Martins charting up 1.9 per game. But their back-up option Chad Barrett can only manage 1.1 shots on goal per game, with Lamar Neagle faring only slightly better with 1.4 per game. 

But it’s not just attacking productivity that the Sounders lose with Martins and Dempsey absent, but the natural understanding between the two players too. They average 2.5 key passes between them per game, and most of those are played to each other. Neither Barrett nor Neagle can compensate for that. 

Yet perhaps the most crippling injury meted out to the Sounders over the past few months is the one suffered by Osvaldo Alonso. The Cuban-born midfielder is the anchor that holds Seattle’s central unit in place, but without him; Schmid’s side lack protection of their back four. Alonso is their most prolific tackler - with an average of 3.2 per game - and with him missing, Seattle have a rigidity deficiency through the centre of the pitch. His average of 1.6 interceptions also makes him the best interceptor of the Sounders’ starting midfielders. 

At the back, the return of US international Brad Evans from the summer’s Gold Cup should have restored some technical ability to the Sounders’ defensive line. Comfortable as a central midfielder as well, Evans has the positional awareness and vision Seattle need to bring the ball out from the back, with the 30-year-old averaging more passes per game (37.8) than any other central defender in the league. 

But in keeping with the common theme across Schmid’s side, his return seems to have done little to reverse Seattle’s losing run, suffering a 3-0 home defeat to Vancouver and a 3-1 loss to the LA Galaxy in the two games since the Gold Cup. Something has snapped in the mentality of the Seattle Sounders, and not even the return of their best players has been enough to mend that.  

The blame must also lie with Seattle’s creative players, who simply aren’t mustering as many chances as they were earlier in the season. Compare the 20 shots the Sounders had on goal in their 3-1 win over New York City FC in May with the measly three they managed in the 1-0 defeat to the Montreal Impact just last month and their current struggles in the final third are highlighted quite clearly. 

Marco Pappa - a contributor of four assists this season - has played just once since the Gold Cup, and he has struggled for consistency over the past few weeks and months. The form that saw him awarded the WhoScored man of the match accolade in back-to-back games in May is long behind the Argentinean, and the Sounders have felt the full brunt of that. 

This weekend presents the Sounders with a chance to at least make a start on reversing their atrocious summer form, with Orlando City visiting CenturyLink Field. With their best players now back in the lineup, Schmid must find a way to salvage his side’s play-off chances. Their statistical and tactical issues over the past few months have now become a mental one.

Can the Sounders stop the rot and make a charge for the MLS Cup? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below