It hardly qualifies as a ringing endorsement, but Adrian Hanauer’s assessment of Seattle Sounders FC’s first half of 2011 is pretty spot-on.
“I don’t think it’s been an atrocious half season,” Seattle’s general manager and co-owner said. “But it hasn’t quite been what we would’ve hoped.”
Of course, that assessment came before Seattle beat Toronto Saturday evening to get to the season’s midpoint with a 6-4-7 record. But even if Seattle’s win came in dramatic fashion with Fredy Montero scoring in the 90th minute to give Seattle a win despite playing the second half a man down, beat
ing Toronto, one of the worst team’s in the Eastern Conference, is hardly a defining moment in the season.
Then again, Seattle has shown plenty of times this season that beating a team it should beat isn’t always an easy task, so perhaps Saturday’s stunning finish can jumpstart an up-and-down team heading into the second half.
And it’s not like Seattle is in terrible shape with 25 points through the first half of the season, it’s just that the team expected more when it began its third season in Major League Soccer. After making the playoffs in its first two seasons, only to be bounced in the first round both times, the Sounders entered 2011 with championship aspirations. So no, this hasn’t been a disastrous first half, just not what players, coaches and ownership envisioned at the start of the year.
“I think we’re OK at the moment,” said goalkeeper and captain Kasey Keller. “We’re in a decent position. … I’m not too disappointed considering everything we’ve gone through so far. It’ll get good.”
Besides, it could be worse. Last year Seattle started the year with a miserable 4-8-4 record, and looked very much out of the playoff race. The Sounders put together the best second-half record in the league, however, earning a second straight playoff berth. And while Seattle doesn’t want to be a team that has to rely on a strong second half, players should be confident knowing they have the ability to finish strong.
“It probably gives us little bit of confidence going into the second half,” Hanauer said. “You’d never like to have to always rely on a good second half of season to show that you’re a good team. We talked about that at the end of last year how we wanted to put together two very good half-seasons.”
And even though it hasn’t been a perfect first half, Seattle is still in great position to make the playoffs, and recent history in this league shows that just getting into the postseason is a lot more important than how a team got there. In 2009, Salt Lake went into the playoffs with a sub-.500 record and left with a championship. Last season, Colorado had the second-worst record of any team in the playoffs, yet the Rapids won a title.
So with the second half set to begin with Thursday’s home game against New York, a brief look at what has and hasn’t gone well for Sounders FC.
What has gone well
Keller still stellar — At 41 years old, Keller is showing that coming back for one more season was far from a mistake. If anything, the veteran goalkeeper looks like he could keep playing, though he has maintained that he plans to call it quits after the season.
Alonso on the field — Midfielder Osvaldo Alonso missed a big chunk of last season with an injury, which was a big part of Seattle’s first-half struggles in 2010. This year he has played every minute of every game, and is playing at an All-Star caliber level.
Tough to beat — Since losing its first two games, Seattle has lost only twice, and is currently on a four-game unbeaten streak. Sure the Sounders would like to win more, but salvaging at least a tie when things aren’t going well is important over the course of a long season.
“We’ve been a very difficult team to beat, and that’s a good asset to have,” Keller said.
Rosales signing — Seattle didn’t sign Mauro Rosales until the first week of the season, but the Argentine midfielder has been one of the team’s best and most versatile players in the first half.
Sigi’s touch — Sounders coach Sigi Schmid has done a lot of lineup juggling, sometimes because of injuries, but also to motivate players, and a lot of those moves have paid off. Early in the season, Schmid benched designated player Alvaro Fernandez for a stretch of games, and the Uruguayan midfielder came back a lot better after the time off, though lately he has been limited by a hamstring injury. Star forward Fredy Montero was held out of the starting lineup for two straight games, and played better after coming back, including the impressive game-winning goal Saturday. Seattle has also gotten unexpected value out of young players like Lamar Neagle and Servando Carrasco.
What hasn’t gone well
Health — Steve Zakuani’s broken leg likely ended the season of one of the league’s best offensive players, and changed what Seattle can do in its attack. And while that was the worst of Seattle’s injuries, it is far from the only one that has impacted the team. Forward O’Brian White, who had two goals early in the season, has been out since late April because of a blood clot. Montero also missed time with a broken wrist, and the midfield has been in a near-constant state of flux because of less significant injuries to Brad Evans, Rosales, Fernandez, and Erik Friberg.
Finishing — Before Montero’s goal in Toronto, Seattle had gone the better part of eight games without a goal from its forwards. And while the production has been solid from the midfield, over the course of the season, the Sounders are going to need more goal scoring up front. Overall Seattle has been OK offensively, averaging a little more than a goal per game, but certainly players feel like they could be scoring more. On multiple occasions this year, Seattle has been the better team, but finished with a tie or loss because of a lack of finishing.
Consistency — Seattle has hardly played like the same team from week to week, which shouldn’t be surprising considering it hasn’t been the same team from week to week. Through 17 games, Schmid has used 14 different starting lineups, and while a lot of that has been the result of injuries, the fact remains that Seattle will have a hard time maximizing its potential if there isn’t a more settled lineup in the second half of the season.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.
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