Sounders vs Whitecaps Recap

I attended my third Sounders game of the year on Friday night. In it they lost 0-1 to the Vancouver Whitecaps and with it their lead in the supporter shield standings. Now they have to hope Dallas beats LA on Sunday to set up an epic showdown over the last two regular season games. This could turn into one of the most dramatic finishes to a sports regular season in Seattle history. But, before we get ahead of ourselves thinking about the upcoming LA games, let's talk about three takeaways from Friday's game.

First thing I notice is Stefan Frei is still a liability. The defense played well in this game. They kept the Whitecaps away from the goal for most of the game. However, right before the half, during the 45th minute, Frei let an injured Kekuta Manneh poke a shot right between his legs for what would turn out to be the only score. This shot was vintage Frei, despite a mistake by Chad Marshall the shot should have been stopped. It wasn't that great or difficult of an attempt. It was a shot that a good goal keeper would have stopped. Instead Frei let it right through his legs.

The second thing that I noticed during the game was Michael Azira isn't good. He certainly isn't terrible, but he shouldn't have been starting. His best skill appeared to be kicking the ball out of bounds. That does have value at times, but it isn't really a skill that should be listed in anyone's top five. When it comes to offensive skills he was lacking. He had one clear chance for a score that he botched. He tripped over himself without even directing the ball towards the goal. On defense Azira was adequate. He didn't hurt the team, but he surely wasn't helping. When Head Coach Schmidt took Azira out for Gonzalo Pineda it highlighted how much worse Azira is.

The final thing hat stood out was Referee Jair Marrufo in ability to control the game at the end. His refuse to issue a yellow card for flopping just led to more and more Whitecap player hitting the deck. From the 80th minute forward, there must have been four or five Whitecaps that spent time on the ground. It was ridiculous. They would roll around delaying the game and wasting time only to pop up and keep playing minutes later. Referee's are allowed give yellow cards to prevent exactly this kind of thing from happening. It probably didn't cost the Sounders the game, their inability to put together any kind of competent offensive attack cost them the game, but the constant delays and time wasting sure didn't help.