Seattle Sounders 2016 season thread

[YYZHawksFan]

Might have to walk over to the stadium and catch the finals. Forecast is a little sketchy right now. Been super warm here the last few days and no where near a typical winter in YYZ.

PM me if any .Net'ers are passionate enough to come out. I will be around.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

They still have Gio. I think he'll be more of a problem for the Sounders than Bradley or Jozy would. Sounders defense needs to play its best game. They are very shaky at best. Considering TFC can score, if it gets into a scoring battle...the Sounders are at a huge disadvantage. I don't think the Sounders can match score for score with TFC.

For sure, still formidable obviously.

But IMO Montreal has a lot of young fast/quick dynamic players that give the Sounders problems, especially late in games. Toronto is skilled, but more of a direct style with Bradley in the midfield.

What was the injury status of Gio?

 

[YYZHawksFan]

judging by how despite the ankle he was pretty mobile after the win, i suspect he should be fine. that is what the media is reporting at least....

 

[hawkfan68]

They still have Gio. I think he'll be more of a problem for the Sounders than Bradley or Jozy would. Sounders defense needs to play its best game. They are very shaky at best. Considering TFC can score, if it gets into a scoring battle...the Sounders are at a huge disadvantage. I don't think the Sounders can match score for score with TFC.

For sure, still formidable obviously.

But IMO Montreal has a lot of young fast/quick dynamic players that give the Sounders problems, especially late in games. Toronto is skilled, but more of a direct style with Bradley in the midfield.

What was the injury status of Gio?

Sounds like he'll be ready to play according to this report - http://www.espnfc.com/toronto-fc/st...ovinco-and-jozy-altidore-both-fit-for-mls-cup

 

[Uncle Si]

Let's get a little pre-game chatter going on. Sounders fans... game is 3 days away.

How do you all see this playing out? That's a strong and dynamic Toronto side.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Let's get a little pre-game chatter going on. Sounders fans... game is 3 days away.

How do you all see this playing out? That's a strong and dynamic Toronto side.

I think it's going to play out like most of the Sounder's matches down the stretch..........with us losing the possession battle looking a little disjointed for the first 20-30 minutes.

Then as Lodeiro, Ozzie, Morris and Roldan start to wear out the Toronto mids and defenders we'll start to impose our will and the chances will come.

So as long as we can keep a clean sheet and not let Altidore and Gio get good looks at the goal, then this is a match we can and should win 2-0, or 2-1.

 

[Uncle Si]

Let's get a little pre-game chatter going on. Sounders fans... game is 3 days away.

How do you all see this playing out? That's a strong and dynamic Toronto side.

I think it's going to play out like most of the Sounder's matches down the stretch..........with us losing the possession battle looking a little disjointed for the first 20-30 minutes.

Then as Lodeiro, Ozzie, Morris and Roldan start to wear out the Toronto mids and defenders we'll start to impose our will and the chances will come.

So as long as we can keep a clean sheet and not let Altidore and Gio get good looks at the goal, then this is a match we can and should win 2-0, or 2-1.

You're that confident the Sounders midfield 3 is better than Toronto's diamond 4? Will be a tall order for Lodeiro to find space, as it was against Colorado while trying to recover and ensure there's not easy distribution to the league's two best scoring forward pair.

I love the diamond mid against a 2-1 mid triangle if the 4 can possess. I don't know enough about Toronto to know if they do a good job of that. Could be the midfield 3 chasing and needing help from the wingers.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Let's get a little pre-game chatter going on. Sounders fans... game is 3 days away.

How do you all see this playing out? That's a strong and dynamic Toronto side.

I think it's going to play out like most of the Sounder's matches down the stretch..........with us losing the possession battle looking a little disjointed for the first 20-30 minutes.

Then as Lodeiro, Ozzie, Morris and Roldan start to wear out the Toronto mids and defenders we'll start to impose our will and the chances will come.

So as long as we can keep a clean sheet and not let Altidore and Gio get good looks at the goal, then this is a match we can and should win 2-0, or 2-1.

You're that confident the Sounders midfield 3 is better than Toronto's diamond 4? Will be a tall order for Lodeiro to find space, as it was against Colorado while trying to recover and ensure there's not easy distribution to the league's two best scoring forward pair.

I love the diamond mid against a 2-1 mid triangle if the 4 can possess. I don't know enough about Toronto to know if they do a good job of that. Could be the midfield 3 chasing and needing help from the wingers.

I don't claim to be a TFC expert, but from what I saw out of their mids in the playoffs is the same thing I saw out of Bradley in our last two USMNT matches, an aging midfield that slows down as the match goes on......and Cheyrou and Johnson are even older than Bradley, and were gassed by the end of that Montreal series.

It's what Lodeiro has done to every opposing midfield since he got here, wear them the hell out. I've yet to see anyone mark him for even a half, let alone an entire 90. So I expect him to do to Bradley and Co. as he did to Beckerman, Jones and Cronin.

My only concern is both Ozzie and Morris took a big knock the last match with Colorado, so hopefully the two weeks off has given them enough time to heal. If not, could spell trouble.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

http://www.torontosun.com/2016/12/06/se ... cup-vs-tfc

Great troll job here and the writer of it continues to troll people who comment on it on Twitter. Apparently we dont stand a chance and are lucky to be there in the first place.

Apparently all they have to do is stop lodeiro and our centre halfs are going to be mismatched against altidore and Giovinco.

 

[YYZHawksFan]

The Toronto Sun is garbage and I live in Toranah.

It's catering to the alt right sports fan.

Frankly, the weather is horrible for soccer but looks like it's pretty dodgy in Seattle.

 

[Uncle Si]

http://www.torontosun.com/2016/12/06/seattle-flying-under-the-radar-ahead-of-mls-cup-vs-tfc

Great troll job here and the writer of it continues to troll people who comment on it on Twitter. Apparently we dont stand a chance and are lucky to be there in the first place.

Apparently all they have to do is stop lodeiro and our centre halfs are going to be mismatched against altidore and Giovinco.

I'm not reading the article but I thought Colorado did a very good job of doing just that in the 2nd leg. They pressed Seattle, limited their possession to lower in zones and kept Lodeiro pretty much quiet. Unfortunately, they could not do anything with the ball when they got it and shot themselves in the foot with a bad release pass that led to the Morris goal.

I'd think Toronto's goal scorers are better, so they might have more joy with the same tactic.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Teams have been trying to slow down Lodeiro since he got here, with little success..........like I said above their marking mids can hang with him for 30-40 minutes tops, then they fall off because of his superior workrate and tenacity.

Good luck trying to mark this for a full 90

Another side effect of building your match plan around making sure Lodeiro is marked at all times is it disrupts your own tactics, which we saw in the Dallas series. Totally got their usually efficient offense way out of rhythm.

 

[Uncle Si]

Colorado did it just fine in the 2nd leg, Sgt.

They had the ball high up the field for the majority of the match. They did not have the goal scoring acumen to make the pressure count.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Colorado did it just fine in the 2nd leg, Sgt.

They had the ball high up the field for the majority of the match. They did not have the goal scoring acumen to make the pressure count.

Colorado had the #1 defense in the league, so not exactly a good comparison.

Yes Toronto has the #1 offense in MLS, but their defense is middle of the pack, so I don't expect them to be as successful with that gameplan, as Montreal showed scoring 5 goals in the semis.........unless like I said earlier, Ozzie and Morris are gimpy.

 

[Uncle Si]

Colorado did it just fine in the 2nd leg, Sgt.

They had the ball high up the field for the majority of the match. They did not have the goal scoring acumen to make the pressure count.

Colorado had the #1 defense in the league, so not exactly a good comparison.

Yes Toronto has the #1 offense in MLS, but their defense is middle of the pack, so I don't expect them to be as successful with that gameplan, as Montreal showed scoring 5 goals in the semis.........unless like I said earlier, Ozzie and Morris are gimpy.

It's not a good comparison? This is about game planning. You can't compare the thought processes of Colorado in setting up for Seattle in the 2nd leg vs. Toronto setting up for Montreal. Completely different scenarios, tactics and philosophies.

First leg Colorado let him roam free and it cost them. 2nd leg they made an effort to stop him and did. Being good at it does not make it a poor comparison if Toronto wants to emulate that.

If Toronto wants to copy that game plan and can do something with the ball when they get it then it will put Seattle in a difficult place. Will they be as effective as Colorado in defending? Probably not. Will they be more effective with the ball? Certainly so.

I would not be too keen on relying on a team to "wear down" in the midfield after 60 minutes as the means to winning. Especially one with that much scoring on its roster.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

First leg Colorado let him roam free and it cost them. 2nd leg they made an effort to stop him and did. Being good at it does not make it a poor comparison if Toronto wants to emulate that.

It cost them in the 2nd match too, they lost 1-0.............as I hope this match will go.

You're trying to tell me TFC can easily copy Colorado's tactic of slowing down Lodeiro, and I'm saying it's not that easy for a club that doesn't have the defensive mids and backline as good as Colorado's.

 

[Uncle Si]

First leg Colorado let him roam free and it cost them. 2nd leg they made an effort to stop him and did. Being good at it does not make it a poor comparison if Toronto wants to emulate that.

It cost them in the 2nd match too, they lost 1-0.............as I hope this match will go.

You're trying to tell me TFC can easily copy Colorado's tactic of slowing down Lodeiro, and I'm saying it's not that easy for a club that doesn't have the defensive mids and backline as good as Colorado's.

I never said easy. I said if they choose to they will more than likely make more of their chances even if they are not as effective. Thought it was clear in that post? "If Toronto wants to copy that game plan and can do something with the ball when they get it then it will put Seattle in a difficult place. Will they be as effective as Colorado in defending? Probably not. Will they be more effective with the ball? Certainly so."

And it did not cost them 1-0. They ran a high press, limited service to their opponents top player. What cost them was that they didn't capitalize on their possession (and then passed the ball to a forward from their own defensive 3rd).

They key in my opinion may not be Lodeiro but Morris. If access to and from Lodeiro is limited it will fall on Morris' shoulders (and Valdez) to find alternative release channels.

Also not suggesting this is what Toronto will do. Just an option posed by that article.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

I'm going with 2-1.

Thinking a Lodeiro free kick against the run of play and a Valdez header.

The defense has been playing really well lately and I think this continues next match.

*knocks on wood*

 

[YYZHawksFan]

i was at a lunch today and was trying to lean on some people for some free tickets...

then i forgot i might not even be able to go...woops.

not to mention, sitting by the lake in minus 5 (degrees c... ;-) 0 ) is going be chilly. the wind and cold is not good and the temporary bleachers on the north side are hollow really so that is not going to be much an impediment to the wind.

i don't know how weather will impact either team.

i predict either a high scoring or close game... :sarcasm_on:

at least the snow is for Sunday and Monday.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

and a Valdez header.

That'd be amazing for Valdez.