Seattle Sounders 2016 season thread

[hawkfan68]

Great win. Nice team effort. Good to see Valdez and Lodeiro scoring goals. I've been down on Joevin Jones throughout this season, he was superb in yesterday's game.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Great win. Nice team effort. Good to see Valdez and Lodeiro scoring goals. I've been down on Joevin Jones throughout this season, he was superb in yesterday's game.

Jones IMO has passed up Roldan as most improved player this year. In fact another year or two and I don't think he's even on this club anymore, a bigger club is going to scoop him up like Yedlin.

He's got the pace.......and now the decision making and crossing ability to be a very good LB.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

I feel like I'm in a parallel universe right now. You see, I've spent all year in a lonely place called the Nelson Valdez bandwagon. A place where people mocked you at games for wearing his jersey, where they counter every argument about his leadership and skills with "he can't score! Seattle should cut him! He's a waste of a DP!" Now... I'm hearing people all over the stadium people singing the Nelson Valdez gospel, suddenly I'm no longer crazy, suddenly people are acknowledging just how good Valdez actually is and how good he can be for this team.

My biggest criticism of Schmetzer is his insistence on starting CMs in attacking roles, and I've made it very clear that I thought Seattle should start Valdez or another forward up top. Guys who can make dangerous runs that open up space for and take pressure off an often suffocated Jordan Morris. This wasn't a criticism of Roldan, Ivanschitz or Flacco, because all of these guys can play in the attacking midfield, the criticism was playing more than one of them at a time, putting more and more pressure on Morris to not only score goals but also hold the ball up in the attacking third.

I'm not one to sit here and say I was right because it's only one game... but It doesn't come as a surprise to me that Seattle's best game since losing Clint Dempsey, comes from the very line up I've been asking for since Dempsey went down. Nelson Valdez has flaws as a player, but the man is always making the correct runs, wins the ball and distributes it better than any other player currently available. I hope tonight opens the door a little further for Valdez, because I honestly believe Valdez is the key to winning an MLS Cup. I could seriously go on and on about Valdez from a metric standpoint, how he's a top 5 CF in MLS if you remove his goal-scoring struggles, but It isn't time for that yet... there are still games to played, there is still a chance for Valdez to continue proving his detractors wrong.

What we've seen since Sigi left is the difference between an open minded forward thinking manager, and a rigid one.

Even when things weren't working, and oh man they weren't working big time for Sigi and the Sounders, Sigi refused to change.........change tactics, change formations, even change line ups.

Schmetzer has had no problem changing all of the above and playing the hot hand with players, as with Valdez. He knows soccer, and sports in general is so much about momentum and feel as a manager.

REALLY REALLY proud of my club right now. 9 times out of 10 a veteran club like Seattle losing it's star DP during the worst losing streak in franchise history packs it in and starts making vacation reservations. To claw back to a point without Clint and are now playing their best soccer of their season? Awesome.

Respect to staying on the Valdez train, I figured age had just caught up with him like Gomez but it looks like a confidence thing. To be fair he was awful for large parts of the year but what a time to find some form.

I feel the big difference between this year and other years is the togetherness of the team. I feel like they are playing as a unit whereas in previous years the pressure was all on Martins and Dempseys shoulders and when you take them out of the game the Sounders became ineffective. Now the Sounders have to find different ways to win whih they are doing and have overcame a lot of adversity.

On top of that tactics- in that same situation I think Sigi would have set us up not to lose an away goal and we'd be tieining 0-0 or losing 0-1 and having to go into Dallas getting an away goal.

Looking at a lot of MLS champions not named LA Galaxy, most are full of teams who don't have super stars but work really well as a team and each players knows their roles- Portland, RSL, KC in recent years. Feels a bit like that with the Sounders this year- Lodeiro has been amazing for us but most people won't have heard of him unlike Dempsey. I kind of like it that way.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Great win. Nice team effort. Good to see Valdez and Lodeiro scoring goals. I've been down on Joevin Jones throughout this season, he was superb in yesterday's game.

Jones IMO has passed up Roldan as most improved player this year. In fact another year or two and I don't think he's even on this club anymore, a bigger club is going to scoop him up like Yedlin.

He's got the pace.......and now the decision making and crossing ability to be a very good LB.

He's definitely improved but he still needs to work on the defensive side more. Admittedly Yedlin needed work on that too.

I feel Ozzy has really has stepped up as well, he was in a bit of a funk earlier in the year and I thought he was on the way out but he's turned it around.

Same with Roldan. I used to hate when Sigi used to play him and Kovar together at the start of the year. Now Roldan has really stepped up.

I know he didn't play last night but Torres makes a difference as well compared to Evans or Scott at the back. Scott done well last night but it must really help him being rested up rather than having to play every few games like before.

If Evans stays next year i'd like to see him be the starting RB. I doubt Mears is staying.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Yeah I like the Ozzie that's on a yellow card and possible suspension.........much better than rash hothead Ozzie that make stupid emotional tackles and costly penalties.

Does the yellow card accumulation rule carry over the rest of the playoffs? Or does it get reset each round?

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Yeah I like the Ozzie that's on a yellow card and possible suspension.........much better than rash hothead Ozzie that make stupid emotional tackles and costly penalties.

Does the yellow card accumulation rule carry over the rest of the playoffs? Or does it get reset each round?

I think it resets for MLC Cup final? Ozzy still has improved from earlier in the season, he's ALWAYS had yellow cards lol.

 

[TransGenderHawkFan]

Great win. Nice team effort. Good to see Valdez and Lodeiro scoring goals. I've been down on Joevin Jones throughout this season, he was superb in yesterday's game.

Jones IMO has passed up Roldan as most improved player this year. In fact another year or two and I don't think he's even on this club anymore, a bigger club is going to scoop him up like Yedlin.

He's got the pace.......and now the decision making and crossing ability to be a very good LB.

Pump the brakes there speed racer. For the good things that Jones accomllished last night he also made some giraffe on ice plays and left the defense in compromising situations in other instances.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Great win. Nice team effort. Good to see Valdez and Lodeiro scoring goals. I've been down on Joevin Jones throughout this season, he was superb in yesterday's game.

Jones IMO has passed up Roldan as most improved player this year. In fact another year or two and I don't think he's even on this club anymore, a bigger club is going to scoop him up like Yedlin.

He's got the pace.......and now the decision making and crossing ability to be a very good LB.

Pump the brakes there speed racer. For the good things that Jones accomllished last night he also made some giraffe on ice plays and left the defense in compromising situations in other instances.

That's why I said in another year or two Roscoe P. Coltrane.

 

[TransGenderHawkFan]

Great win. Nice team effort. Good to see Valdez and Lodeiro scoring goals. I've been down on Joevin Jones throughout this season, he was superb in yesterday's game.

Jones IMO has passed up Roldan as most improved player this year. In fact another year or two and I don't think he's even on this club anymore, a bigger club is going to scoop him up like Yedlin.

He's got the pace.......and now the decision making and crossing ability to be a very good LB.

Pump the brakes there speed racer. For the good things that Jones accomllished last night he also made some giraffe on ice plays and left the defense in compromising situations in other instances.

That's why I said in another year or two Roscoe P. Coltrane.

Going from suck, to not so suck hardly qualifies him as most improved as you claimed he was over Roldan.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Going from suck, to not so suck hardly qualifies him as most improved as you claimed he was over Roldan.

What you saw last night was "not so suck?" I guess we watched a different match cause Jones played great to me, and has now for a couple months.

 

[TransGenderHawkFan]

Going from suck, to not so suck hardly qualifies him as most improved as you claimed he was over Roldan.

What you saw last night was "not so suck?" I guess we watched a different match cause Jones played great to me, and has now for a couple months.

What I watched was him making a couple of really good passes. Then, for the rest of the match, I watched ill timed runs, charging forward out of control and losing possession putting unneeded pressure on the defense, and hasty passes into the box when there was nothing but opposing kits.

 

[TransGenderHawkFan]

This is how I generally feel about Joevin Jones.....

There’s no denying that Jones is still prone to the aimless cross and doesn’t always make the best decisions either going forward or on defense, but he’s quickly developing into one of the top left backs in MLS and it’s hard to imagine the Sounders being in this position without him

http://www.sounderatheart.com/2016/10/3 ... orris-wing

 

[DTexHawk]

Really don't understand the reason for "aggregate" scoring method in MSL.

Would be like Hawks/lambs using total score for home and away game to determine winner or as a TIEBREAKER to determine division winner.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Really don't understand the reason for "aggregate" scoring method in MSL.

Would be like Hawks/lambs using total score for home and away game to determine winner or as a TIEBREAKER to determine division winner.

It's to encourage teams to not park the bus away from home and try and grab some goals. It also probably does root out the bad teams as it removes one off freak results.

It's not perfect but it's came a long way since games used to be decided by a coin toss in the 1960's and early 70's if the game ended on a tie. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Football ... 0152900688

Can you imagine an nfl play off game decided in this way.

 

[DTexHawk]

Really don't understand the reason for "aggregate" scoring method in MSL.

Would be like Hawks/lambs using total score for home and away game to determine winner or as a TIEBREAKER to determine division winner.

It's to encourage teams to not park the bus away from home and try and grab some goals. It also probably does root out the bad teams as it removes one off freak results.

It's not perfect but it's came a long way since games used to be decided by a coin toss in the 1960's and early 70's if the game ended on a tie. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Football ... 0152900688

Can you imagine an nfl play off game decided in this way.

If you are playing 2 games, 7 days apart, why not play best of 3 within 9 or 10 days?

 

[Uncle Si]

Best way of looking at aggregate scoring is as one 180 minute long game, with a break and change of venues.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Really don't understand the reason for "aggregate" scoring method in MSL.

Would be like Hawks/lambs using total score for home and away game to determine winner or as a TIEBREAKER to determine division winner.

Why compare it to football, why use more comparable long season sports like baseball, basketball or hockey where they use multiple game series to determine their champions?

Football is a short 16 game season where the good teams rise to the top and make the playoffs. Sports that have long seasons full of many many games or matches IMO need series or aggregate matches so that the better teams advance (most of the time).

You're only other option is to limit the number of teams in the playoffs, but like baseball, hockey and basketball as a league you're trying to keep fans interested as long as possible during the regular season.......and hard to argue this year with the Sounders right? If the MLS was a single table league, not only would us fans have checked out in July, but probably so would have the players.

 

[TransGenderHawkFan]

http://www.sounderatheart.com/2016/11/2 ... head-coach

Just hired Schmetzer as the permanent manager.

 

[Smurf]

http://www.sounderatheart.com/2016/11/2/13502180/brian-schmetzer-head-coach

Just hired Schmetzer as the permanent manager.

I couldn't be happier.

He's been great this year. He was brilliant on Sunday, every sub was perfect, and his half-time changes were perfect. The change from 4231 to a 4-diamond-2 put FCD on their heels.

 

[knownone]

Happy for Schmetzer, hoping for the best.