SEATTLE — There’s really no way around it, the Seattle Sounders missed an opportunity for a potential statement-making win on Wednesday.
Facing a short-handed Cruz Azul, the Sounders controlled most of the match and had easily the best scoring chances, but couldn’t find a goal. The 0-0 tie in the first leg of their Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16 matchup is hardly a disaster — the away-goal tiebreaker is still quite achievable — but it sets up a very tough road leg.
“I think the clean sheet was nice for us,” Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan said. “We felt like we didn’t give up a whole lot of chances. But it’s frustrating on the offensive end. The chances were there. We created enough, but frustrating not to score at least one against a tough side.
“We felt like it was a really important game for us to win here. I think we leave with a sour taste in our mouth, we needed to capitalize today.”
After a bit of a rough start through the first 20-30 minutes, the Sounders were arguably the better team from that point forward. Even missing a bunch of their top attackers, Cruz Azul was well organized defensively and proved perfectly capable of connecting passes.
But the Sounders eventually figured out how to play through their press and were frustratingly close to taking advantage of a goalkeeper who was more than happy to play the ball with his feet and aggressively come off his line.
The biggest chance came in the 51st minute when Albert Rusnák played a ball to Paul Arriola, who was streaking in from the left wing. Arriola had beaten his defender by a few steps, prompting Cruz Azul goalkeeper Kevin Mier to come out of his box in an attempt to win the ball. Mier did get there first, but Arriola’s pressure caused the ball to roll free. Pedro de la Vega was first to it, shrugged off Mier’s attempts to grab him and then tucked his shot inside the near post through three other defenders.
While de la Vega was celebrating, though, the assistant referee raised his flag, indicating Arriola was ruled offside. Following a brief stoppage for VAR to look at the play — and absent clear evidence to the contrary — the call was allowed to stand.
There were plenty of other chances, too. Nouhou had an open look at a header that he hit off the crossbar, Jordan Morris had a left-footed shot that beat the goalkeeper but clanged off the inside of the post, and there were several others where Cruz Azul had to come up with last-ditch efforts to keep the Sounders off the scoreboard. On the other side of the field, Cruz Azul only managed to take three shots from inside the penalty area and never forced Stefan Frei into a difficult save.
There were also some genuine signs of progress. For the first time in about 17 months, the Sounders started a game with all three Designated Players on the field. It didn’t lead to a goal, but there was a cohesion to both the way the Sounders moved the ball and defended that hasn’t always been present this year, even when they were scoring more goals.
One continuously niggling concern is that they still haven’t been able to get those three DPs on the field with Jesús Ferreira, who replaced de la Vega in this one. As long as the Sounders are sticking with this three-centerback formation, there isn’t an obvious way to get all four of those players on the field in positions that truly suit them.
That seems to be a problem the Sounders are willing to be a bit more patient to solve, though.
Of more pressing concern is how to get past Cruz Azul. Even while being outplayed, they still seemed to have an advantage in playing the game within the game. Cruz Azul seemed to keep some control through things like delaying restarts, always being in the referee’s ear and getting just a little extra out of seemingly every tackle.
“It’s just something you have to get used to in Concacaf,” Sounders midfielder Obed Vargas said. “These teams do every little thing to get an advantage. You have to deal with it. You have to do it yourself, too. We need to get a little bit more of that ‘street smart’, we’re a little too honest sometimes, a little too nice. The ref was a little loose in moments, but we have to deal with it. We have to move forward.
“We had everything we needed to win this game.”
The good news is that the Sounders have more experience than most MLS sides in overcoming that.
It’s not the position the Sounders want to be in, but they do have a history of success on the road in Concacaf play. During their current 13-game Concacaf unbeaten streak, they’ve played six road games. The results of five of those games — including both of the games they played in Mexico — would be enough to secure advancement, and the other would be enough to get the game to penalty kicks.
“We have no problem going down there,” Arriola said. “Nowadays, the levels are so even, it’s a game we need to go down there and win.”
