Turbulent waters: Sounders scrounge a point with Rapids

The Seattle Sounders settled for a 1-1 draw away against the Colorado Rapids on Saturday. A 45th minute goal from Danny Musovski put Seattle in front, but an early second half goal from Djordje Mihailovic in the 54th minute leveled the game. The road point isn’t a bad result, but another hamstring injury for Jordan Morris and giving up the lead will definitely leave a sour taste in the Sounders’ mouths.

The Rapids put Seattle under pressure early, with a pair of good looks in the 5th and 6th minute that they weren’t able to capitalize on. The Sounders were able to work their way into the game after the opening few minutes and created chances of their own, but consistently struggled to slow Colorado down and gave up lots of set piece opportunities to the hosts on corners and free kicks.

The Sounders were able to get the game’s opening goal just before the end of the first half through Musovski, who scored for the third consecutive game for the Sounders. Jesús Ferreira picked out the run of Kalani Kossa-Rienzi down Seattle’s right side and Kossa-Rienzi hit a low cross into the area where Musovski was running in on goal and was able to reach behind him a little bit to knock the ball in over goalkeeper Nico Hansen.

The Sounders opted to swap out Musovski for Jordan Morris at halftime, but struggled to make use of his pace throughout the second half. The Rapids once again piled on the pressure from the whistle, first creating a threatening moment for Rafa Navarro in the 49th minute, but Paul Rothrock was able to track back and put him off enough to force Navarro to sky his shot. Unfortunately just a few minutes later Yeimar — who struggled on both sides of the ball throughout the match — was called for a foul at the edge of the box when he tripped Oliver Larraz. Djordje Mihailovic lined up over the free kick and when the enormous wall of players between him and the goal jumped he was able to slot his shot under the wall and inside Frei’s near post to tie the game.

The second half continued to be dictated largely by the hosts, with Seattle only registering one shot during the second 45 minutes. That shot came in the 81st minute when a Rothrock cross for Morris bounced around the box until Albert Rusnák attempted to volley it but sliced his shot wide. The one time the Sounders were really able to benefit from Morris’ speed came in the final minute of regulation when he started a breakaway attack, driving towards goal and playing a neat through ball for Rothrock. Rothrock either took a poor shot that went wide or attempted to cross the ball to the far post but no one was there and the ball went out for a goal kick. That also proved to be the final act for Morris, who sat down on the field and had to come out of the game with an apparent hamstring injury after only just having returned from his previous hamstring injury.

From there the Sounders were simply hanging on in hopes of keeping their one point. They were able to do just that thanks to some excellent goalkeeping by Frei and some poor awareness or finishing by Kevin Cabral. Seattle now turn their attention to a home match against St. Louis City FC next Saturday, once again without their star striker through injury.

Key moments

6 - Clearance! Mihailovic sends in a corner that Navarro easily gets a head to, but Cristian Roldan clears it off the goal line and it ends up out for a corner.

18 - Shot! De la Vega works his way around lariat and sends in a low cross that Musovski can’t quite corral and it falls to Ferreira who leans back and skies it.

23 - Post! Bassett steals the ball off of Yeimar’s foot and is in on goal, but puts his shot off the post and out for a goal kick.

35 - Shot! Vargas plays in Rothrock who gets a shot off that’s saved and spilled by Hansen. The rebound falls to Musovski, but his followup attempt goes wide.

39 - Tip! Kossa-Rienzi gets the ball sprayed out to him on the right and lines up an early shross that nearly sneaks in under the bar, but Hansen tips it over.

45 - GOAL! Musovski does it again! Ferreira plays Kossa-Rienzi in behind the defense and his cutback is a little behind Musovski, but no problem as he reaches back and touches it home! 1-0 Sounders

HT - Sub. Jordan Morris replaces goalscorer Danny Musovski.

49 - Miss! Navarro is running in on goal and lines up a shot, but Rothrock tracks back to put him off enough that Navarro blasts the shot high.

54 - Goal, Rapids. Larraz is brought down at the edge of the box by Yeimar and Mihailovic puts the free kick under the jumping wall and inside the near post. 1-1

55 - Subs. Albert Rusnák comes on for Pedro de la Vega and Alex Roldan replaces Kalani Kossa-Rienzi

59 - Sub. Jackson Travis leaves the game, replaced by Ian Murphy.

60 - Save! Navarro has another look on a header from a corner, but Frei jumps to his right and is able to catch and hold onto the ball.

71 - Sub. Ryan Kent enters the game, replacing Jesús Ferreira.

81 - Shot! Rothrock sends a ball into the box that Morris gets a touch to before it bounces around in the area and Rusnák hits it on the volley, but slices it wide.

84 - Subs. Kevin Cabral, Wayne Frederick and Connor Ronan enter the game for Colorado, replacing Cole Bassett, Oliver Larraz and Darren Yapi.

90 - Miss! Morris gets the Sounders out on the break and plays Rothrock down the right; Rothrock hits a ball that’s not quite a shot or cross that goes out for a goal kick.

90 - Sub. Jordan Morris exits the game with what looks like a hamstring injury and Jon Bell replaces him.

90+2 - Miss! Ronan plays a great pass for Cabral to play him in on Frei, but as Frei comes out to challenge Cabral shoots and puts it out for a goal kick.

90+5 - SAVE! Ronan sends in a cross from deep and Cabral pulls off a header that’s destined for goal, but Frei makes a great diving save to push it out for a corner.

Quick thoughts

What has Jordan done to deserve this? Jordan Morris seems like a really good dude, by all accounts. He’s a good soccer player, a family man, he has a foundation where he tries to help support diabetic kids. He doesn’t deserve the injury history he’s had to deal with. Having just last week made his first appearance since his injury against Cruz Azul in Concacaf Champions Cup back on March 11, Morris entered this match at halftime looking to build on the 30 minutes or so he played against Nashville SC. After what I’m sure was an exhausting, frustrating 45 minutes with little to do but run, Morris once again came up with a muscle injury on the only play where he really got to use his strengths to help the team find a result. It’s simply not fair, and if there is any deity that I can pray to, or entity with which I can make a deal to help him recover and stay healthy, just point me in their direction.

What you miss without a distributor: Against the Rapids we saw how badly the Sounders miss Jackson Ragen’s ability to play line-breaking passes from the back line, particularly against a team that clogs the middle of the field and likes to pressure the ball. Not only did Seattle’s defenders struggle with the physicality of Colorado’s attackers, but they had an especially difficult time moving the ball out of their own end. While Kim Kee-hee is a pretty steady passer at short- and mid-range, he doesn’t offer the vision or range of passing that Ragen does. With Yeimar, KKH and Nouhou as the back-three, there’s really not a player who is able to open the game up with the ball at his feet the way Ragen can. That’s particularly true in games where they can’t simply move the ball into the midfield and let a more advanced player do the distributing. Stuart Hawkins, who started and had a goal for Tacoma Defiance tonight, is really the only other defender on the roster who can hit those passes. He’s untested at the MLS level, but it might be worth at least seeing if he can help while Ragen is unavailable.

The Moose is shockingly loose: One of the few positives to come from this game is Danny Musovski’s goal. He now has 3 MLS goals this season, having scored in three consecutive games for just the second time in his professional career - he last did it while playing for Reno FC in the USL Championship, and his three-game scoring streak included a 4 goal, 1 assist performance in a 5-0 win over Tacoma Defiance. The finish on the goal was a good one, the exact kind of thing you want to see from your striker. He’s rounding into form at the perfect moment, it turns out, as Jordan Morris looks set to miss more time due to injury although it’s unclear just how much.

Notable quote

Player spotlight

Danny Musovski – Musovski had the goal and 3 of Seattle’s 7 shots on the night, and also won 4/7 duels in his 45 minutes. He did exactly what was asked of him and earned the team a road point.