Mentally tough Sounders earn road draw
By Louis Roesch
Five games in the books for Brian Schmetzer’s band of grinders and the team remains unbeaten after Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw with the Houston Dynamo.
If nothing else, the Seattle Sounders are a mentally tough group of soccer players. Don’t take my word for it, just ask their interim head coach Brian Schmetzer.
“This team is mentally strong enough to understand that the mind is a powerful thing” said Schmetzer. “If your legs are heavy, your mind can still work and you can still be effective for the team. That’s what they believe in. They have such a strong mind set that they can persevere.”
Five games in the books for Schmetzer’s band of grinders and the team remains unbeaten after Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw with the Houston Dynamo. Nicolas Lodeiro provided the dramatic game changing goal with literally seconds to spare in second half stoppage time.
The Sounders needed the recently acquired magic of Lodeiro thanks to Dynamo substitute Andrew Wenger. Wenger entered the match in the 61st minute and fifteen minutes later delivered his first goal since June 26th ripping a shot past Seattle keeper Stefan Frei.
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The match became a dogfight according to Schmetzer as Will Bruin, another Dynamo second half, sub had opportunities in the 87th and 89th minute to put the game away. Meanwhile as Bruin was missing, Dynamo keeper Joe Willis was doing everything he could to keep the equalizer out of the net including swatting a ball away that appeared to have crossed the line in the 84th minute.
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“Then it’s a dogfight,” continued Schmetzer “And they never stopped believing in the equalizer.”
With barely a minute left in the match, Seattle (9-12-4, 31 points) had the ball in the attacking third putting pressure against what had been an otherwise stifling Houston defense.
“It was great the way we persevered, because the other team played well, so you have to give (coach) Wade (Barrett) some credit,” commented Schmetzer in his postgame remarks. “But our team doesn’t stop believing.”
Seattle substitute Joevin Jones delivered a service into the box following a cleared corner by the Houston defense and Lodeiro did the rest. The player whom Seattle superstar Clint Dempsey calls a difference maker now has two goals and four assists since his arrival in late July.
In a deja vu moment, Seattle who remains winless in their last eight trips to BBVA scored for the second time in 2016 against Houston(5-10-10, 25 points) in the 94th minute. A Chad Marshall goal in the April 10th match forged a late game draw as well.
“To fight back like that was great. It was a hot day out there, but to show that resiliency and to get that point, it was big time,” concluded a happy and relieved Brian Schmetzer.
With playoff implications on the line, Seattle continues its road swing with a stop in Portland on Sunday. The Sounders trail the Timbers for the sixth and final playoff berth by a single point.