While a season-opening loss could easily deter a team, the Seattle Sounders are looking at it as motivation as they look ahead to their first home match of the year against Austin FC on Saturday (7:30 p.m. PT; Watch on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, 93.3 KJR FM, El Rey 1360AM | TICKETS).
“It's a hate-to-lose type of mentality,” said Head Coach Brian Schmetzer. “The team put the effort into [the match] and never quit. They came back from a 2-0 deficit to bring it close and then had some other chances to get back in it to at least equalize.”
Despite missing key players João Paulo, Albert Rusnák, Yeimar and Stefan Frei, the Rave Green adapted to the players available and put on a solid performance.
“It stings a little bit because you do all that work and you don't come out with anything,” added Schmetzer.
That said, this week’s training kicked off with a strong emphasis around little victories, beginning with a 5v5 round-robin tournament during Tuesday’s session.
“Part of that was about winning duels,” said Schmetzer. “So [Tuesday] focused on competition.”
Honoring Ozzie Alonso
Join us as we celebrate the legendary Sounders career of Ozzie Alonso at our home opener on Saturday, March 2. Fans can meet Alonso pre-match, and there will be an on-field ceremony honoring the club legend.
LAFC was a challenging first test for the Rave Green, but it should prepare the team for the home opener, with Austin FC expected to employ some of the same tactics in possession.
“Austin's kind of a similar team in the way that they possess and the way they build,” said midfielder Josh Atencio. “They build with two No. 8’s and one 6 holding so we got a taste of that against LA.”
Atencio continued, “Now it’s about just trying to implement that over. And obviously, we did film study on Austin on [Wednesday] and we're out here doing 11v11 practicing for it.”
With the tactics relayed in this week’s training and the lessons learned from last Saturday’s loss, the players and coaches expect to come out firing on Saturday.
The team is optimistic in their abilities to go head-to-head with the Texas side, but above all, they know the environment at Lumen field will propel them forward to victory.
“I think we have enough quality to go through the kind of press Austin's going to come out with,” said goalkeeper Andrew Thomas. “And we're at home, so we're going to look after the ball and kind of do what we do to control the game our way.”
