TUKWILA, Wash. — The Seattle Sounders trained on Tuesday for the first time since Sunday’s disappointing 4-2 loss to the Timbers in Portland, the first defeat in six matches under interim head coach Brian Schmetzer. The squad practicing was relatively small, though, as five first team players are gone on international duty - Jordan Morris, Nicolás Lodeiro, Román Torres, Joevin Jones and Oalex Anderson - and more were undergoing regeneration treatment indoors.
Schmetzer and the team watched film earlier Tuesday morning and tried to digest the numerous defensive miscues that cost the Sounders points over the weekend.
“The second and third goals wasn’t good enough team defense,” Schmetzer said. “I’ve been talking about how well the team has done defensively as a group, but there were too many errors on those two plays. [The Timbers] came out really aggressively and we weren’t able to match that right away. It took us 45 minutes to figure out the speed of that game. The last goal was the gut punch.”
The last goal was a header from Steven Taylor right before halftime that sent Portland into the locker room with a a 4-0 lead. Being dominated by a rival, especially one occupying the sixth and final Western Conference playoff spot, clearly did not sit well with Schmetzer's squad.
“[The team] would play Wednesday just to get that bad taste out of their system,” Schmetzer said.
Looking ahead to the Sounders’ next MLS match in San Jose on Sept. 10, the staff will have to figure out the dynamic of the back four after Torres made his long-awaited return over the weekend. Captain Brad Evans had been starting with Chad Marshall at center back, but when Torres entered as a halftime substitute, Schmetzer pulled off right back Tyrone Mears and shifted Evans out wide.
Schmetzer said he hadn’t figured out where Evans would play moving forward, despite Evans saying after Sunday’s match that he’d “have to find a new position” with Torres back.
“We have not had that conversation yet,” Schmetzer said. “Román might play two games for Panama…There’s a lot of things that can go wrong.
“As a staff we’ve started to think about it, and we’ll have a better determination as to how we start against San Jose after that second international match.”
As for Seattle’s most notable absence, Clint Dempsey, who last week was sidelined with an irregular heartbeat, Schmetzer was succinct in his response about Dempsey’s condition.
“No updates as of today,” he said.
