With Sunday’s 3-0 win over FC Dallas in the first leg of the Western Conference Semifinals, the Seattle Sounders have now won three games in eight days for the second time in just four weeks.
Seattle defeated the LA Galaxy, Chicago Fire and Vancouver Whitecaps from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2 in a crucial stretch in its hunt for the playoffs. Sunday capped wins over Real Salt Lake on Decision Day to make the playoffs and Sporting Kansas City on Thursday in the Western Conference Knockout Round.
The club had all three matches at CenturyLink Field this past week, an important note given the magnitude of the matches.
“I didn’t mind the fact that we could stay at home this whole week,” said interim head coach Brian Schmetzer when asked whether it was an advantage playing the first leg of a series at home. “I think that play-in game was a massive difference. Had we had to travel to Kansas City, that could have impacted this game.”
Seattle was not the only team to benefit from playing at home first. All four lower seeds won their opening matches of the conference semifinals on Saturday. Not a single team allowed an away goal and combined to outscore higher seeds 7-0.
There are certainly advantages to having the second leg at home, not the least of which is playing extra time and having penalty kicks in front of a home crowd. But going on the road to face a team in rhythm that had just won a Knockout Round game is not an enviable task.
While seven of the 12 higher seeds ultimately advanced (two were even on aggregate and won in PKs), there has not been a clear statistical advantage for hosting the second leg. The Sounders now head to Frisco, Texas, as 94 percent favorites to advance to the Western Conference Finals.
“We didn’t have to travel after a short turnaround,” said midfielder Cristian Roldan. “If we would have had to travel, it would have made it more difficult for us to obtain such a good result.”
