Not lost, but a missed opportunity

Seattle-es really gives no way, the Seattle Sunders missed a chance for a potential victory for the creation of the statement on Wednesday.

The SUNERS controlled most of the game and easily had the best chances to score, controlled a short -handed Cruz Azul. The 0-0 tie in the first stage of its Concacaf Champions Cup round of 16 Matchups is hardly a catastrophe and tie-breaker from the away destination is still quite available-but it presents a very hard street leg.

“I think the clean leaf was nice for us,” said the midfielder of Sourers, Cristian Roldan. “We felt that we didn’t give up many chances. But it is frustrating in the offensive end. The chances were there. We created enough, but frustrating not to hit at least one against a difficult side.

“We felt that it was a really important game for us to win here. I think we’re going with an acid taste in our mouth, we had to benefit today. “

After a little violent start in the first 20 to 30 minutes, the SUNDER were the better team from that point in time. Even a few of her top attackers were missing Cruz Azul.

But the SUNDER finally found out how to play through their press, and were frustratingly close to exploiting a goalkeeper who was more than happy to play the ball with their feet and to get aggressively from his line.

The biggest chance came in the 51st minute when Albert Rusnák Paul Arriola, who roamed the left wing, played a ball. Arriola had taken his defense lawyer through a few steps and cruz Azul goalkeeper Kevin Mier caused to get out of his box to win the ball. Mier arrived there first, but Arriola’s print had the ball free. Pedro de la Vega was first of all, twitching Mier’s attempts to take him, and then put his shot in the almost three other defenders.

However, while de la Vega celebrated, the Assistant referee raised his flag, which pointed out that Arriola was ruled away from the side. After a short interruption for Var, to look at the piece – and non -existent evidence on the contrary – the call was allowed.

There were also many other chances. Nouhou had an open look at a header that he was putting out of the crossbar, Jordan Morris had a shot with his left foot that defeated the goalkeeper, but was torn down from the inside of the post, and there were several others in whom Cruz Azul had to perform the last efforts to keep the sounders off the scoreboard. On the other side of the field, Cruz Azul only managed to make three shots out of the penalty area, and Stefan Frei forced Frei to a difficult rescue.

There were also some real signs of progress. For the first time in about 17 months, the SUNDER started a game with all three designated players on the field. It did not lead to a goal, but there was a cohesion for the way they moved and defended the ball, which was not always present this year, even if they scored more goals.

A constantly awakening concern is that they still couldn’t have these three DPS with Jesús Ferreira on the field who replaced De la Vega in it. As long as the SUNDER holds on this three-center formation, there is no obvious way to put all four players in positions on the field that really suit you.

This seems to be a problem that the SUNDER are willing to solve a little more patiently.

It is more urgent how you come by Cruz Azul. Even if they were exceeded, they still seemed to have an advantage to play the game in the game. Cruz Azul seemed control through things like the delay of restarts, always keeping in the referee’s ear and only getting a little more out of every duel.

“It is just something you have to get used to in Concacaf,” said the midfielder of SUNDERS OBED Vargas. “These teams do every little thing to get an advantage. You have to deal with it. You also have to do it yourself. We have to get a little more of this “Street Smart”, sometimes we are a little too honest, a little too nice. The referee was a little loose at moments, but we have to deal with it. We have to go forward.

“We had everything we needed to win this game.”

The good news is that the Sounders have more experience than most MLS pages to overcome this.

It is not the position in which the SUNDERS want to be, but they have a success story on the street in Concacaf game. During your current 13-game ConcaCaf series, you played six street games. The results of five of these games – including the two games they played in Mexico – would be enough to secure progress, and the other would be enough to bring the game into penalty.

“We have no problem going down there,” said Arriola. “Nowadays, the levels are so even that we have to go down and win there.”