I know that Toronto's results in CONCACAF Champions League has no direct bearing on how the Sounders do tonight, but after seeing the Reds not only win 2-1 at home last week but 2-1 on the road last night, I can't help but feel like we NEED to win tonight. I know that they are completely different situations going into their seconds legs - TFC had their first leg at home (thus allowing them to dictate play in the second leg); was playing a true minnow in the region; and despite what they are saying in public, could focus all their efforts in the CCL because they have nothing to play for in MLS -but it would be a huge slap in the face if we can't get the job done against San Francisco of Panama tonight at Qwest while TFC, holders of 3 league wins advances to the group stage.
Hanauer and the rest of the front office talks about making this an organization known around the world. Well, it starts tonight. I know we are still in year 3 and most clubs would die to be in this position, but if we can't win tonight, then we need to consider how this team is build and managed. We are a supremely better team than San Francisco yet find ourselves down 1-0 after the first leg. It shouldn't be entirely surprising, since last year on the road in CCL we went 0-3-1 with losses in Mexico, Honduras and Costa Rica, but I still would have expected differently against a Panamanian side.
Flaming out in the group stage last year sucked, but I looked forward to this year knowing that it would have a positive effect on the team moving forward. Besides Keller and El Flaco this was a young team with players who never got the opportunity to play in a hostile environment like Central American. Surely, the results from last year would help this year. And yet last week we went down to Panama and lost 1-0 to a team that had 0 fan support. It was a bad loss and as much as Sigi Schmid appears calm knowing that they have 90 minutes at home to right the ship, one minor slip-up will put them in a HUGE hole. I mean, if they come out flat and give up a fluke goal early on, then they will be down 2-0 in aggregate and need to score 3 unanswered to win. Even if they don't give up a goal, they will need to find a way to score. In the past 4 MLS games this hasn't been a problem, but in each of those games they didn't have to dissect a team that was in full bunker mode like San Francisco will tonight. We can't hope to counter attack because they are not going to push the tempo. This is not the type of game where we have had success in - we will need to be patient and do something we haven't done in the past - score some goals.
Had this post come two weeks before I would have been feeling overly optimistic, but after seeing the boys in rave get routed by Manchester United (a loss that hurts a little less now knowing that they plastered the MLS All-Stars 4-0 a week later), lose in Panama and look lifeless in Houston, I am definitely worried for tonight. Put me at Defcom 3 for this game.
Come on boys, we need to get it done tonight.
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