The Seattle Sounders Football Club got exactly what they needed to get this past Saturday as they defeated the visiting San Jose Earthquakes by a score of 1-0 in front of nearly 50,000 fans at CenturyLink Field. The win propelled Seattle back over Real Salt Lake on top of the Western Conference but there was one aspect of the result that was much sweeter for Rave Green Nation; the shutout.
It was the club's first shutout since March 23rd in Montreal breaking a run of eight matches in which Seattle gave up a total of 17 goals. Ironically, the Sounders won five of those matches. Nevertheless the result was much needed for the Rave Green but it did not come as a surprise at all since San Jose only dressed 16 players due to injury, suspension and World Cup call-ups. Included among the missing players were the three most dangerous attacking options for the Earthquakes in Chris Wondolowski, Alan Gordon and Stephen Lenhart. A trio who has combined to score 61 percent of San Jose's goals since the beginning of the 2011 season.
San Jose was only able to muster one shot on target which came extremely late in the match, barely testing Stefan Frei to boot.
The next challenge will be significantly more difficult as the Sounders travel north up I-5 to clash with Cascadia rival Vancouver Whitecaps. This match is the one that will show whether Sigi Schmid has shored up the defense after the 5-0 drubbing at Gillette Stadium two weeks ago; the differences between the Whitecaps and Earthquakes attack are night and day. Here is a comparison of the two clubs statistically to this point.
| Offensive Numbers Per Game | San Jose Earthquakes | Vancouver Whitecaps |
|---|---|---|
| Shots | 12.0 | 13.9 |
| On Target | 3.8 | 5.6 |
| Passes | 389.7 | 405.2 |
| Pass Completion % | 78.5% | 79.0% |
| Attacking Third Pass Completions | 68.0 | 75.3 |
| Attacking Third Pass Attempts | 107.3 | 120.2 |
| Goals | 1.0 | 1.6 |
What is interesting about the Sounders defense is that if you were to look at the team statistics, they really are not doing too bad. They are ranked right around the middle of the league in most of the team categories that MLS keeps tabs on for each match. The two categories that jumped off the page at me though was that they are ranked seventh in both the attacking third completion and attempt categories on the defensive side; allowing 71.8 completed passes and 114.3 attempted passes in the attacking third per match.
Thankfully for Sigi Schmid and company, the offense has been picking up the slack for the defense. That will not always be the case though especially during the stretch run into the postseason as well as the postseason itself; defenses will get tight as teams do not want to make that critical mistake that will end their season early.
The Seattle Sounders-Vancouver Whitecaps match is scheduled to kickoff on Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. PDT from B.C. Place in Vancouver, British Columbia. Make sure to tune into MLS Live for all of the action between two of the best clubs in the Western Conference.