Final: Monterrey 2-0 Seattle

Chance would be a fine thing?

No, the second half of the second half was full of chance after chance for Seattle, but the Sounders just couldn’t put the ball in the net.

Sigi Schmid made some choices that are interesting, to say the least, to those of us without the benefit of knowing exactly what is going on in the locker room and on field level. Nate Jaqua replaced Blaise Nkufo, who’d been one of the better players in the first half. Mike Seamon took the place of Nate Sturgis, which made a slight amount of sense, but the team would’ve benefited from having them both on the field and shifting Alvaro Fernandez up to play alongside Nkufo and Montero. Instead, minutes later Schmid took off El Flaco in favor of…wait for it…Roger Levesque.

Monterrey played a 4-3-3 formation that meant that the Sounders were almost instantly closed down the moment the ball went to the midfield. Even when the Sounders came close to goal, Monterrey had slowed the pace of the game enough to have plenty of men in front of their goal to stop Seattle.

The one time Seattle got the ball in the net, off a header by Jaqua, the linesman ruled the goal offside. Such was the luck of the night for the Sounders.

For the eternal optimists, if Seattle wins against the Fire on Saturday, we almost certainly have an MLS playoff spot. As for me, I’m going back to being a cynic. at least the disappointment doesn’t hurt as badly then.