A Seattle Sounders team still struggling to overcome injuries traveled to Chicago to face a Fire team transitioning to life under a new manager and missing some key pieces in their own right. When the full-time whistle blew the score line was unchanged from kickoff. It was a game that showed some promise at the start, but as time wore on the play got progressively sloppier and each team seemingly played with keeping a clean sheet as their primary intention. It is notable that Fredy Montero once again started the game on the bench, seemingly still in Sigi Schmid's doghouse, but Montero did play the majority of the second half after coming on for Nate Jaqua 53 minutes in.
The Sounders best chance came early on when Lamar Neagle's 6th minute header forced an excellent diving save by Sean Johnson. From then on it was Chicago with the better of the chances (if not the overall play) with Daniel Paladini in particular testing Kasey Keller on a few occasions. The Sounders defense and midfield were excellent all evening and a draw on the road in MLS is never a bad result, but Seattle's inability to score is a fairly major concern. Sigi Schmid has done a great deal of tinkering and adjusting of the lineup but still hasn't found the right mix to make the attack anything more than mediocre. Injuries are of course a major reason behind the Sounders goal-scoring struggles but that doesn't make things less frustrating.
Luckily for Seattle the play of their back line and midfield has kept them in every game this season and that was once again the case on Saturday. All of Chicago's best chances came from distance and Seattle displayed a great deal of quality in the build up; all that was missing was the finishing. As frustrating as that can be to watch, it's also much less of a problem than having holes in the defense and midfield. If Seattle are able to continue grinding out results in this manner until the forwards find their scoring touch (or the transfer window opens) they'll be in decent shape come the stretch run. It might make for some games as uneventful as the 0-0 against Chicago, but given all the poor luck the Sounders have had to endure so far this season they can't be faulted for doing things in a less than pretty fashion sometimes.