Two big MLS club in trouble: LA Galaxy and Sounders
LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders are in the bottom of the Western Conference and both club could be set for a long and painful MLS season. Both teams combined for 9 losses in just 15 points.
The Zlatan effect might be not as strong as everyone expected. La Galaxy have lost 5 out their 9 first games while the Sounders only won once this season thus far. The two MLS powerhouses must respond now as fans and expectations are high.
Coach LA Galaxy Schmid on the current struggle:
“When you give up a goal at the beginning of each half on set pieces, had nothing to do with anything unexpected, it just had to do with the lack of concentration.
We needed to get a point. It’s on us that we didn’t get a point; I mean, fair to Houston that they kept fighting and battling, but we can’t give up a goal there. We’ve shown the ability to fight back and that’s a good quality. We’ve got to continue to have that quality but our ability to hold out and protect the lead or protect a tight game has been very poor.
“It’d be nice if we could play the same lineup two weeks in a row, which today we ended up starting the same lineup two weeks in a row, but it’d be nice if we had all our players healthy. It’s just a matter of just integrating everybody on to the same page. I thought at times we did alright but it’s just not enough.”
Ibrahimovic added:
“It is very irritating because after five minutes we conceded already a goal like that and we are chasing goals, which is not normal. We cannot concede like that. It shouldn’t be normal.
It’s not good; it is not good. We can either wake up or continue like this, but if we continue like this, we don’t want the same objective – we don’t want to win. Either I wake up, and I take care of it, or we all wake up”.
Sounders coach Schmetzer:
We’re disappointed in the result, it’s not good enough. I’ll make sure that we watch this tape and work on attacking movements to try and break that final line and be a little more creative. We moved the ball too slow.
The few times they moved the ball into our end of the field and we won possession of the ball, we need to sprint. We need to get down the field before they get a chance to get bunkered in.
We were too predictable. We didn’t even try to play through the final third. I think everybody in the stadium knew we were going to try and push it wide and try to cross it. You’ve got to find other ways to create chances. We just haven’t been able to do it. We’ve got to be willing to take chances. We’ve got to get some creativity, some flair…We need to find a solution to this.”
