MLS Playoffs 2016 – Conference semifinals: Seattle Sounders 3-0 FC Dallas, LA Galaxy 1-0 Colorado Rapids
The best team of the season FC Dallas got destroyed in Seattle. The Texans has a very slim chance to advance and will likely ruin a historic season after the only the first game. Did we have too many superlatives about Dallas? Surely the team did not live up to expectations. They will have a last chance for redemption while in a 3-0 hole.
As for LA Galaxy, we know the story and they will have to confirm in Colorado the one-goal advantage they built at the end of the first-leg.
Interim coach Sounders Schmetzer exulted on the win but remains calm:
“We’ve always been pretty stingy and take pride in the way we defend, but as a team and not just as a back five. We’re really limiting their key players betters. It happens higher up the pitch…and that leads to [fewer] dangerous chances.
This team, the guys in that locker room work hard every day. They understand the roles in our formation. It’s next man forward.
There are some pretty tired guys in [the locker room]. That was three games in eight days, they’re pretty beat up and pretty tired. So we’ll watch film, get the trainers to get their jobs done, get the players healthy and we’ll come up with a plan for next Sunday.”
Coach LA Galaxy Arena on the second leg:
“Everyone knows what the score is so, you can’t hide that fact. We go into a venue that’s difficult. You’re playing in altitude. So I think, typically, you never play the same game there as you do at home because of the environmental conditions. So it will be somewhat different.
They did what they’ve done all year. They played collectively as a group. They’re hard to break down. Most games they’re in are 1-0. It’s how the games look.”
