MLS – Seattle Sounders 1-0 Colorado Rapids
Sigi Schmid – Seattle Sounders FC Head Coach
(On the game…) “We thought they were going to be somewhat cautious and try to slow the game down for sure and make it difficult for us to get forward. I thought in the first half we didn’t quite spread the game enough. In the second half, we spread the game more and got in behind them more with better looks on goal. We scored off the set piece and sometimes games like that come down to set pieces. I’m proud of the fact that we got a shutout. I’m proud of the fact that it was a victory that we had to grind out coming off an emotional game last week, so I’m happy with the result.”
(On today’s lineup…) “We had a good game last week and there were no injuries so there was no need to change anything at this point. As we move forward, Marco Pappa leaves to join the Guatemalan side so we’ll have to make a change there. We have guys who are sitting on cards so the next yellow would make them sit out a game so there are always changes that end up forcing your hand so that’s why you have to have good reserve players. Again, it was just a reflection of rewarding the team that played well last week.”
(On Colorado’s lineup…) “The keeper switch surprised us a little bit. The last time we saw him was when we played against him when he was at Atlanta in the Open Cup so at least some guys knew who he was. We hoped he wasn’t carrying a gun since he was an ex-sheriff. It was a little bit of a surprise. The rest of the lineup we had pretty much, we weren’t too far off. We weren’t sure if (Thomas) Piermayr was going to be inside or outside and (Marc) Burch inside or outside. Those were the only ones that we missed on.”
(On playing wide…) “There’s always a frustration there. Like I said, I think we pinched in too much wide so as a result our forwards, to get the ball, went really deep because there was no space for them to check back into it. You noticed in the second half, when Marco (Pappa) played wider and (Brad) Evans was providing us width on the other side, then all of a sudden that space underneath opened up for Oba (Martins), opened up for (Clint) Dempsey and then you could see some combinations, some that they barely missed on. You could also see us getting in on the side. The corner came off a good run from Evans that resulted in a corner that resulted in a goal. So being able to go out wide opens up the middle.”
(On winning one-goal games…) “If you want to go far in the playoffs, you have to be able to win games like this. You have to be able to play to zero in the back. You have to be able to minimize the opponents’ chances. And sometimes you just have to make good use of your set pieces. Those are deciding factors and (we) were unlucky to not maybe get a couple more in the second half. (Joe) Nasco made a couple of big saves, then the one Oba (Martins) hit off the crossbar was another good effort. I was happy. You have to win different types of games.”
(On Seattle’s defense…) “Defensively they were good. I thought we kept play in front of us pretty much except for one time in the second half when they let Deshorn Brown get in behind us and run at us. They tried to clip a few balls over the top of our defense, but (Chad) Marshall and Zach (Scott) did a really good job with that so that forced them to play in front of us a little bit more. I thought we did a really good job of keeping the game in front of us and not allowing them to use their speed to get behind our back four. I thought we did well.”
