As the joy from that 3-0 throbbing of Seattle boils down and nears a nice simmer until Wednesday, it's important that we take a moment to recognize that it's well and truly not over yet.
First, a 3-0 scoreline may perhaps have been the best for us. We didn't allow a goal (or a shot!), and we scored a few — but we didn't score so many that we'll relax on Wednesday, and we didn't score so few that Seattle has a particularly easy chance to surge back into things quickly.
But the scoreline is only half the story: This Seattle side is very good, and we've been in this very situation they're in. They've been made to look like a worse side than they really are, and that's sort of the story of our season, isn't it? But we're in a good position now, and we can't rule out a quick recovery for Seattle. They're more than capable of scoring three goals and forcing us into a difficult situation — so how do we guard against it?
One: We can't go into the match with a defensive mindset. That means we've got to start our best attacking side, and we can't just give Javi, Fabi, and Sabo rests because they would benefit from them. There will be time for that after the season ends, and we can't let it end on Wednesday. Given that Seattle will be aiming for an early goal to set the stage for a comeback, we must be ready to capitalize on any gaps in the attack and grab a goal. If we take this thing to 4-0, we'll be quite firmly in the driver's seat, buckled up, and going 75 miles per hour — it would take something big to rock us off the course then.
Two: We probably won't be playing our first-choice defense because of injuries to Jamison Olave and Nat Borchers. Both are set to travel to the match, where they'll be given very late fitness tests. If we can start both of them without concerns about magnifying the scope of their muscular injuries, then we'll have to — but otherwise, we'll be put in an awkward spot. I suspect at worst, we'd see a pairing of Robbie Russell and Chris Schuler — they linked well together after Nat Borchers went off in the first leg, and I wouldn't be shaking in my boots if that were to be our move.
Three: The midfield needs to be awake and aware, as they were against Seattle. We'll have to up our passing completion a bit from Saturday, and we'll need to keep the same hard-tackling approach in place. I was tempted to urge Kreis to switch Andy and Ned (don't worry — I know my urging would mean nothing, and it would mostly be here and on Twitter, so it wouldn't really be urging Kreis to do anything. Ah, well.) but Andy adds a bit of attacking balance to the midfield that will help our side. Now, if we do start Schuler and Russell in the center, and if Tony Beltran isn't ready to start, I'd expect to see Will slot into a fullback spot, which would mean a starting spot for Ned. At any rate, there are some big question marks that hang right now, and I can't wait until they're answered.
So, that scoreline is in our favor, but it won't be in our favor for very long if we don't play the dynamic attacking game we know and love. We haven't bunkered well this season, and we can't go around stifling the natural style of our system. We have to attack, and we have to attack sensibly, reliably, and efficiently. It's time we move one step closer to taking that MLS Cup back from that little club over the hills.
Come on you Claret and Cobalt!
Comments