SEATTLE – The Seattle Sounders know they didn’t top anything close to a full-strength LA Galaxy side in their 5-0 blowout victory at CenturyLink Field on Saturday.
The Galaxy were without a score of crucial contributors for the contest, including superstar forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the dos Santos brothers, starting center back Michael Ciani and star winger Romain Alessandrini.
Following the match, however, Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said there aren’t any caveats for a resounding five-goal victory like the one his team posted on Saturday, especially in the parity-heavy world of MLS.
“We understand the circumstances that are surrounding the Galaxy, so that’s their issue, Sigi had to solve that and I’m sure he will, he’s a great coach,” Schmetzer said. “I think that team did what they were supposed to do, did what they had to do to put the game out of reach. All the credit goes to them.
“I’m not taking away anything from LA or even anything from our performance because I don’t really care. On any given day, the team that LA brought – they could have beat us. That’s the parity in MLS. So we’re pleased with the result and it just pushes us three points closer to making sure we’re in the playoffs.”
The Sounders are now 7-0-2 over their last nine games and, with 35 points from 23 matches, are at least temporarily above the playoff line for the first time all season. Saturday’s game was the most explosive effort yet, with Chad Marshall opening the scoring in just the third minute, with goals from Harry Shipp, Cristian Roldan, Raul Ruidiaz and an own goal from LA’s Servando Carrasco rounding out the scoring.
Speaking with reporters after the game, Shipp said the team’s mentality must now be directed toward squashing any sense of complacency that might result from the recent hot streak, especially coming off a one-sided match.
“We’re still fighting for a playoff spot,” Shipp said. “I think for us, yeah, we’ve had a run of very good games but we’re not going to view it like that. We’re not going to get complacent. I think the confidence is there. Also, we’re trying to fight for as high a playoff seed as possible and I think for us, we’ve done a good job the last two months of doing that.”
