SEATTLE — Steve Zakuani sat in his locker, arms crossed, hands clasping his shoulders.
It was a posture that exuded frustration, something that could probably be said about the rest of the team as well.
The Seattle Sounders' leading scorer among active players has yet to find the back of the net this season, a statistic punctuated by another goal-less performance in Saturday's 0-0 draw with the New England Revolution. The Sounders (0-3-2) have scored just two goals in five MLS games and remained the only winless team in the league.
"I can't buy one at the moment," Zakuani said. "These things happen in football. The frustrating thing for me is that those small ones can turn one point into three. I feel more disappointed for my teammates, where I want those balls to go in.
"At the same time, I know that once I get the first one, it turns around," he added. "Overall we are happy with how we played, but the result is the most important thing and we didn't get it. You can't fault the guys' effort. We were aggressive, we wanted to win. We just need one goal to go in. That's the most important thing."
The result was made particularly hard to swallow because of how thoroughly the Sounders dominated the match. They enjoyed their best passing game (83 percent) and highest percentage of possession (68.5) of the season. They also had several very good looks at goal, including three Zakuani chances in which he was through on goal.
The first of those chances was stopped by a well-timed lunge by José Gonçalves>, stopping Zakuani's try from about six yards out in the 14th minute. Revolution goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth robbed Zakuani just before halftime when he made a kick save on a shot from about 10 yards out. Zakuani had more good look in the second half, but he put a left-footed attempt from the edge of the penalty area just wide.
OPTA Chalkboard: Sounders dominate possession, but lack finishing touch
"If you finish one of those three — we don't need all three, I just need one of those three — and we're there," said Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid. "I'm sure he feels the same way. There's nobody that feels worse than he does."
While frustrated, Zakuani insists he's not discouraged by his recent inability to finish.
"I'm going to keep doing it," he said. "I don't know what else to change. Our football was pretty good. Sigi said after the game that the only way out of this is to work through it and play. We have to take the backlash, take the criticism ... and we'll live with it. As a team, we just need to get through this.
"There's no doubt in my mind that we're going to do it. Someone needs to score that goal and have that breakout game. It can't come soon enough right now."
