When a club goes on the road for its second of three matches in eight days against a rival and earns a point, it is usually taken as a respectable result.
Not for these Sounders, though.
After recording a 1-1 draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps at BC Place on Wednesday evening, there was tangible frustration in Head Coach Brian Schmetzer's post-match comments -- and a pin-drop silence among the players in the locker room.
"We're extremely disappointed in that locker room. All of us," Schmetzer said. "But we have to prepare for Portland on Sunday, so we are moving on. But that sting, that ache, isn't going away any time soon."
There are a few factors as to why this draw feels particularly painful for the Sounders, who remain in first place in the Western Conference with 41 points. First of all, the opening 45 minutes were about as crisp of soccer the club has played all season. In his MLS debut, midfielder Victor Rodriguez was shifty and active, playing the full 90 minutes at left midfielder. He drew the foul prior to midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro's penalty kick that put the Sounders ahead 1-0 in the 19th minute. It was a strong sign for Seattle, which has seemingly relied on second-half production and late-game heroics during its club-record streak of 10 unbeaten matches.
"It was a good half. We were in a good spot, 1-0 up [and] controlling the tempo," Schmetzer said. "I thought we maybe could have gotten another in the first half."
The second half appeared to be in the Sounders' favor, as well. Osvaldo Alonso and Clint Dempsey were both available off the bench, and in the 60th minute the Sounders went up a man when Vancouver's Tony Tchani was booked with his second yellow.
However, it was the Whitecaps who capitalized on the man disadvantage, with former Sounder Fredy Montero scoring the equalizer in the 64th minute. Despite bringing in Alonso and Dempsey for the final 20 minutes, the Sounders were unable to break through the 1-1 deadlock. The Rave Green finished with a 25-8 shot advantage, while forcing Vancouver goalkeeper David Ousted into seven saves.
"It was a difficult game," midfielder Cristian Roldan said. "You can talk about how we created chances - we were good on that - it's just the final product where we weren't sharp enough. When you don't put teams away in this league, especially on the road, they are bound to get a couple chances."
In the way that the draw at Portland in June may have felt like a win, the feeling in the locker room on Wednesday was the exact opposite. Considering this was a midweek match against a rival, it's a credit to the club's culture of winning.
"There is an inner frustration within our group that we know we can play better, even if we played pretty well for the most part," forward Will Bruin said. "We hold ourselves to a very high quality and that's a very good trait to have. We want to go back home and finish off a busy week on a high note."
The Sounders look to extend its unbeaten streak to 11 matches against the Portland Timbers on Sunday at CenturyLink Field (6:30 p.m. PT | FS1, KIRO Radio 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360AM; TICKETS).
