SEATTLE — All good things must come to an end.
The Philadelphia Union defeated the Seattle Sounders 1-0 on Wednesday evening on a stoppage-time goal from Fafa Picault. The loss snapped the Sounders’ MLS-record nine-match winning streak that began on July 21.
“We’re very proud of what this team has accomplished,” said Head Coach Brian Schmetzer. “We put ourselves in a massive hole, and we’ve climbed out of it. There’s still work to do, but winning nine games in a row is an accomplishment that was a big one. We all knew it was going to end at some point, we all knew. The fashion it ended in is what makes it sting.”
Goalkeeper Stefan Frei had his pass picked off by Picault in the third minute of stoppage time, and he beat Frei to give the 10-man Union, who saw Jack Elliott sent off four minutes earlier for his second yellow card, all three points.
“But that’s not where we lost the game, on that singular play,” said Schmetzer. “Where we lost the game was generating chance and chance and chance and half-chance and half-chance and half-chance and not being able to find that one piece of quality to put the score line in our favor…At the end of the day, we needed to finish one of those chances and then the play at the end of the game [leads to] a different outcome.”
Nicolás Lodeiro vs. the Union | Jane Gershovich
The Sounders outshot the Union 16-8 and had 65 percent possession, but couldn’t find a breakthrough. They started off strong and were unlucky not to find a goal in the first 20 minutes, and Raúl Ruidíaz exiting with a sprained right ankle in the 34th minute did not help on the attacking front.
“This is MLS,” said midfielder Cristian Roldan. “You don’t take advantage of your opportunities and are sloppy at times, and it’ll cost you…It’s a team sport and we all go down together. I’m very proud of what we’ve done, but this should add fuel to the fire going into the LA Galaxy game.”
The Sounders will take on the Galaxy, a team the Sounders defeated 5-0 in the middle of their winning streak, on Sunday at the StubHub Center (4 p.m. PT; FS1, YouTube TV, 950 KJR AM, El Rey 1360 AM). The Galaxy are in eighth place in the Western Conference on 38 points, six behind the Sounders for the final playoff position but with one fewer game remaining.
With one streak behind them, the Sounders are eager to get another one started.
“I’m proud of what the guys accomplished,” said Schmetzer. “It’s a massive, massive record that I doubt will be challenged in the near future.”
