CHARLESTON — The Seattle Sounders' second match of the Carolina Challenge Cup against Atlanta United FC on Wednesday didn't start according to plan.
The Sounders fielded a starting XI consisting of mostly young Academy players, trialists and reserves against a first-choice Atlanta roster. Midfielder Harry Shipp was the only potential starter Seattle trotted out.
The result, a 4-2 Atlanta win, may not have been surprising given the circumstance, but how quickly it did sure was. Atlanta jumped out to a 2-0 lead just three minutes in after an errant pass from guest player Quinton Griffith in the back led to a Josef Martinez breakaway before Miguel Almiron buried a penalty kick two minutes later.
“It wasn’t good,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “[The opening three minutes] took the sting out of the game. Then it became dysfunctional. It just wasn’t a very pretty soccer match. I can’t put my finger on one reason why it was dysfunctional, but it was probably three or four.”
Schmetzer said the reasoning behind starting mostly young players and substituting most of the starters in late — he had done the opposite in previous preseason matches — was because the team is operating on a weekend schedule. Being a midweek Wednesday game with matches bookended on either weekend, he wanted to give his starters some more rest.
Schmetzer was not as concerned with the scoreline as he was the test facing his young squad. He wanted to see how they would fare against a talented United team, and once they went down, he wanted to see how they would answer.
“I’m not going to assess [the young players’] performance with unrealistic expectations,” Schmetzer said. “I think they battled. Almiron probably makes more in two weeks than the entire roster of our first-half team. You guys can do the math.
“We’re not making excuses because we’re a proud club,” he continued. “The messaging to the young players was that this was a learning lesson. If you want to get up to here, there’s your bar. Those are the guys you want to measure yourself against.”
The Sounders did respond in the second half despite falling behind 4-0 just minutes after the break. They pulled two goals back and were unlucky to have not put away a few more.
Bryan Meredith started in goal for the first time this preseason and was also proud of the way the team bounced back after stumbling out of the gates.
“There’s two options when you start off the game like that: You can either put down your head and call it quits or you can pick yourself up and continue playing,” Meredith said. “For the whole 90 minutes I don’t think we ever gave up.”
Seattle will have a final tune-up match against Columbus Crew SC on Saturday (1:30 p.m. PT; SoundersFC.com) in their final match of the Carolina Challenge Cup. The Sounders begin their title defense in Houston on March 4 for the 2017 MLS season opener.
For now, the coaching staff will use the tape from Wednesday’s match and show it to the younger players as a learning tool, one which will hopefully be beneficial in the long run.
“I needed a reaction, I needed some sort of a reaction,” Schmetzer said. “The scoreline is indicative of their first team against some of our guys, but the fact of the matter is I got the response I needed out of the young guys.”
