Coming off a resounding 4-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids at Lumen Field on MLS Matchday 1, it’s right back to business for the Seattle Sounders.
A week two matchup at home against Real Salt Lake on Saturday (7:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass on Apple TV App | TICKETS) now awaits, giving the Sounders a chance to build on the opening-night fireworks against another Western Conference opponent.
While the rout of Colorado came with plenty of positive takeaways, it nonetheless gave the group plenty to fine-tune on the training ground, Sounders Head Coach Brian Schmetzer said on Wednesday.
“MLS is a long season,” said Schmetzer. “I told [the players] this morning: This is a work week, [a] workday. So, we're out here working on tactics and polishing and making sure that we get our movements right and the technique is solid and stuff like that, because we're not we're not the finished product yet.”
The Colorado match was the second glimpse of the new tactical adjustments the team has been drilling in preseason, with hugely positive returns on the attacking end. Defensively, goalkeeper Stefan Frei said he was equally encouraged with the clean sheet, although noted on film review several “good little reminders that you’ve got to be sharp from minute one.”
“We’ve been working on some things. I thought we did quite well in some instances, some other ones that we're going to look at or we already looked at and we're going to see if we can do some things different,” said Frei. “But, actually, with some plays the way they worked out.”
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Saturday’s match pits Seattle against an opponent that seldom makes things easy.
Real Salt Lake have become known for their never-say-die mentality imparted by head coach Pablo Mastroeni, a veteran of MLS sidelines who’s shown an aptitude for procuring road results in tough environments.
“It’s their coach,” said Schmetzer. “Pablo’s a very good motivator, he gets them going, he makes them believe they can win games. They’re never out of it. I appreciate that a lot.”
Knowing that they’ll have their hands full, Frei said the week of preparation has been about continuing to maximize the advantage afforded by Seattle’s early preseason, which forced them to start training early in advance of the FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco.
With that increased sharpness paying dividends on Matchday 1, Frei said there’s no reason they can’t continue to ride the wave as the season begins in earnest.
“We're approaching this season with the work that we have under our belt from this year," said Frei. “We've put a tremendous amount of work in preseason and longer than most teams on top of that. And so, I think we're proud of that work and we feel like that work has given us an edge and that's what we want to focus on.”
