Sounders still seeking way out of funk

Here’s some of what the Sounders had to say after their 1-0 home loss to Colorado on Saturday, which dropped them into a fifth-place time in the MLS West:

COACH SIGI SCHMID

Opening statement:

“Obviously I am disappointed in the result. I thought we played better than we did last week at Chicago, but the result is the same. If we get a break on the offensive end we can’t put it away, and when we make a mistake in the back they bury it, and then it’s game over. We’ve got to find our way out of this funk and obviously today we didn’t.”

On the grass surface:

“It was hard to play on. You really couldn’t necessarily run with the ball, so one of the things we talked about at halftime was trying to play with fewer touches – one, two, three touches, and keep the ball moving. You saw a lot of players slipping and sliding – it was the same for both teams.”

On the lineup:

“Obviously we wanted to get [Erik] Friberg in there, and I thought he played well until he ran out of gas. I thought Andy Rose wanted to play more as a midfielder and I thought he did that job well, so I thought we did a better job at controlling the middle of the field this week. [Cristian] Roldan was pushed up to the right wing because I don’t think [Chad] Barrett has played well, so we decided to go that way. Neagle had opportunities today but didn’t put those away. We tried to mix it up a little bit – we tried to get Leo [Gonzalez] out there, he had been training well and doing well in practice; I know he is very familiar with [Vicente] Sanchez. I don’t think any of those changes hurt us – I think all of those guys did alright, but right now we are not doing enough to score goals.”

On Erik Friberg’s performance:

”He plays the ball a little quicker, is a little more direct. He connects a little further more – he gets in front of Ozzie [Alonso] more so we aren’t quite as deep with those two midfielders.”

On the substitutions:

“We knew [Gonzalo] Pineda would come in because we knew Friberg wasn’t at 90 minutes. We wanted to see how the other guys were doing. We thought Thomàs was sort of slowing down so we thought it was a good opportunity to bring on [Marco] Pappa, but I wanted him to play higher on the left, and we ended up dropping him deeper in the midfield, and that ended up helping us control the ball in the midfield, but we aren’t going to score goals there. We need to score goals near their goal. And with Barrett, you always try to hold the last sub a little bit in case a guy gets hurt – Ozzie took a knee in the rear at one point, so we didn’t know if that was a hamstring.”

On Cristian Roldan:

“I thought Roldan did well. If he had a little more savvy, a little more experience he might have taken those better, but I thought he did a good job of getting behind, getting some crosses, taking people on at the right time. I thought he did a good job.”

On the opposing goal:

“The ball got in between the two centerbacks, it bounced up, looked like [Chad] Marshall headed it – him and [Kevin] Doyle started to head it together – the ball fell forward for Doyle. They were a little late closing in…and he finished it well.”

On Troy Perkins:

“I think Troy has done well. Obviously the goal was scored, but outside of that there wasn’t a lot of difficult things he had to do. He came up with one save to his right early on, but I thought for the most part he wasn’t tested that much tonight.”

SOUNDERS FC GOALKEEPER TROY PERKINS

On the opposing goal:

“The ball kind of bounces, and we don’t win it. It continues on and [Doyle] is a left-footed player, he goes with his left foot, it falls nicely for him and he buries it.”

On getting used to the surface:

“In the first half it was just about getting used to the surface and making sure you’re not giving bad balls away, and I think both sides had that episode. I think once we got our footing, I think we had a good control of the game.”

On if the surface was an issue:

“I can sit here and complain about it as much as I want, but both teams had to play on it, and it is equal for both.”

On how the club can continue to move forward:

“You keep driving, you keep pushing on. You don’t sit here and hang your head and say, ‘I should have done this, I should have done that.’ Then it gets worse. You’ve got to take it for what it’s worth – it’s a loss. It is not the end of the world. We still have points in the bank – we are in a good spot. Like I said to a couple of guys, it’s better we are doing it now than come September or October.”

SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER CHRISTIAN ROLDAN

On the playing surface:

“Yeah I mean, both teams had to play on that field so it wasn’t a disadvantage for anybody. You know, I think if we practiced on it a day before it would have been a lot easier to get a hold of. Obviously you have to wear studs, but it was fine. I wasn’t complaining too much about playing on the grass.”

On attacking being easier than defending on the playing surface:

“For sure, you just don’t know where the player is going to go on defense. So you have to react to it, and when your body is not fully committed to going to one side, you’ll slip.”

On the confidence of the team when they aren’t scoring:

“I think we’re playing well, we’ve created a bit of chances. It’s just unfortunate the way our final third has being going for us. I think we get that one or two goals for in one game it will come back for us.”

On the veteran influence in the locker room to boost team confidence:

“ Yeah, I mean obviously Zach Scott is a guy you want to talk to. He says nothing but positive things about our game. You have to learn from these, especially the young guys have got to listen to the old guys and take in as much as you can from them.”

On being more dangerous playing as a forward:

“Yeah definitely. I thought I played well. Obviously I think I should have scored that chance that I had. But that’s just the way it goes. You don’t score one on one side of the pitch and they get a couple of lucky bounces and they score one. It’s about being fortunate and unfortunate.”

On his tactical role:

“[I wanted to] take on players, being confident on the ball. I think I showed a bit of that. I think Michael Harrington played well, but I think I got the better of him towards the end of the game.”

SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER MARCO PAPPA

On the game and returning to Sounders FC after inter:

“It’s been a difficult last two months for me with the Sounders and the national team, so we have to move on for sure. [You have a chance] at revenge in soccer, so we have to keep working hard and move on.”

On keeping the energy positive during the rough spell:

“There’s still so many games with this team. So many competitions, so we have to keep fighting for us. When things aren’t going well, you have to focus and keep working hard and see what’s going on around you.”

On how he felt out there:

“I’ve been traveling a lot, a lot of games, a lot of bad results. I’m glad I [don’t have any] injuries, which is really important for me to keep working with the team. I hope we can continue to be in a good place with the Sounders.”

This story was originally published July 18, 2015 at 11:44 PM with the headline "Sounders still seeking way out of funk."