Schmid talks about Sounders’ debut

The Sounders opened their preseason tonight with a 2-1 loss to Vancouver in a 90-minute game, and followed that with a 1-0 win over FC Tucson in a 45-minute nightcap.

Seattle’s goals were scored by Darwin Jones and Aaron Kovar.

Here’s some of what coach Sigi Schmid had to say afterward:

On the opening: It was OK. As the first half went on I thought we played better, which is a good sign. Guys trying to get used to each other in a little bit new positions. The game is always a little bit different than it is in practice. I was happy with some of the chances we created. Our timing was a little bit off, but we haven’t been working that much on attacking. We’ve been working more on our fitness and our defending. So I was pleased. The second half I thought we also played OK, except we made two bad mistakes for goals. We can’t make those kinds of mistakes.

On the 4-3-3 formation: I thought it was OK. I thought it was good. There’s time where we defended with seven last year. We’ve got to tweak a few things in terms of our shape and in terms of where we’re trying to force the ball, but that’s something that we can sort out.

On Jimmy Ockford’s start at center back: We’re trying to give him a good look; we’re trying to give Damion Lowe a good look. So we’re playing one next to Zach and one next to Chad Marshall. Jimmy is a player who is good in the air. He made a couple of good plays defensively in this game. He’s come and he’s worked hard every day.

On Tyler Miller as second keeper to appear: Miller has trained well. We just decided to go with Miller ahead of Charlie. But I thought Charlie came up with a big save as well. Tyler started the sequence for our goal with a good pass out when he found Roldan in the middle of midfield. They each have their good points.

On Brad Evans’ hamstring: Brad is OK, we just didn’t want to play him tonight. We’ll see about Saturday. We just want to make sure he’s 100 percent healthy.

The Sounders will train in Tucson on Thursday and Friday before playing their next friendly at 6 p.m. Saturday against Portland.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 7:54 PM with the headline "Schmid talks about Sounders’ debut."