The Sounders’ 2-0 win over Chiapas tonight also marked the first game on the new FieldTurf surface at CenturyLink Field.
It also marked a game of exceptionally good and confident passing, and coach Sigi Schmid believes those things were related … he even credited the turf with an assist on the first goal.
“The surface is good,” he said. “It plays a lot more like natural grass would because all the blades are up so the ball slows down. I don’t know if it’s true or not: It seems like maybe the ball was out of bounds less. You saw more combinations. You saw less balls roll over the end like, you know: skip away from people as they were hit through. You saw people being able to chase balls down before they got to the end line, like the goal where Johansson chases the ball down. I think on last year’s field, that ball is over the end line, it’s out of bounds. So it definitely makes a difference.”
It definitely played differently. In fact I think a lot of their passes were a little short, probably due to the same factor. But this Johansson is really something else. Sivebaek too (have we gotten a stylesheet how to handle that “ae” thing in his name?)
Fredy’s second goal was world class. How many guys would even try that?
Anyway, I’m very pleasantly surprised by the way this team looks put together. This offseason felt like treading water but it looks more like we upgraded in at least a couple spots.
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