Seattle Sounders Struggle Against Columbus Crew

The Seattle Sounders FC suffered their worst loss of the season on May 23, losing 2-0 to the Columbus Crew.

With the loss, the Sounders remain winless in their last three outings. Luckily for them, their troubles haven't cost them much in the MLS Western Conference table, and they'll get to stay at the third spot, trailing first place Real Salt Lake by 4 points.

Contrary to what the final results say, the Sounders' defenders actually played well on Wednesday, limiting the crews' offense to only five shots on goal. However, Seattle goalkeeper Bryan Meredith had another tough outing on Wednesday, allowing Columbus' only two shots on goal to find the back of the post.

"I'm very disappointed in myself, for sure," Meredith told reporters. "I think they only got like three shots on goal and two of them went in the back of the net. Definitely not a good day for me, not a good day for the team. Right now, we're in a bit of a slump and we've just got to find our way out of it."

Justin Meram scored the Crew's first goal 15 minutes into the match, finishing a Dilly Duka cross with a well-played header. Emilio Renteria got the Crew some insurance in the 76^th minute, lobbing the ball over Meredith for his first goal of the season.

Even though the Sounders didn't get the result they wanted on Wednesday, they actually played well against the Crew, controlling the ball for the majority of the game. Their forwards had a lot more chances than the Crew's did, but they just weren't able to get anything into the back of the post.

"First, I just want to give credit to Columbus," Sounders forward Eddie Johnson told reporters after the game. "To come here and to play in front of 40,000 fans against a good team, they were well-disciplined for 90 minutes and hard to break down. Sometimes football is like that. You have a lot of chances and the keeper made some good saves on Fredy's opportunities, but on another day those shots go in. It was just not our day, but credit to those guys."

The Sounders will now get a few days to make the necessary adjustments before taking on Chivas USA on May 26.

David has been a fan of the Seattle Sounders for the past 3 years. Follow him on twitter @davidkingwriter and check out his blog.
 
Sources:
Joshua Mayers, "Sigi Schmid: "We need to soul search. I need to soul search…"