“Rivalry.”
The word gets kicked around a lot in MLS, maybe even to excess. But when players and coaches on both sides readily and proactively attach it to a given matchup, it’s worth noting.
And that’s definitely the case with LAFC and the Seattle Sounders ahead of their nationally-televised faceoff at Banc of California Stadium on Saturday (6 pm ET | ESPN, ESPN Deportes).
“A big game on Saturday,” said LAFC Bob Bradley on Thursday. “Seattle is a rival, we know that.”
“We've played them a lot and when you play teams like that that are competitive a lot, it creates a rivalry,” said Sounders forward Will Bruin later that afternoon. “There’s a little bit of animosity between the two groups.”
Though some 1,100 miles apart, these clubs share lofty ambitions, budgets and performance levels, which has naturally brought them into elbow-to-elbow proximity atop the MLS Western Conference. They met a whopping five times in 2020 thanks to clashes in the MLS is Back Tournament and the first round of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs. The latter was their second consecutive postseason meeting – both pulsating affairs that ended in massive 3-1 Seattle victories.
“The games that we've played have had meaning, like the [2019] semifinal – anytime you play in a semifinal against the team, and we played them twice in the playoffs now, those are high-pressure games,” said Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer. “They came to our place on their first[-ever] game, and they beat us on opening day, so their first victory in MLS was against us.
“So lots of things, lots of things, but I still throw it back to the two super, super highly competitive organizations. I mean, we want to win everything, they want to win everything.”
Schmetzer produced one of the flashpoints of this fledgling clasico immediately after that tense 2019 playoff win, a stunning upset of that year’s Supporters’ Shield winners on their own turf and the prelude to their second MLS Cup triumph. It’s also when he dropped his “Feeling better than Bob” line during a pitchside interview with ESPN’s Sebastian Salazar.
It was tagged as Seattle’s “moment of the year” by Sounder at Heart, and while perhaps a bit out of character for the generally professorial “Schmetz,” SSFC supporters exulted in their native son outmaneuvering the much-heralded Bradley with a well-crafted rope-a-dope strategy to nullify LAFC’s front-foot pressing and possession style.
Even with attacking stars Carlos Vela and Diego Rossi injury doubts for this weekend, the Rave Green expect to be severely tested under the warm southern California sun, especially with their own evolution to a more proactive 3-5-2 formation in its early stages.
“They're a very good team, it's a tough place to play,” said Bruin. “They like to high press, and with our new formation, I think we play out of the back very well. … If we kind of just start lumping the ball when we get under pressure, it could be a long game. But we've been working really hard so far in training on making sure we play, we keep the ball. And I think when we do that and we move it side to side, we're the best team in the league at getting out of tight spaces and then going on the counter.”
LAFC’s influential central midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye asserted that the winners in this fixture tend to be the team that finishes clinically, rather than the one that sets the tempo.
“The games with Seattle have become very physical. They try to get into us very hard,” said the Canadian international.
“They've got some key players that can create chances out of really nothing, so we have to be on our best A-game when it comes to the defensive shape and transition. But we have good moments against Seattle – we control the play, we create opportunities, it's just a matter of putting the ball in the back of the net. In the previous games, the team who does that better as a team ends up winning, not necessarily the team who ends up controlling the game the most.”
The Sounders’ most vital weapon in that regard? Raul Ruidiaz, their ruthless Peruvian poacher, who has lit LAFC on fire with five goals and one assist across five meetings with the Angelinos – most memorably, a devastating double in that 2019 playoff upset.
“We certainly know that when we play them, both teams really get after each other in a real way,” said Bradley. “Ruidiaz, for whatever reason, he's always sharp and comes to play against us, he’s a good player. So those are the things that determine the biggest games.
“What makes him good is his alertness, his awareness, his sharpness for where the ball is going to come, how to make a little space for himself. So he's an interesting challenge, because he’s not big but he’s smart, and he reads plays very quickly. So if you lose the attention even for a split second, he finds a moment to take advantage.”
Schmetzer confessed on Thursday that playmaking talisman Nicolas Lodeiro – provider on both of Ruidiaz’s 2019 postseason strikes and scorer of the opener last November – is unlikely to make this trip south as he works through injury issues of his own. That complicates Seattle’s hopes of carving out more possession, but they sound resolute about outwitting the LAFC press nonetheless.
“The ball has to move fast, the guys have to have the right vision, you're going to be under pressure,” said Schmetzer, flashing his Spanish skills to explain his tactical message to his team. “Calmate, a little tranquilo, make sure you're not panicking, make sure that we don't take too many risks in front of our goal, because they have quality to make us pay.
“Yes, the tactics – where's your initial setup, how do you try and counter their pressing in a 4-3-3 – but there's also the mental side of things. And look, to be honest, I thought our guys looked a little nervous trying to play out of the back in certain moments in the first half against Minnesota.”
Saturday is not a win-or-else scenario, but both sides will undoubtedly want to lay down an early marker as they mount their respective marches for trophies in 2021.
