The Seattle Sounders’ woes in Sandy, Utah have been well documented, having not won any MLS match there since Mario Martinez’s late-winner in the 2012 playoffs. A difficult place to play under the best of circumstances, Saturday afternoon’s (and eventually evening) match added another difficult spike from Mother Nature in the form of a 2-hour lightning delay, compounded by some hail and eventually snow.
Combined with a rotated squad and a new (old) formation, and well, it’s no wonder the Sounders looked out of sorts for portions of the match. Still, they had some chances similar to the opening day 1-0 loss to Nashville, but the result was the same — punished by one particularly bad defensive lapse and unable to find a response.