PORTLAND, Ore. — Gathered in the locker room following a chaotic and nearly disastrous first half, a sense of calm permeated the group.
Rather than yelling at each other after blowing an early 1-0 lead by allowing a pair of avoidable goals, or bemoaning the loss of two starters to injury, the Sounders were keeping their heads.
“Nobody was down,” Sounders right back Kelvin Leerdam said of the halftime mood. “Everybody was positive. We knew we could do better in the second half and still had the second game.”
Losing 2-1, especially against your biggest rival, is obviously far from ideal.