Throughout the first 25 games of the Seattle Sounders’ season, they’ve shown a lot of positive attributes. They’ve showcased their depth, an ability to win ugly and the capacity to beat tough opponents. One thing they’ve often struggled to do, however, is to make winning look relatively easy.
Even when they’ve been at their best — say their last game at Sporting KC or the 6-2 throttling of the Portland Timbers — there have been significant stretches of the match where the result was very much in doubt. That they’ve only scored in both halves five times and outscored their opponent in both halves twice may actually overstate how many times they’ve clearly looked like the better team from whistle to whistle this year.