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A Philadelphia Union blog hosted by Christopher A. Vito and Matthew De George

Saturday, May 5, 2012

QUOTES, NOTES: SOUNDERS 1, UNION 0

Saturday, the Union dropped their second straight game with a 1-0 loss at Seattle.

One of MLS' lowest-scoring sides, the Union suffered their third shutout of the season while managing only one shot on goal against Bryan Meredith, a goalkeeper making his first in-league start.

Sounders FC picked up the game-winning snipe from Mauro Rosales in the 63rd minute, receiving a weighted pass across the box from Fredy Montero and burying it far post and past Union goalkeeper Zac MacMath.

Here are a few select quotes from CenturyLink Field in Seattle:

UNION ASSISTANT JOHN HACKWORTH  
On Goalkeeper Zac MacMath’s performance
“Week in and week out Zac does a great job for us.”  

On the final third and lack of offensive performance
“We talked about it during the week and our guys are a little hesitant to pull the trigger right now. We had some opportunities, especially in the first half, where we’re 20 yards away from goal and you have an open window to let a shot ride. All we can do is continue to ask our players to have to courage to take those shots and hopefully it will happen. It didn’t happen and we talked about it at halftime. Came back out with a couple of weak attempts on goal, not exactly what we wanted. We’re putting a lot of pressure on our team overall, in particular our midfield and defensive line. We don’t do a good enough job stretching the opponent and we’re not being dangerous in the final third.”

On the season overall
“We’re a little disappointed, it’s the second week in a row we lose the game by a goal against two of the best teams in the league right now so we don’t feel like we’re not there. We know we can play better, we know we have to fix this problem we have of being more dangerous and opening teams up a little more, creating some chances and taking some more. We’ll just have to continue to work on that. I think we all believe that we are a good team, we’ve put our back against the wall and we have to play out of it. It’s still very early here so no need to hit the panic button at all. We have a lot of young guys in our locker room, a lot of new guys in our locker room we just need to give ourselves time and come out next week against New York. That will be huge for us.”  

On finding positives
“It’s not like it was a terrible performance by us. I don’t think we executed very well throughout the game yet we were still in a position to hold Seattle. We gave ourselves a chance up to the last whistle to get a result here and that’s a tough thing to do.”

UNION MIDFIELDER FREDDY ADU  
On the result
Freddy Adu (AP)
“We had a couple of good plays to break them down in the middle. When we got to the final third we ran out of ideas sometimes. Sometimes we were trying to do too much rather than just obviously find an open man and move. When we get down there we’re all thinking about scoring goals and we are caught in two minds, so to speak, and then we end up making a pass too late or losing the ball. We have to do better. That’s an area that we’ve had problems with all season long and we have to get better at that.”  

On team scoring this season
“Obviously for us offensive players, we want to score more goals and create more chances. We just got to put the ball in the back of the net. We have to be better. Today was another game where we didn’t test the goalkeeper enough. He’s a new goalkeeper and we got to test him, shoot the ball more. That’s how soccer is, somebody makes a brilliant play and then the floodgates open. Then goals start pouring in, that’s just how it is. We gotta keep going, we gotta keep doing the things we’re doing. This is a tough place to play and we only lost 1-0 here. We still lost, but I thought we fought hard and at the end of the day they got got a goal and we didn’t. We have to be better at that.”

MACMATH  
On the result
“Tough loss, I thought the guys worked really hard and played well for 90 minutes. There was a little lapse on that throw-in and unfortunately [Seattle Sounders Midfielder Mauro] Rosales had a good shot at the back post.”

On offensive performance
“Everyone’s trying to gel together up front and we’re just going to go back to philly and work on that more and hopefully take it into our next game.”  

SEATTLE COACH SIGI SCHMID  
 On the play of Montero, Eddie Johnson, and Rosales
“I agree with you that it was Johnson to Montero to Rosales for the goal. The league thinks that it was just Montero to Rosales, but I agree with you. Obviously when they spend more time together they will have a better understanding. I think that everyone who has watched us the last couple of years knows how important Mauro is to our crew. Eddie gives us a different dimension up front and Freddy even though he was unlucky today is a guy who gets around the goal and gets opportunities. Those three (are) ... really fun guys to watch.”

SOUNDERS GK BRYAN MEREDITH  
On his first start
“It was a lot of fun, very exciting. I didn’t have too much to do today. I came out on a couple crosses, they shot high…Other than that, the defense really held it down. They just didn’t really even let them in the 18.”

On what the defense was doing well
“They were just organizing. Playing really well together as a whole. Especially in the second half, the whole team was just really clicking and had good possession, for sure.”  

On Union's late press 
  “They were just throwing as many guys as they could forward, just trying to get that last goal in the last seconds.”

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