TUKWILA — The Sounders are still wallowing in unfamiliar territory.
Last week the club was eliminated from postseason contention — ending an MLS-record 13 straight appearances. On Sunday, they’ll play a match that’s of no consequence for the first time since the club joined the league in 2009.
How will the players respond? How will the crowd at Lumen Field receive them?
It’s still hard to grasp that leading up to kickoff against San Jose, there was no need to review last week’s loss to Sporting Kansas City and training was altered to mini games to keep the players competitive instead of tactics tailored to defeat the next opponent.
The approach to Sunday’s season finale is to show out for the fans. But that desire, along with not wanting to be the first roster who fails to make the playoffs, has been the talk the past two months and the Sounders (12-17-4) haven’t been able to win.
“The game, in terms of points and playoffs, is meaningless,” Sounders keeper Stefan Frei said. “Maybe this game is an opportunity to show, even if it doesn’t matter anymore, that we were a good team this year. We fell short, but we were a good team and we were capable of good things. It’s one more game to show that.”
Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer, who joined the club as a player in 1980, had to reach back to 2006 for the last time he remembers the organization playing an irrelevant match. Then a USL first-division team, the Schmetzer-led Sounders finished seventh in the league at 11-13-4.
The losing season was wedged between the Sounders winning the USL-1 championship in 2005 and 2007. But the only highlight was winning the 2006 Cascadia Cup.
Seattle’s highlight this season is becoming MLS’s first team to win the CONCACAF Champions League title — a trade-off many would take and likely would accept more if the deal were made in August instead of having the euphoric win in May.
Clues there could be a harsh consequence was evident ironically in the first meeting against San Jose in April, a match Seattle used as a tuneup for the CCL final series against Pumas UNAM. The Sounders led 3-1 at PayPal Park but conceded three goals in the closing 26 minutes to lose 4-3 to the Quakes.
San Jose midfielder Cristian Espinoza netted the game-winner in second-half stoppage time off a penalty kick for a hat trick in the match. Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan said it was “really uncharacteristic of us to let this game slip.”
But it happened again on the road against the Los Angeles Galaxy, conceding a second-half stoppage-time goal for a 3-3 draw in August. And again in Orlando, conceding a second-half stoppage-time goal to lose 3-2 in August.
“It hurts because if you look at the table now, if we had two more points, three more points, the playoff situation would probably be in our own hands,” Sounders midfielder Albert Rusnak said. Seattle is five points below the line in the Western Conference standings.
“Those are the three games (San Jose, LA, Orlando) that we should’ve won and have nine more points and now we wouldn’t be here talking about the end of season,” Rusnak continued. “We would be comfortably in the playoffs. It goes to show how important the small details in a season are and how one careless mistake in a match can define your whole season when you look at it at the end.”
Schmetzer said it would “be a miracle” if striker Raul Ruidiaz was healed from his sprained right ankle in time to play Sunday. He suffered the injury while on international duty for Peru and missed the 1-0 loss to Kansas City, too.
The remaining first-choice starters are available for selection. Schmetzer plans to balance playing for the win with getting minutes for the young players and rewarding the senior players who might not be with the team next year.
Ideally there’s some combination that can help the Sounders not compound missing the playoffs with ending the season on a four-game winless streak. San Jose (8-15-10) won its last outing 2-0 against Minnesota.
“It’s a game about us,” Rusnak said. “Because the mood in the locker room is not the best. It’s not there because we didn’t make the playoffs. Everybody is disappointed. Everyone is aware of where we should be, really. We shouldn’t be out of the playoffs at this stage. But that’s the reality and we have to forget about last week. At least for this game.”