To beat the Oklahoma City Energy, Seattle Sounders 2 needed to score goals and stop the on-fire OKC string-puller José Barril. They tried a bit too hard at the former and ended up accomplishing neither. S2 dominated in possession and controlled the tempo of the game for long stretches, but Tony Alfaro’s tendency to push way too high when both full backs were also up field left Rodrigue Ele outnumbered over and over again. He did as well as could be expected, and more, but ultimately couldn’t stop OKC by himself in the back.
To add to these struggles, even when Nick Hinds and Jordan McCrary stayed back, they just weren’t good enough defensively, and Hugh Alexander Dixon and Barril took turns tearing S2 up down the wings.