Using expected goals both for and against, we look at the Seattle Sounders' 2016 season to determine whether they've been bad or just unlucky, and if that trend has shifted.
Through the first 23 games of the up and down 2016 MLS Regular Season, the Seattle Sounders have been victim to bad luck, poor finishing, and general apparent awfulness. For the first little bit of the season, we fans hung our hats on bad luck, claiming regression would see the Sounders bounce back to the middle of the pack. The promise of poor finishing turning wasted chances into future goals never really became more than momentary flashes of competency, all of which resulted in the midseason firing of coach Sigi Schmid and the promotion of long-time assistant Brian Schmetzer.