Keller turns away from the field after D.C. United
scored the match's first goal. Aaron Weinberg / NSS
No one was happy with last night's 3-3 draw, but it was clear who was least pleased.
Kasey Keller, who hadn't given up more than two goals all season, gave up three due to defensive lapses. Keller let the guilty defenders hear about it after every goal, pointing at them while screaming as Qwest Field fell dead silent three times.
But it didn't stop there.
To Continue...
After the game, Keller made his way to the locker room and promptly dressed himself, then just sat there.
He was waiting for reporters to approach him so he could begin venting.
"The game’s pretty simple," Keller said. "Unfortunately, we want to make it extremely complicated."
Keller pointed out the sometimes lazy defensive play.
"Our lack of discipline is killing us, and from multiple things, but you don’t pick and choose when you mark a guy," Keller said. "You don’t pick and choose when you run with your runner. You don’t pick and choose when you decide to make a run and put pressure on the ball. You do all the hard work. At 3-1 at home, you close up shop."
Head coach Sigi Schmid was slightly more optimistic about the heartbreaking draw, pointing to the few scoring chances Seattle's defense offered up. The team only allowed three shots on goal.
“You know, I’m disappointed in some of our final actions of defending, but when you look at it overall, you say, ‘How many chances did we really give up defensively?’" Schmid said. "It’s still a matter of, in decisive moments, we have to be better."
Watching play from the opposite end of the field, Keller would often raise his hands during missed scoring opportunities. Seattle had 17 total shots, with an astounding nine on net.
D.C. United only had three shots on goal but managed to finish two of those, with a third being an own-goal ricocheting off defender Tyrone Marshall.
"We could have, quite comfortably, won this 4-1," Keller said. "They should have been pushing, and we should have been disciplined enough to hit them on a counter and get the fourth one instead of throwing two goals away. It’s simple as that. There’s no excuse. We rightfully got booed off the field at the end of the game.”
The complete interview
(On DC coming back and tying the game…) “It’s part of the game. Our lack of discipline is killing us, and from multiple things, but you don’t pick and choose when you mark a guy. You don’t pick and choose when you run with your runner. You don’t pick and choose when you decide to make a run and put pressure on the ball. You do all the hard work. At 3-1 at home, you close up shop. You just make sure. Instead, we don’t have the discipline to do it. We don’t have the discipline to say, ‘Okay, I’m not going to go forward this time. I’m not going to try to flick a ball over somebody’s head and do something special. I’m going to do my job and make sure that this stays 3-1 at the very least.’ Until that comes into our game, we’re going to throw games away.”
(On why he thinks things broke down for the Sounders…) “The game’s pretty simple. Unfortunately, we want to make it extremely complicated. If I was neutral, I’d think, ‘Yeah, that’s a great game.’ But unfortunately, there were 28,000 non-neutrals in the stands today. I don’t know. We played like, ‘Hey, you attack, we’ll attack.’ No. It doesn’t work that way. You’re winning, so win the game. Mistakes are going to happen. That’s all part of the game, but it’s the little things that you have to keep doing every time. Every time. You don’t get to take a vacation halfway through a play. ‘I’m a little tired, I’m not going to run this time.’ Every time, you do your job. Unfortunately, we’re switching off at times, and it’s killing us right now, and we’re paying the price for it. We could have, quite comfortably, won this 4-1. They should have been pushing, and we should have been disciplined enough to hit them on a counter and get the fourth one instead of throwing two goals away. It’s simple as that. There’s no excuse. We rightfully got booed off the field at the end of the game. It’s inexcusable.”
(On whether this was the most disappointing game of the season…) “No, we’ve had a couple others. But this is up there. Like I said, you’re [at] 3-1, up at home, you’re creating lots of chances. I wouldn’t have cared if we would have not created one more chance the rest of the game. That’s the mentality. If they give us something, great. If they don’t, it doesn’t matter. We close up shop and it’s over. We clear the ball when it has to be cleared. [The mentality should be,] ‘I tackle when he has to be tackled, I run with my guy. I bite, I scratch to get a result.’ [The mentality should not be,] ‘No, I’m not going to run with them, because if it breaks down, then I’m going to have a better chance to go forward and maybe score the fourth goal.’ It doesn’t work that way. You’re going to get found out. You’re going to get found out, and we’ve been found out tonight, and hopefully people will learn from it, and if they don’t, then hopefully they’ll be gone and we’ll find somebody else who will do a disciplined job.”
Reach Aaron Weinberg at nextseasonsports@gmail.com
