There are all these complaints about biased refereeing from the Sounders Nation and a couple of writers who should know better. Unfortunatly it does make the fans sound like a bunch of whiners. Yeah there have been some questionable goals, missed off side calls and a couple of important missed hand ball calls.
In return the sounders have had a couple go their way too, most notably the goal against New York. Over the course of a session the bad calls will balance themselves out.
It’s time to stop whining and blaming the refs, typically (with a couple of obvious exceptions) they have been fairly consistent within the game, even if what gets called changes game to game.
This year has not started well, only three wins so far and out the play off positions. While not in danger of loosing touch yet, the time is coming when we need to start picking up points and make a run up the table. Salt Lake showed (as did NY in 2008) that if you make it into the playoffs anything is possible.
Last year Seattle did miss the injury bug almost totally, Ljungberg missed a few games and that was really about it. This year has been an entirely different story: Nate Jaqua was the second highest scorer last year and a certain starter has yet to play a minute. Jhon Kennedy Hurtardo is out with a torn ACL, not a career ending injury anymore, but season ending certainly.
Another starter spending time on the sidelines this year was Osvaldo Alonso (quad, three games so far).
Then there are role players that have missed time. Michael Fucito (seven so far), Brad Evans (two games), Peter Vagenas (four games) and Pat Noonan (three games) have each missed significant time due to injury.
The resigning of Jeff Parke was very timely with the injury to Hurtardo. The return of Brad Evans and Nate Jaqua along with the signing of Blaze Nfuko gives some cause for optimism.
Ultimately all that really matters is to somehow get into the playoffs and hit your best form. Manage that and what happened in April and May would soon be forgotten about.