Colorado Rapids vs. Seattle Sounders - Three Questions with Sounder at Heart

As per the norm, Dave Clark from Sounder at Heart - our excellent Seattle Sounders blog - and I got together to answer some questions about our two teams. His answers to my questions about the men in green are below, you can find my answers to his queries over here.

UZ: Seattle's offense seems to have perked up after that slow start. What was causing such a terrible offensive output in the first couple of games, bad luck? Bad finishing? Something else?

Dave Clark: It had to be the classic bad finishing, but here was a combination of luck, extraordinary goalkeeping (Tally Hall) and some poor shot selection. Seattle put up plenty of shots, many on goal. They just didn't convert. With quality like Steve Zakuani and Fredy Montero Seattle's offense should be fine over the long term, particularly with players like O'Brian White and Mauro Rosales around to add some diversity to the attack. Friday should also be the first time when Sigi Schmid can select from a full squad of healthy player as Mike Fucito and Nate Jaqua are fit and able to play. That can't hurt the offense.

UZ: What are the biggest weaknesses of this seemingly solid Seattle squad? (And why did I go out of my way to alliterate that?)

DC: Seattle continues to be prone to the over the top counter. If a ball can be punted past Osvaldo Alonso into a land with just one or two of the backline and a sprinting technical player bad things seem to happen. Juan Agudelo being the best example of that. The other weakness comes from occasional sloppy passes around 20-30 yards out as the defenders may try to force action past a pressuring opposing forward. Juninho's strike was off of a turnover in a similar circumstance.

BW: Speaking of the trade, can we get some more in-depth knowledge on why neither of our guys wound up sticking with Seattle?

DC: Julien Baudet was easy to figure that he wouldn't stay when he still wanted starter money and at best was the 4th CB on the team. In that role he shared something with Danny Earls in that Tyson Wahl is part of the reason he was a spare part. Wahl is now a LB/CB for Seattle and so provides cover for both roles.
Earls also had the misfortune of competing with Generation Adidas player Michael Tetteh who was drafted after the deal. While I saw Earls as the best piece in the trade, and most capable of contributing this year, the selection of Tetteh had a person with higher upside and was a natural choice. I'm in no way surprised that Earls is on a Reserve squad and I expect him to get some first team play over a season. I just wish it had happened here as Seattle's fullbacks outside of Tetteh are old and older.