The way we were setup, this looked like a match we weren't too optimistic about winning and that we used as an opportunity to give minutes to young players and those returning from injury.
Berget and Mata both looked rusty, hesitant on turf and a little slow on the ball. Medina still hasn't learned the basics of ball protection. The lack of quality in the final third put a lot of pressure on a very green midfield. Awuah is clearly green but did OK. It's a credit to our overall defensive shape that when Seattle were able to find their way through the center, it was often because Awuah was a couple of feet out of position on either closing down passing lanes or being tight on his guy. Ofori is looking better and better but still not the authority needed to make sure Awuah was in check. Hence our midfield was a bit of a sieve.
Sweat slow to close down out wide, but apart from that our backline was immense.
Given the way we set up, I'm not too disappointed in the result, happy about the effort and discipline and glad to see some of our players get much needed minutes. With the lack of rest, first team players and the size and surface of the pitch, I would have liked to see a more conservative game plan though. I'm not a total Lewis hype train rider, but this was an ideal match for him to start so that we could stay compact, conserve energy and play him over the top. I think we saw why he doesn't generally start on the 3rd goal, but his lack of defensive awareness is a great reason to throw him up top to stretch the field and / or get behind the defensive line.
In the end, I think we opted to give players minutes in our established set up vs. rolling the dice on an experimental set up. It was a totally reasonable trade off, so I'm not upset. Just curious.
