Seattle Sounders manager Sigi Schmid has stated that he is extremely happy with the 1-1 draw with FC Dallas in the first leg of the MLS cup semifinals. The play-offs have started with a bang with many surprise results. Dallas getting a draw against Seattle Sounders is definitely one of them. Despite being the away team, Seattle were expected to come away with a win. It would have put them in a comfortable position ahead of the return leg next week at home. After having failed to create much chances throughout the 90 minutes, Seattle secured a draw courtesy of Alonso’s equaliser from a set piece in the second half.

Considering the difficult nature of the match, Schmid said that the draw was a good result for his team. His opposition counterpart, Oscar Pareja, clearly did not feel happy about the result as he wanted to take advantage of the home support. As it is, his team have everything to do in the second leg and cannot sit back. Seattle trailed at halftime after conceding a penalty to Michel. Even a scoreless draw will be enough for Seattle to get through into the next round. Defender Zach Scott said that the new away goals rule is a major advantage especially for this campaign.

“We’re happy with the result. We talked about making sure at the end of game one we put ourselves in a position to win it in game two. We’ve always done a good job of being at home in the second game and winning the second game,” said Schmid to the PlainSailing site. “I think in years past we were maybe a little naïve coming into this first series playing away and finding ourselves in a deep hole. Now with the new away goals rule I thought we played it exactly the way we wanted to,” said defender Scott.