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Joshua Mayers is the Seattle Sounders FC writer for The Seattle Times. Watch for his coverage of the team, Major League Soccer and soccer around the world.

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August 13, 2009 at 1:47 PM

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Freddie Ljungberg speaks his mind about Sounders FC's recent play

Posted by Jose Romero

I would expect to see Jaqua back out there Saturday, in response to one comment.

Montero is expected back later today. He was not at practice.

But Ljungberg's comments were very pointed. Here are some highlights:

Asked about the key to turning things around for the team, Ljungberg at first said he shouldn't really talk about it, "but I will anyways." Nice.

"I think when we played the Earthquakes and we lost 4-nil, that was for our confidence, it killed the guys a little bit. We felt to lose 4-nil to a team that's at the bottom of the division, your confidence drops a little bit. I felt in Salt Lake that we passed the ball maybe the worst that we've done all season. We missed passes [by] five to 10 yards and you can't do that.
But I felt that was a bit to do with the confidence after the last beating we had. And I feel in training it's getting better. We're getting the confidence back. And sometimes that happens. You get a bit of a shock to the system when you lose 4-nil against someone you think you're going to beat. That's something we have to experience, and this is a new franchise and they learn from it and the hangover is over, hopefully."

Ljungberg's first full practice of the week was today. "I was kicked to pieces in the last game," he said.

"The positioning of some players in Salt Lake was wrong and how we kept the ball, so I think that's mostly what we're practicing on," he said. "If you don't get that right, you won't create a lot of chances because you won't have any turnovers and you can create some dangerous opportunities on that."

Not to complain, Ljungberg said, but some of the tackles and stuff that happens here in America "would be a straight red in Europe. They wouldn't be allowed to play more of the game."

"But that's part of the game and I just have to trust the referees. There's nothing I can do about it," he said. "But of course it's sad when you miss a couple of trainings a week because you've been kicked and there's bruises and you can't move. That's part of the deal at the moment."

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Freddie Ljungberg speaks his mind about Sounders FC's recent play

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