The MLS season has now passed the halfway point, and the Seattle Sounders need to launch a second half surge to maintain a reasonable shot of making the playoffs as the team was able to do in 2009 in its first season.

The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup competition has found the Sounders performing successfully in the past two seasons.  Starfire Stadium at the team’s training facility in Tukwila has been a scene for great Sounder success with the latest chapter coming with last Wednesday’s 3-1 win over the L.A. Galaxy.

As enjoyable as those U.S. Open Cup victories are, MLS competition is a separate entity.  Sunday night the Sounders reenter that sphere in hosting FC Dallas at the Xbox pitch of Qwest Field beginning at 7:30 p.m.

This contest will mark the Sounders’ 25th consecutive sellout.  The team and its loyal fans know that time is of the essence if Seattle is going to move out of the second division ranks of the Western Conference, where it has yet to taste victory, and into the upper echelon of playoff teams.

Coach Sigi Schmid was upfront about the importance of Sunday’s game.

“We’ve got to get points!”  Schmid asserted when asked about the Dallas game.  “It doesn’t matter what the other teams do. It’s a matter of us getting points. So we need to get points and we need to win our home games, for sure.

“So we have got to come out with that desire and that fight this weekend. These three points are very crucial to our needs and our success for the rest of the year.”

In situations where teams do not have to play catchup, with Bruce Arena’s L.A. Galaxy and its lofty perch atop Western Conference standings an example, it is not as essential at this stage to seek victories and three points in so many circumstances, especially on the road, where in the world of soccer a point can seem as good as a win.

Schmid has declared that he believes the Sounders will need 45 points to make the playoffs.  Considering that the team currently has 15, to make the playoffs under Schmid’s scenario the Sounders will need to triple their first half seasonal point production.

As for Sunday’s contest, Schmid does not expect any surprises from the visiting Dallas club.

“We have an idea of what to expect,” Schmid said.  “Obviously we have watched them play all year. We have played them down there so we know what they’re doing.

“They have stayed pretty consistent in their lineup. They haven’t started [Jeff] Cunningham the last couple of games. They have played [Atiba] Harris up front. They have stayed true to their 4-3-3 and we will be ready for it.”

Schmid does not anticipate any changes due to having played the game against the L.A. Galaxy on Wednesday at Starfire.  He points out, “We didn’t play an overtime game and you also have Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so you have three days and that’s pretty good recovery time.  We’re also at the stage of our season where we’ve got to put out what we think is the best team for the occasion.”

As the Sounders’ mentor prepares his team for its second meeting of the season against Dallas he cannot help but inwardly wince over the way that the first meeting ended in Frisco, Texas, and how Schmid could have used three rather than one point after the game ended in a 2-2 tie.

“We definitely thought we got jobbed a little bit at the end of that game with the penalty kick call,” Schmid bluntly declared.  “We don’t think we dominated the game from A through Z, for sure, but we had the lead.

“I thought we were managing the game very well and we didn’t put it in the bank, so to speak. We definitely want to win season series‘. We’ve lost a season series to L.A. We are even with Philadelphia. We need to win the season series with Dallas.”

After the final whistle Schmid was observed walking onto the middle of the field and shaking hands with the officials.  After his sportsman’s gesture he related afterwards that he told the officiating crew that they had “blown the call” that gave the home team its equalizing opportunity.

What made the deadlock all the more painful was that the Sounders had forged into a 2-1 lead late in the second stanza on one of the finest goal kicks of the MLS campaign, a free kick laser blast by Fredy Montero.

Schmid concluded his media interview with some good news on the injury front.

While conceding that they are taking the situation “day by day,” Schmid revealed that Osvaldo Alonso had done more during the Thursday workout than he had since sustaining his injury.  A decision will be made shortly before game time as to whether he will occupy a spot on the Sounders’ bench Sunday night.

Brad Evans is beginning to do more running, as is Jhon Kennedy Hurtado.

The time for the Sounders to make progress toward a playoff berth is now in that the team plays three of its next four MLS contests in the friendly confines of Qwest Field in addition to hosting Scotland’s premier football club Celtic FC in a friendly July 18.

The Rave Green is unbeaten (1-0-2) in three previous meetings with FC Dallas (5-2-6, 21 points), beginning the week six points in front of Seattle and fourth in the West.

Dallas has won three in a row and is unbeaten in its last four matches.

Sounders FC hopes to remove itself from a rocky period in which it has lost five of the last six MLS games, including three in a row for the first time.

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