Certainly, any 3-0 start is going to be more fun for fans than any 1-3-5 swoon that follows. However, even aside from wins and losses (and, of course, draws) has anyone else been a little put off by the Sounders' recent style of play?

I have a column in the Monday paper that sort of grumbles about what I see as a couple of growing and annoying traits: First, the red cards -- some of which can be explained away ... but only to a point. And then there also seems to be the recent and increasing tendency to argue with the refs -- which is unproductive at best and sometimes even counterproductive, as on Saturday when Chivas scored at a time when the Sounders still seemed distracted by a touchline call that went against Freddie Ljungberg.

Sigi Schmid had warned his team about that after the Columbus game. And goalkeeper Kasey Keller picked up on the topic after Chivas.

"It was quick throw-in that we weren’t ready for," Keller said of the lone goal. "One guy got behind us and we stopped him, but a second guy game and we didn’t have him marked, and he got a good shot in and we didn’t follow up on their players crashing the box. It all stemmed from just not being ready on the quick throw. It’s been a little bit of a problem of ours that we kind of switch off once in a while on throw-ins and quick set pieces. And that’s something we need to clean up out of our game because we’re just giving away too many chances on opportunities that shouldn’t be opportunities."

Then, after writing my column and reading that quote, I noticed ciscokid making a similar point in the comments section of the blog post below.

So, I guess I'm wondering if there is a growing feeling out there that the Sounders are developing an attitude that is tarting up their once-beautiful game. And even more interestingly, if Schmid still thinks so, what's he going to do about it now that his first public complaints have been ignored?

The quotes from the losing locker room at Home Depot Center indicate the Sounders saw the same game in person that we did on TV: They won chances, they won flow of play, they won corner kicks; they won everything exept the game ... and perhaps self-discipline.

Some of those quotes:

SIGI SCHMID:
It’s just one of those things. I thought we did more, over the 90 minutes, than they did. I don’t know what the stats show, but I thought we created more chances, I thought we were all around the goal. In key moments maybe we need to do a little bit more so we finish some of those chances. I thought through the first 80 minutes they really had one chance, and ended up scoring a goal, and we ended up losing the game. I thought we did a lot of things well, and did enough to deserve a goal. Right now we’re not catching any breaks; we’re not getting any breaks in terms of whistles, we’re not getting any breaks in terms of the ball bouncing our way a little bit, but you also make your breaks so maybe we just have to work a little harder at key moments.

KASEY KELLER:
I thought we played extremely well today. Sometimes this game’s not fair…. Give Chivas a little credit; they had some players missing and they defended extremely well. I was proud of the way we played, I thought we deserved more, but you make your own luck and we needed that little bit of quality and it let us down. They had 2-3 chances, and they put one away, and that’s the game.

NATE JAQUA:
Upset, a little frustrated, but we created some good stuff, we just weren’t able to get on the end of it for whatever reason. We’ll put it behind us, and we’ve got a big game against San Jose next week and we’ve got to concentrate on that.

Jaqua is right that San Jose has become a very big game on Saturday. However, he won't be around to help the Sounders because he picked up two yellow cards at Chivas and will be serving a one-game suspension ... along with Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, who picked up his fifth yellow of the season.

Penalties and cautions -- and the Sounders reactions to them -- are becoming one of the Sounders' top flaws this season. And that's reflected in Kasey Keller's take on the lone Chivas goal ... which started on a throw-in that Freddie Ljungberg was busy complaining to the referee about.

"It was quick throw in that we weren’t ready for," he said. "One guy got behind us and we stopped him, but a second guy game and we didn’t have him marked, and he got a good shot in and we didn’t follow up on their players crashing the box. It all stemmed from just not being ready on the quick throw. It’s been a little bit of a problem of ours that we kind of switch off once in a while on throw ins and quick set pieces, and that’s something we need to clean up out of our game because we’re just giving away too many chances on opportunities that shouldn’t be opportunities."

Ljungberg didn't win the argument. The Sounders didn't win the game. And Schmid may have a significant coaching challenge staring him in the face.