Competence can be boring.
We all know the feelings we get from the dependable, the tried-and-true: the familiar rituals that give us structure, the colleagues you love at work who make things clearer and simpler for those around them, helping everyone get on with their lives.
It’s a little different when our shift is over and we actually want to feel something, be it at the theater, a stadium, a concert or just sitting in front of our televisions at home. Some emotions, a little drama, hot mess or even heart-pounding tension can bring color and depth to our lives, even with some accompanying stress.
I’m talking about the MLS teams in the Club World Cup, of course.
After years of buildup, the hyped, heated event is finally here. The host nation’s top flight has three entries, triple the number of MLSers that had taken part in all previous editions combined – which would be exactly one, the Sounders in 2023, though they were actually participating in the 2022 CWC, which… OK, let’s not get sidetracked.
Of that trio, the consensus among both pundits and oddsmakers is that Seattle, despite enjoying the most pronounced home-field advantage, face the longest odds of making a run into the CWC knockout stages, mostly because of the (un)luck of the draw that dropped them into a group of death alongside the reigning champions of Europe and South America as well as one of Spain’s elite sides.
Despite kinder group-stage assignments, Inter Miami and LAFC still have ample work to do against potent opponents, as Backheeled.com recently noted, whose squads are rated as somewhere between three and 19 times as valuable as their own by Transfermarkt. Even MLS commissioner Don Garber sounds pretty bearish about the economic realities crimping the hopes of the league’s three representatives.
That’s unfortunate. Because as skeptical as the global audience appears to be about this tournament, it nevertheless remains arguably the biggest stage MLS teams have ever stepped foot on, a rare opportunity to assert the league’s competitive and qualitative credentials. And despite the mountain the Sounders will have to climb just to reach respectability this month, they’re the most appropriate MLS flagship imaginable. For better or for worse.
Jeremiah Oshan
From day one, Seattle has been a beacon of sense and sustainability in a league with regulations that deter the latter. Sounders fans know the bullet points better than anyone: four U.S. Open Cups, a Supporters' Shield, two MLS Cups, two more MLS Cup final appearances, playoffs qualification in 15 of 16 MLS seasons, a constant perch at or near the top of the attendance rankings, and best-in-class media coverage, local relevance and supporter culture year after year.
The Rave Green showed everyone that a consistent contender dips into every bucket: Designated Player recruitment; academy cultivation and player development; smart trades and drafting; investment in the middle of the roster; physical infrastructure; staff hires; data analytics; and frankly every other buzzword that describes the parts of an organization.
As SaH’s Brian McKay analyzed in pointed detail back in January, general manager Craig Waibel took this approach to a new level over the winter with the acquisition of Jesús Ferreira and Paul Arriola and the re-signing Albert Rusnák, pragmatically valuing depth and proven productivity at the risk of leaving some observers let down by a relative lack of sizzle.
I get the distinct sense that a significant number of Sounders fans are quite tired of hearing all this. And yeah, doing your big-ticket shopping at FC Dallas is inherently less sexy than hitting up Tottenham Hotspur or Boca Juniors. Maybe there’s inherently less ‘ambition’ involved, as subjective as that word can be. Like I said, competence can be boring.
Anyone pining for bigger, bolder swings on the transfer market may want to glance over at the profound struggles former club president Garth Lagerwey and Atlanta United are currently experiencing after a record-breaking offseason shopping spree. Or the worst-ever title defense being produced by the LA Galaxy after they redlined on the cap to grab last year’s championship. Working within the limitations imposed by MLS salary-budget rules can be annoying; it’s still the name of the game for any club interested in contending over the long haul rather than riding the rollercoaster from feast to famine.
Inter Miami has its (drastically different) model, and it may well be pushing the league forward just as Seattle’s arrival did all those years ago. It’s fundamentally built, however, on the transcendence of Leo Messi – a one-of-one world talent – which is by definition not a replicable blueprint. Life has been rather stormy even with the bounty of talent the GOAT has helped recruit to the Herons, their chronically leaky defense and propensity for drama both on the pitch and in the office making them MLS’s most gripping telenovela since 2023.
LAFC sit somewhere between Miami and Seattle on this spectrum, yet have only been around a fraction as long as SSFC and enjoy the particular advantages of being based in Los Angeles, a huge and uniquely attractive market in which to work, not only for players like Hugo Lloris and Olivier Giroud but also the well-heeled, well-connected Hollywood types who populate their ownership group. The Sounders’ way is the long cut, by comparison.
So Seattle is the prototype here. No one else has figured out how to thrive in this soil quite like they have. And if the Sounders are indeed hopelessly outgunned at the CWC, that reflects as much or more on their league as it does their team, and the scale of the work still to be done in North American soccer over the coming decades.
Charles Boehm has covered all levels of soccer in North America and beyond for more than two decades, including his current role as MLSsoccer.com's National Writer. A native Texan, he made Washington, D.C. his home following a pedestrian NCAA Division III college career and subsequent Peace Corps stint in the small, soccer-crazed island nation of Grenada, where he coached and played in the Grenadian Premier League. Find him on Bluesky at @cboehm.bsky.social, or Instagram and Threads at @charlesboehm.
