RENTON — Heading into the final round of Phase One matches, the revamped Leagues Cup format seems to have done its job. Only one of the final 18 matches has no bearing on who advances — and even that game has some intrigue since it pits Atlanta United against former head coach Gonzalo Pineda’s Atlas — while no team has actually clinched advancement.
That includes the Seattle Sounders, who are one of just three teams who have claimed all six points through the first two rounds of play.
While results between now and kickoff could change the math, as things stand at press time the Sounders will need at least a point from Wednesday’s match against Club Tijuana to secure advancement to the Knockout Phase. There’s a good chance that the Sounders will need to win that game to secure the top spot in the MLS qualification table.
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“As always, we’re going to play to win,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said during Tuesday’s press conference. “We’re going to play to entertain our fans.
“You know, nothing in life is guaranteed. If we don’t win, we might not go through despite our great start.”
Tijuana comes into the match having gone 1-1-0 in their first two matches, bouncing back from a 5-2 loss to the LA Galaxy in their opener to beat the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Sunday. They will likely need a regulation win in order to secure advancement.
The Sounders are 2-0-0 in Leagues Cup with a tournament-best +8 goal-difference. More broadly, they are in the midst of an eight-game unbeaten run in which they have gone 5-0-3 while scoring 23 goals across all competitions.
“I think we’re in good form right now,” Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan said. “I think that it’s more about how can we maintain that? When we talked about going into this game, and wanting to win, that’s also about sustaining our momentum that we've had since the Club World Cup.
“When you feel like things are going your way, you need to do everything possible to keep that going.”
State of the leagues
The first two rounds of Leagues Cup have been about as competitive as anyone could have asked. Just 11 of the first 36 matches have been decided by more than one goal, 12 matches have been decided via penalty shootout and Liga MX holds a slight 19-17 lead (including shootout results).
More rotation?
As they did against Santos Laguna, the Sounders are likely to engage in some “strategic” rotation in the lineup. Cristian Roldan got a rare appearance off the bench last game and is likely to return to the starting lineup against Tijuana, while Obed Vargas, Jackson Ragen, Alex Roldan and Nouhou have each played all 180 minutes in the first two games and are likely among the candidates to get some rest.
“I think our rotation has been good,” Schmetzer said after he made four changes between the first two Leagues Cup matches. “Obviously, it’s going to help in a three-game week and then, after this, we get back to league play so there will be some rotation.”
