SEATTLE — The concept of a “trap game” is pretty tenuous, admittedly. The general idea is that these are games, usually against an inferior opponent, that immediately precede another arguably more important match. Real or not, there’s a fear that a team will play down to the opponent.
I’m not sure how much I really believe in the concept, but as set-ups go, Sunday’s match against Sporting KC was pretty much perfect.
Not only do the Seattle Sounders have a Leagues Cup match on Wednesday — prompting Brian Schmetzer to make eight changes from midweek — but they were facing an opponent whose season has been in a death spiral and came into this one on a five-game winless run. Facing similar situations, fellow Leagues Cup semifinalists Inter Miami dropped points against cellar-dwelling D.C. United while Orland City was smashed 5-1 by Nashville SC on Saturday.
The Sounders didn’t just avoid a similar fate, they once again flexed the muscles that have many observers calling this one of the deepest squads in MLS history. The 5-2 win over Sporting KC was every bit as dominant as the scoreline suggested despite fielding a lineup that was the youngest of any the Sounders had used this year and featured six players who were 23 or younger, two of whom — Cody Baker and Snyder Brunell — were getting their first starts of the season.
More than the result itself was how the Sounders stuck to their style, controlling possession, pressing high when needed and generating one of their highest xG outputs of the season (4.1).
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“We’ve got depth,” Schmetzer said in the postgame press conference. “That team knows how to play. Those players that don’t get consistent minutes understand what we want to accomplish.
“That was a game we needed. We couldn’t drop points because the West is so tight. We needed this home game and those guys delivered. That’s a strong collective and I’m super proud of them.”
There was no shortage of interesting performances in this one, perhaps starting with Danny Musovski. Fresh off picking up a red card that got him suspended for the remainder of the Leagues Cup and has him in Schmetzer’s “dog house,” Musovski scored his first MLS hat trick.
As one of just three regular starters who was in the lineup, it was a needed performance from a leadership perspective.
But the performance that was most emblematic of the team’s was delivered by Danny Leyva. It’s been an odd year for Leyva. He was good in his first couple of performances when he was paired with João Paulo in a double pivot, but has seemingly failed to gain Schmetzer’s trust and has been mostly relegated to reserve duty during the second half of the season.
Against Sporting KC, Leyva was given his first-ever MLS start at the No. 10 spot — a position he grew up playing — and responded with arguably the best 90-minute display of his career. Leyva not only had three assists and a drawn penalty, but also filled up the box score with 51 of 64 passing, 10 won duels, five fouls drawn and five other defensive contributions.
“I felt really good,” Leyva said. “The coaching staff gave me the confidence to start in that position.
“I felt comfortable there. I really enjoyed the game, being able to be in the pockets, receiving there, trying to link play.”
If there were any disappointments it was that Leyva couldn’t get his first career MLS goal. A bit of a free-kick specialist, he had one lined up from about 22 yards out that he said he “wanted back” after slamming it into the wall. He also gave a somewhat half-hearted bid to take the penalty that he drew, but gave it up to Musovski to complete his hat trick.
“I’m not really an individual person,” Leyva said. “So I gave it to him.”
It’s that sort of team-first ethos that seems to be driving the Sounders right now. Since the end of the Club World Cup, they’ve gone 8-1-4 and scored 34 goals across all competitions. They’ve done this while using different lineups in all 13 matches, averaging nearly four changes from one game to the next and playing basically every four days. There have been 13 different goal-scorers — nine of whom have scored at least twice — and 20 outfield players have gotten at least one start. The whole roster isn’t just being used, they are contributing positively.
To give other examples, Cody Baker got the start at left back after making just two first-team appearances this year and not starting at home since early in 2024. Aside from a very unlucky own-goal, he barely put a foot wrong and did nothing to hurt his chances of future playing time. Reed Baker-Whiting got a rare start at right back and after a couple rough moments in the first half, delivered the assist that sent the Sounders into halftime with a lead and was solid the rest of the way. Georgi Minoungou got his first MLS start since March and turned in one of his most polished performances ever, picking up an assist along the way. Snyder Brunell made his first career MLS start, never looked remotely out of place next to Cristian Roldan and scored in his second straight game. The list goes on.
It’s a little trite to suggest that the collective is stronger than the individual parts, but the Sounders are building the kind of environment where players genuinely believe that. This wasn’t a trap game, it was an opportunity for new players to shine.
“You guys can see, we’re all having a good time,” Kossa-Rienzi said. “Everybody gets along really well. I think that’s Step 1 in terms of getting the chemistry up and the confidence up.
“We know anybody can step on the field and make a difference. It’s not necessarily a question ‘If this happens, who’s going to step up?’ It’s more like ‘When it happens, we’re all going to step up.’ I think we all have that belief and with that belief, it’s going to be really hard to slow us down.”
