SEATTLE — The way a team responds to adversity can be instructive. Lots of teams can play well when things are going their way, but no team simply coasts to winning anything meaningful.
The 2025 Seattle Sounders have certainly faced their share of adversity, both in the form of results and injuries. For the most part, they’ve come through those challenges and have a Leagues Cup trophy to show for it. They’ve also now punched their ticket to the MLS playoffs, thanks to some results elsewhere in the league over the weekend.
For all they’ve done this year, though, it’s hard to feel too confident about where this is now heading. Saturday’s 2-2 tie with the Vancouver Whitecaps did a pretty good job of illustrating the reasons for optimism and provided cause for concern.
The concern comes primarily in the form of health. Just as the Sounders were getting as close to full fitness as they’ve been in months, they lost two more starters to potentially significant injuries inside the opening 15 minutes. First, Alex Roldan went down with what appeared to be a groin injury. Then a few minutes later, Yeimar Gomez Andrade pulled up with what is probably a hamstring strain. We still don’t know how long either will be out, but if they’re back in time for the playoffs that would have to be considered an optimistic timeline.
Their departures seemed to take a lot of energy out of the early stages of the match, as both teams struggled to create much genuine danger in the first half.
The positivity was mostly in how the Sounders responded to falling behind early in the second half. After Snyder Brunell had the ball taken from him, leading to Brian White opening the scoring, the Sounders came storming back. On the very next possession, they won a corner that ultimately led to Jackson Ragen scoring a header. As soon as they got the ball back, the Sounders raced down the field and stormed ahead after Paul Rothrock played in Jesús Ferreira, whose cutback took a slight deflection before Albert Rusnák slammed it into the goal.
After 50-odd minutes of relatively sleepy soccer, the match suddenly felt like a genuine playoff game. Although the Sounders’ couldn’t quite harness the momentum and ultimately allowed the Whitecaps to grab an equalizer – by a player who should have already been sent off – they did play with an intensity that has seemingly been missing since the Leagues Cup final. If not for a somewhat miraculous save off the goal line on a Georgi Minoungou shot from six yards out, the Sounders could have even walked away with three points.
“It’s a good game to start us progressing forward,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “We needed that kind of game to get us back going. Hopefully that carries through.”
Generating some momentum from this game, result aside, is an absolute must. While the Sounders have qualified for the playoffs and are reasonably assured to finish in the top 7 – meaning they'll avoid the play-in game – they are quickly running out of time to pull out of this funk. They have not won a game since beating Inter Miami in the Leagues Cup final and have allowed at least two goals in all four matches they've played in the meantime.
I remain convinced that this squad is capable of something special – they've already proven that, in fact – and they showed bits and pieces of that potential in this game. The Sounders' offense can still improve, but it's still generating chances roughly on par with what they were doing during their hot streak. The issues are more defensive, as they're turning the ball over in bad areas and are still too susceptible on set pieces. These things can be fixed, but it needs to happen soon.
Next up is a match that could well come to define the Sounders’ regular season. The Portland Timbers, who have been going through their own struggles of late, come to town with playoff seeding very much undecided. The Sounders currently lead the Timbers by two points, albeit with a game in hand.
But this game is about a lot more than just playoff positioning. The last time the Sounders beat the Timbers in the regular season at Lumen Field was 2017, an impossibly long time ago. Short-handed or not, the Sounders absolutely need to win that game.
