RENTON – The 2025 season ended for the Seattle Sounders on Nov. 8. Nearly three-and-a-half months later, the Sounders are just days away from taking the field in a real competitive match for the first time since then when they kick off their 2026 season against the Colorado Rapids at Lumen Field on Sunday, February 22. Following a long offseason and a busy preseason, the team is ready to get going and put the frustrating end of last season behind them.
“The fun begins,” Cristian Roldan said following training on Thursday. “I think we’re all excited for the real games to come.”
The first real test comes against a Colorado Rapids team that could look pretty different from the version that drew against the Sounders twice last year. Head coach Chris Armas is gone, first-time head coach Matt Wells has come in from Tottenham Hotspur, and a number of changes have been made throughout the team’s spine.
“They're a young team, a team full of energy. A team that wants to play out of the back, wants to press really hard,” Roldan explained when asked about the Rapids. "It was great to watch a team like that,” but the Sounders focus isn’t solely on their opponents. “It's about us, too. We're at home, how can we impose our will, our style of play, what makes us good?"
Last season saw the Sounders score goals more freely than they’ve been able to in a long time, but alongside that goalscoring came a drop in the team’s defensive performances. Trying to regain that defensive solidity while continuing to score goals and play fun soccer has been a focus throughout preseason.
“Scoring goals hasn't been an issue for us,” remarked Roldan. “What was an issue last year was defending. We let in a lot of goals, too many goals for our liking. So I felt like we did well defensively during preseason."
During the final two preseason games in which the presumed starters played the majority of the minutes, the Sounders went 2-0 and outscored their opponents by a margin of 6-2 after a pair of 3-1 results in which Osaze De Rosario undeniably stole the show with braces in both games.
“Osaze has been unbelievable for us,” Roldan said. De Rosario’s performances during the second half of last season and throughout preseason have forced some changes elsewhere on the field. "You know we've had to move Jordan a little bit. It's just mixing and matching, seeing what works, what doesn’t, but I think our group ... has gelled really well again, so a really close-knit group and I'm excited for the year."
Some of that mixing and matching is a focus for Roldan.
"For me specifically, it's forming a partnership with a couple of guys,” Roldan said, alluding to his primary midfield partner from last season, Obed Vargas, moving to Atlético Madrid this offseason, while João Paulo retired and Danny Leyva transferred to Necaxa in Liga MX. As those three headed out, the Sounders brought in local guy and free agent Hassani Dotson after spending seven season with Minnesota United, as well as Nikola Petković on loan from Charlotte FC to join Roldan and Snyder Brunell in midfield.
"I think that throughout the year, you end up having situations where you have guys rotate in and out of the lineup. And so for me it's just understanding the guy next to me that'll make our team a whole lot better."
So far things have looked good in preseason, but the real test will come now that the games really matter.
Extra emphasis
While home games are always important — especially when they’re the season opener — this one carries a bit of extra value as it will be followed by five straight road games while FIFA takes over Lumen Field to install grass for the World Cup. The Sounders’ next home game will be on April 12 against Real Salt Lake.
No. 1 … for now
Andrew Thomas has officially been named the starting goalkeeper for the season-opener but head coach Brian Schmetzer wasn’t quite ready to declare him the No. 1 goalkeeper. Stefan Frei, he said, remains in contention to get starts.
“The way I’m looking at is I have two starters,” Schmetzer insisted. “Andrew is going to get the nod in the beginning and we’re going to go from there.”
Pedro de la Vega update
When Pedro de la Vega was diagnosed with a fractured knee cap, there was a rough estimate that it would take about six months for him to return. That would have theoretically put him in line to start playing in late April.
Four months later, it now looks like mid- to late-May is the earliest de la Vega will be back. If he’s not back by then, he’d need to wait until after the World Cup break, which means a return in mid-July. Schmetzer said this wasn’t so much the result of any setback, but more of a clarification of how the process is going.
“It all depends on how he progresses,” Schmetzer said. “It was always a little too early to give an exact date just because of the nature of the injury and how he was going to rehab.”
