Between extended road trips, a home game 280 miles away, international breaks and secondary tournaments, the strong start to the MLS season is easy to overlook.
Fans develop patterns and habits, but in 2026 those will be difficult. Without the patterns it is easy to forget that Seattle Sounders are off to a strong start (5-1-1, +7 in all competitions). It's easy to forget that they've done this with forced lineup changes that crush most MLS teams.
Your memory isn't aided by the recent international break, with Sounders young and experienced playing on three continents.
Only one team that's spent as much time on the road as Seattle is doing better (Inter Messi). Teams with stronger places in the standings are ones whose early season started with home emphasis.
Your pattern is about to be interrupted again.
Seattle's home emphasis starts after this final two-match road set at Houston and at Monterrey. Then the Rave Green play seven of eight at home before the World Cup pause.
The season of stuttering started off well with a strong road trip and hopes.
A massive home stand, on grass, during two months renowned for great weather should buoy the side even more.
Start-pause-start again-pause again is a rough way to build a sport and a horrid way to build habits. But that will be the story of 2026 until August. Perhaps by September we'll understand which teams have risen and fallen.
Until then I'll hope that every stutter is overcome with perseverance leading to success.
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Catching up on Sounder at Heart
Here's what you missed on the site this week.
Sounders
Next match: Saturday, April 4 at Houston Dynamo FC | 5:30 pm PT | Apple TV
- Everything you need to know about Dynamo-Sounders
- Selling to win: Why the Sounders altered their roster-building approach
- Sounders U15s advance to GA Cup final, U16s fall just short
- Peter Kingston signs first-team contract with Sounders
- Panic Rankings: March 2026
This newsletter was made possible through the support of Full Pull Wines, a boutique wines reseller that has been sponsoring us since 2011.
Reign
Next match: Saturday, April 4 vs. Denver Summit at ONE Spokane Stadium | 5:45 pm PT | ION
- Match preview: Seattle Reign vs. Denver Summit
- Eight Reign players called up for FIFA international window
- The Cooler Guild: So far, so good in Spokane
- Valkyratings: Everything's coming up Meza
Defiance
Next match: Sunday, April 12 at Vancouver Whitecaps II | 4 pm PT | MLSNextPro.com
Looking back at the news
Everything else you need to know
- King County proposes $25M for World Cup safety, Lumen Field preps for security overhaul (KING5)
- FIFA raises World Cup ticket prices again for last sales phase (New York Times)
- FIFA canceling some hotel reservations in Seattle as World Cup approaches (Puget Sound Daily Journal of Commerce)
- Seattle organizers have created an official Pride Match Day Scarf (Outsports) scroll down
- The Wild West of GAM Inflation (Footy Analytics Musings)
- Dare to Dream: Mohamed Salah Move to San Diego FC and The Case for MLS (SDFC)
- Fast start or false signal? What history says about early season results in the NWSL (Equalizer)
- Sounders Academy shines as U-15, U-16 teams continue impressive run at GA Cup (Sounders FC)
- López, Caicedo, Thompson lead best U21 women's soccer players (ESPN)
- How Denver Summit smashed the NWSL attendance record in their first home game (The Guardian)
- Sophia Wilson back with USWNT: ‘I’m in a really great place right now’ (New York Times)
- The real value of record contracts and highest-paid women’s soccer players (Yahoo Sports)
- Deputy CEO Justin Papadakis exits USL after leading real estate strategy (Sports Business Journal)
- MLS local markets unlikely to get media rights back when Apple TV deal ends: NYCFC CEO (New York Post)
- Cristian Roldan’s MLS Training Blueprint for Elite Soccer Performance - Muscle & Fitness (Muscle & Fitness)
- Jamaica's World Cup miss the latest blow for Concacaf (Get Concacafed)
