Almost enough is, pretty obviously, not the same thing as enough. It’s close, but in a results-based assessment where enough means advancing to the next round and almost enough means the end of your run, the difference of a matter of inches may as well be a mile or a light year. The Seattle Sounders almost did enough last night against Tigres to overcome the 2-0 deficit they carried over from the first leg. In the end it’s a frustrating result, but I think we also saw a lot to like in the first proper home game in almost two months.
Albert Rusnák put on the kind of performance that teams pray their highest-paid player will pull out in this kind of game. Jordan Morris and Danny Musovski combined for a goal, Cristian Roldan had a pair of assists and Jesús Ferreira and Paul Rothrock posed real problems for a Tigres side that had just smashed the top team in the Liga MX table when they beat Chivas 4-1 over the weekend. It was the kind of attacking output that fans have been waiting for as the Sounders won 3-1 on the night.
Having been shut out on the road in the first leg, that goal at Lumen Field for Tigres meant that despite Seattle leveling the game on aggregate they hadn’t done enough to advance. They were good – really good – but they needed to be somewhere between great and perfect after the previous result. It’s fair to say that Seattle created enough chances to complete the comeback between the two games, but by that same logic Tigres had enough chances of their own to put the tie out of reach. Without an away goal of their own, when Joaquim headed home a corner kick in the 31st minute the series was all but over. Seattle made an impressive go of a comeback and even looked both capable and likely to get the 4th goal they needed in the game’s final 10 minutes or so, but it was not to be.
That’s a bunch of stuff that happened, but it doesn’t really tell you much of what to take from the game as we move forward starting with Saturday’s home game against St. Louis City SC – the first league game at Lumen since February 22. The first thing that I think we can take from this game and this series is a ghost from last season that seems like it returned to haunt the Sounders over these two games: set piece defending. It’s certainly fair to say that Seattle struggled in that area against Tigres. One player scoring or creating two goals from corners in two games is a definite concern, that they both came from effectively uncontested looks after broken coverage is a bigger concern. Some people may point to the absence of Yeimar and Alex Roldan’s deployment at centerback as a cause for those goals, but it’s worth noting that the first goal (which was eventually ruled as a Jackson Ragen own goal) came from Osaze De Rosario marking space rather than Joaquim, and the second came from a bunch formation at the top of the box where Morris lost Joaquim after he got caught with a pick and never got turned around to face the ball and properly defend the corner after picking him up again.
It’s a pair of individual errors, and after the team’s struggles with set piece defending in 2025 it’s understandable to be concerned. The performances for much of this season don’t exactly justify that concern as an ongoing issue, though. While it’s appropriate for the team to continue focusing on this part of the game, it’s also worth pointing out that Tigres nabbed two goals from 0.67 xG from non-penalty set pieces over two legs according to Fotmob, and the total xG from the two actual shots was only 0.16, for what that’s worth. In the six MLS games Seattle has played, five of which have been on the road, they’ve conceded just 0.2 xG from non-penalty set pieces and zero actual goals. That’s all to say that it’s worth continuing trying to improve on both sides of set pieces, but this was more a matter of superior execution on individual plays than a pervasive issue.
The real bright spot here is how the attack was humming, and what that means as the team heads into a bunch of home games with guys getting healthy ahead of the World Cup break. Game state plays a part, but the Sounders outshot Tigres 20 to 10 and generated 1.8 xG to 0.65. Seattle took 13 shots from inside the penalty area, had 37 touches in the box, had 249 of their 456 completed passes in the Tigres half, and were credited with 3 “big chances”. The entire front four – five once Musovski came on – were involved, highlighted by Rusnák’s two goals and one of Ferreira’s best games, in which he created a pair of chances and in one game equaled his league shot total of 3. The attaackers were combining with a flow a freedom that we’ve rarely seen during the road show.
The Sounders now have five of their remaining seven games before the break at home on the beautiful grass laid down for the World Cup. They’ve seen how close they are to the best the region has to offer, and they know what they need to do to be among them. Concacaf Champions Cup isn’t on the table now, but there’s still plenty to play for and the Sounders are more than capable of adding to the trophy cabinet this season. Now they just have to do it.
