Heading into the World Cup break with 24 points from 13 games and sitting fourth in the Western Conference by points per match is certainly not the worst place for the Seattle Sounders to be. That’s four points ahead of last year’s pace, 11 points ahead of where they were at this point in 2024 and just two fewer than they had through 13 games in their only Supporters’ Shield-winning season (2014).
Even after Sunday’s 1–0 loss to LAFC left the Sounders 1–2–2 in their last five, it’s probably worth noting that each of the past two Shield winners endured five-game stretches at least as bad as that at some point in their seasons.
While those stats might be enough to ward off a complete meltdown, they will do little to ease the frustration that will now linger at least until the Sounders return to action roughly two months from now.
More than the results, I’d argue, it’s how they’ve achieved them and what it suggests about how this season could play out.
The Sounders failed to score in their last two games and had multiple goals in just one of those games while playing three of them at home. They did this while generating nearly 12.0 xG and 20 “big chances,” of which they failed to convert 16.
Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer, while clearly frustrated, was also logical about the struggles.
“The margins in this league are so small,” he said. “I mean, they are so small.”
As evidence, Schmetzer pointed to the start of the season when those same margins all seemed to be breaking the Sounders’ way, such as their 1–0 win on the road against the San Jose Earthquakes in which they were outshot 25–6.
More broadly, the Sounders started the season 6–1–1 in league play while dramatically overperforming their underlying numbers. There’s a cold logic to the observation that this recent dip is simply the product of the numbers falling in line with where they “should be.”
But like Schmetzer’s “small margins” statement, that’s a pretty unsatisfying answer.
Margins are not just something that happen on paper, they are real-life events that we see playing out. In the LAFC game, for instance, the Sounders had several good scoring chances and each time had a critical failing.
In the first half, Hassani Dotson played in Jordan Morris for a breakaway only for Thomas Hasal to make a nice save. At the start of the second half, Morris made a nice move to create a shot for himself that forced Hasal into an awkward rebound. It fell to Albert Rusnák, who seemed to have Paul Rothrock open, but he reacted too slowly and had to recycle possession. There was Jackson Ragen’s open look at a cross from Paul Rothrock, but he slipped just as it was being delivered and his off-balance attempt went wide. Their closest chance came when Morris worked his way to the endline and cut it back for Danny Musovski, whose shot from the edge of the 6-yard box hit off the crossbar. It was a game in which the margins were on full display.
They also fairly illustrated by how the Sounders’ main offensive players have mostly struggled to produce consistently this year. More than a third of the way through the season, a starting No. 9 has not yet scored a goal while their top-paid offensive players have all struggled to produce at their historic rates.
Rothrock is the Sounders’ top scorer with four goals – only one team’s leading scorer has fewer – and no one has logged more than three primary assists. A year after the Sounders seemed to have one of their deepest offenses ever, they’re struggling to find even one player who can produce consistently.
“We need to score more goals,” Schmetzer said. “We’ve done a great job defensively, but we need to pick the pace up as far as scoring. It’s not just Jordan and it’s not just Albert. … It has to be everybody. I’m not going to pick on one or two guys, it has to be a team effort.”
It may be even more than that. The Sounders have built a solid roster that has few obvious weak spots. But it’s still true that they lack a player who can take a game over offensively. When he was at his best, Pedro de la Vega provided that. At some point after the break, he’ll return. But how close he will be to his peak or if he can get there this year is almost impossible to say.
The Sounders made a bunch of moves over the past few months that give them a good deal of flexibility, but also cost them talented players who might have been able to help during this stretch. It has been four summers since they’ve made a significant midseason move; now would be a good time to make a move that will potentially improve their ability to compete on the margins.
