Following Saturday’s home loss to the LA Galaxy, the Seattle Sounders are actually still in a pretty solid position as they prepare for the final game before the World Cup break. The loss was bad, and there are plenty of reasons for that, but given the circumstances, it might be more worthwhile to looks at where the team stands through 12 games with an almost eight-week break between the upcoming away trip to face LAFC and their return to league play on July 16 against the Portland Timbers.
The Sounders currently have 24 points from 12 games with a record of 7–3–2, +7, and sit fourth in the West and seventh in the Supporters’ Shield standings with at least a game in hand on every team above them. They’re within touching distance of that top spot, six points back from Nashville SC who currently lead the Shield race with 30 points from 13 games. No team has allowed fewer goals than Seattle’s 10, although the Vancouver Whitecaps and Nashville have both given up the same number of goals while playing one more game. The Sounders’ goals scored figure is where the uneasiness around the fanbase starts to creep in: Seattle’s 17 goals scored is tied with Minnesota United (8th in the West) and D.C. United (8th in the East) for the fewest goals scored among teams currently in playoff position.
There are understandable factors in the relative lack of attacking strength for the Sounders so far this season. Jordan Morris has been limited in his playing time and hasn’t quite found his rhythm yet as an injury kept him off the field for the first month of the season; neither of the team’s other primary strikers has been able to establish himself as a consistent threat; and injuries throughout the attack have resulted in moving guys around including Morris, which has also caused some struggles in terms of cohesion and chemistry.
One of those injured players is Pedro de la Vega who hasn’t been on the field at all after a somewhat freak injury in the final regular season game last year ended a three-month run where the young Argentine attacker looked exactly like the sort of player Seattle hoped they were bringing in when they brought him in ahead of the 2024 season. It’s a little hard to point to a player who’s so seldom been able to be on the field during his time with the club so far as a cause for their struggles, but in a game like this one — and the games against Sporting Kansas City, San Diego FC, Tigres, and any other game you might think of — the Sounders clearly lacked what he brings to the table.
The Sounders have repeatedly insisted the aim is to have de la Vega ready to go when the league picks back up in July, at which point there will still be 21 games to play, plenty of time for him to round into form and help the team climb the table and compete for silverware. It’s unfair to put that kind of weight on a player returning from such a major injury, particularly one who has repeatedly dealt with such injuries in his time in Seattle. The Sounders have a sizable group of talented attackers, but very few of them are players who can grab ahold of a game and bend it to their will. When he’s on his game, de la Vega can do that. In different ways, Morris has shown an ability to do that occasionally, as have Jesus Ferreira and Albert Rusnák. Those are four of Seattle’s five highest-paid players, they should be able to impact games, but the Sounders are in a position to help lighten the load.
Seattle has around $4 million in salary cap space. While they don’t have any open DP spots or easy ways to open one up, they do have three open U22 spots at the moment and they clearly have the ability to add TAM-level talent. With the extended break for the World Cup and time left in the season after the break to work new additions into the group, the Sounders have an opportunity and to a degree an obligation to bolster the squad and give themselves the best chance at winning something while their core group are all still in their primes. There’s also the reality that following this season and the sprint season in 2027, the resources the team has accumulated may be of minimal value and the change of schedule may well come with a fundamental shift in how the rest of the league operates. The team as constructed has plenty going for it, but as we’ve seen over the last several seasons the margins are incredibly fine without some strengthening.
Now, any additions in the summer won’t help with the game Seattle just lost. But some new players and the returns of other players who are currently unavailable may help with an issue the team faced against the Galaxy. After playing a much closer to full-strength squad in each of the two previous games during the team’s three-game week, Brian Schmetzer opted to rotate heavily for LA.
On one hand, it’s understandable: the Galaxy are not good, and a rotated Seattle side should have been able to get a result, especially with the ability to bring so many first-choice players off the bench. The issue stems from how the team rotated, for this game and the games that preceded it. Injuries along the backline, most notably to Yeimar but also to Kim Kee-hee and offseason addition Ryan Sailor, have meant that the cool trick of playing Alex Roldan at centerback that the team discovered last season has become the go-to approach in 2026. That’s despite Antino Lopez’s emergence as a legitimate MLS-level CB and Kim's return from injury.
For the most part that’s been fine, but the insistence on playing Roldan at a secondary position rather than in his best role has meant that the team’s second option at right back, Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, has become the first choice, and because it’s much less common to make mid-game changes at CB, Roldan has played all 90 minutes with regularity, Lopez hasn’t gotten as many opportunities to play, and Kim has yet to see the field in the three games he’s appeared on the bench.
The result is that with Alex Roldan unavailable due to a hamstring injury the Sounders also chose to start the game without Kossa-Rienzi — although he came on as a halftime sub — who had started all but three games across all competitions coming into this one, instead playing Peter Kingston in a relatively new position at RB in his second ever MLS start next to Lopez at CB, making for a particularly inexperienced right side. Add the unfamiliar combo of Snyder Brunell and Hassani Dotson in midfield ahead of them, and it’s not entirely surprising that the Sounders struggled to find their rhythm with all the other changes in the squad.
The Sounders’ depth is a strength, there’s no doubting that, but this game provided a clear look at the importance of using that depth more strategically throughout the course of the season so it’s more durable when it’s needed.
