April showers brought May… showers? Though the sky isn’t falling, cracks began to show in the bulletproof season the Sounders’ had so far in 2026 — some shots finally hitting home. Ending the month on a two-game losing skid, they only managed to score one goal per game, conceding seven, and finishing with a 1–2–2 record. There were certainly highs — Jesús Ferreira's solo run helping to down the Quakes, and a couple excellent Andrew Thomas saves. Despite those, there were more wounds and worries that may only fester over the next month and a half unless Seattle finds the right salve to treat them.
May means Memorial Day barbecues and picnics. To check in on each group's vibes, let's spy on their festivities (though be stealthy — the punishment for being spotted is getting kicked out of the park and getting four cookies deducted from our share at the next event…)
Goalkeepers
Players: Andrew Thomas, Stefan Frei, Max Anchor
With just the regular season to focus on, Andrew Thomas was granted a month-long soliloquy. Though his performance started strong — earning a Community and a Realio Man of the Match against SKC and San Diego respectively — the back end of his showing was… less than ideal. Most of the goals weren’t his fault, but conceding five goals on eight shots on target in his final three games cannot be the standard accepted by him, the staff or the fans.
Panic Rating: Off to the side, the three keepers sit around a campfire. Next to them — a box of beverages, an eight-pack of hot dog buns, and a pack of dogs. While they argue over whether they should have brought Ballpark or Hebrew National, one of them skewers a dog and absently tilts the stick over the fire.
Slowly sliding off, it’s all but certain to fall into the flames until Stefan Cleveland comes diving in from next door to catch it before it hits the embers. He winks, taking the dog with him back to his own group who are actively struggling to start their own fire with just wet kindling and no logs.
The remaining seven dogs get skewered up by the group. Lessons not learned, each skewer is pointed down, and four more roll into the coals — unsalvageable. Finally fixing the mistake, each goalkeeper tips up their skewers, successfully cooking the remaining dogs — one for each. A frustrating affair, but at least everyone's somewhat fed.
Defense
Widebacks: Nouhou, Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, Cody Baker, Peter Kingston
Centerbacks: Jackson Ragen, Yeimar, Kim Kee-Hee, Antino Lopez, Alex Roldan, Stuart Hawkins, Ryan Sailor
Shooting themselves in the foot is one way to describe the defense this past month. Inconsistency would be the other. In a year where it finally seemed like the Sounders’ cut out their penchant for untimely red cards and set-piece breakdowns, they found new and exciting ways to concede: uncharacteristic backpasses into traffic, battleshipping, and failing to pick up their marks.
Though Ragen had a handful of extremely good headers and Kalani had a couple of dangerous longer-range blasts on frame, no defender really managed to change the scoreline for their own team with any consistency to make us forget about defensive blemishes.
Panic Rating: While food's heating up on the grill, the defenders host a Field Day.
Kalani spotlights in cornhole: knocking in his opponent's bag twice, but makes up for it with a couple of slides to knock some bogies off the board, even setting up his partner perfectly to sink in a bonus bag.
Jackson Ragen plays QB in two-hand-touch — tossing an interception, occasionally making passes and keeps trying a hand-off play with Albert so he can play receiver — so close on so many occasions to coming off, but not quite there.
Tino Lopez and Nouhou anchor their team during Capture the Flag — letting absolutely no one near their flag, save one moment where Tino steps out when a decoy fakes an approach, and Nouhou fails to notice the true threat in time.
In the sack race, Peter's matched up with the speediest and trickiest man. He hustles as best he can, but his team captain was left thinking that maybe that matchup should've been given to someone with more guile.
Kim Kee-hee arrives while most people are wrapping up their meal after getting stuck in traffic. Everyone's happy to see him, and at least he got to say hello!
Midfielders
Pivots: Cristian Roldan, Snyder Brunell, Hassani Dotson
Attacking Midfielders: Albert Rusnak, Jesus Ferreira, Sebastian Gomez, Yu Tsukanome
Not the best month to be a Sounders midfielder. Much like the defenders, Seattle's midfield has not quite been the engine room it was proving to be earlier this year. Though the level of opponent provided a nice sample size from top to bottom of the conference, the midfielders generally failed to exert overwhelming control for extended periods of time throughout the last few games. No one looked fully up to the task of either taking command of the middle of the park or connecting defense to offense efficiently — though everyone had their own moment.
The disjointed affair paired with a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes was likely a big contributor to the lack of results, and is something the coaching staff will look to improve on during the World Cup break.
Panic Rating: The midfielders sit on lawn chairs, discussing their lives and group events — the "adult table" at this gathering while the "kids" are out playing.
Snyder Brunell and Cristian Roldan keep the conversation flowing — consistently asking interesting follow-up questions to keep the others talking and to extract more information. Jesús Ferreira is quiet on occasion, but has been up to the craziest of adventures — the stories slowly pulled out of him, and manages to crack the joke that exacts the biggest laughs.
Sebastian Gomez is happy to be there — not saying much, more taking in his surroundings and finally getting to listen in after being accepted at the "grown-up table." Hassani hasn’t been to a ton of events with the group after a living away for quite awhile, so everyone's happy he’s there. He doesn't have much going on, though, and mostly just interjects where he needs to.
The biggest surprise of the afternoon is when Cristian lets a big juicy secret slip. Normally the most trustworthy ear of the group, the whole circle is dead silent. It's such a shock, rather than making a big deal of it, the rest of the group decides to keep it to themselves and not create drama that might cause fights if the rest of the group were to hear.
Attackers
Wingers: Jesus Ferreira, Paul Rothrock, Jordan Morris, Paul Arriola, Pedro de la Vega
Strikers: Jordan Morris, Danny Musovski, Osaze De Rosario
Well, everyone playing certainly had their moment. That's sort of the problem. Most of the front three managed goals in May (save Morris, who had multiple good opportunities and one chalked offside, and Arriola who spent much of the month injured), though no one stood above the rest to carry the offense — and that's not good enough for a team with as high aspirations as Seattle.
If you're not setting the scoreline in your favor, you're opening up to heavy pressure from the opposition. Though the team as a whole did manage to generate just about 11 xG over the course of their last 5 games, Brian Schmetzer acknowledged a core problem after the LAFC game:
"The margins in this league are so small, I mean, they are so small."
Goals scored in March just didn't bundle in during May, resulting in a toothless attack.
Though it could be said that guys elsewhere on the field - like Ragen and Kossa-Rienzi - had ample high quality opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net, it's ultimately the defense's primary job to prevent goals and the attack's to score them.
Panic Rating: The forwards were tasked with supplying the food - organizing a potlock with a wide variety of the classics:
Jordan Morris brought Pepsi. The rest of the group loves Cola - but prefers Coke. So close, yet so far.
Paul Rothrock brought some pasta salad - always a hit, because who doesn't like pasta salad? The problem? No forks to eat it with. The group was forced to use their fingers.
Osaze De Rosario brought some buffalo wings - spicy, and packs a punch that goes straight to the head... But was just too hot for some.
Jesus Ferreira brought the burgers — the star of the show, and can carry a meal on their own — but forgot the buns. Danny Musovski saved the day, though, and happened to have some leftover from a previous event. A couple may have been stale, though: an audible crack broke through the conversation din as he tried to bite through one, and ended up rushing to the hospital with a hand over his mouth.
Paul Arriola brought some barbecue chips — good enough for almost anyone, but at a meal are just something off to the side and not necessarily something to think about.
Pedro de la Vega RSVP'd "tentative" and was meant to bring the dessert platter, but ended up no-showing.
