There’s no real point in trying to sugarcoat it now: The Seattle Sounders are in a free-fall and alarm bells need to be blaring.
The Sounders’ 1–0 loss to the Philadelphia Union was their fifth straight, tying a franchise record they set back in 2015. They’ve now won 1 of their past 8 matches and have slipped all the way to eighth in the Western Conference, just three points ahead of the 10th-place Portland Timbers (who they play next).
In a vacuum, the Union performance wasn’t particularly awful. Playing on short rest and tired legs with a makeshift backline, the Sounders were able to keep it competitive and even had some moments where they showed enough life that grabbing a point was a feasible hope.
But that’s grading on about as steep of a curve as possible. The colder and harder facts are that the Union came into this game dead last in the Supporters’ Shield standings, with just two shutouts all year and none since May 2. Claiming a point should not have been seen as some sort of Herculean task.
Just to keep the game competitive, Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer implied that he had to scale back the gameplan. Mind you, this was against a team that has scored the second fewest goals in the Eastern Conference.
“What we discussed with the players afterwards is, we needed to go back to being hard to beat,” Schmetzer said. “Our goal for this game was to keep a clean sheet.”
The cost of the apparently simplified game plan was that the Sounders had fewer numbers in the attack, often leaving Osaze De Rosario as the only outlet. He was actually pretty good with his hold-up play but was mostly on an island. De Rosario’s only shot of the evening was an 18th-minute attempt that was blocked. That was actually just one of two shots the Sounders managed in the first half, with the other coming in the 9th minute.
The Sounders did open things up a bit more in the second half, but they still only took five more shots and none of those were of particularly high value. Paul Rothrock’s back post header was probably the best look they got on the evening.
Maybe the most indicative moment of the night came in the 60th minute when Rothrock put in a cross to Jesús Ferreira, fresh off entering the game. The ball appeared to take a slight deflection but Ferreira met it right around the penalty spot. He tried to take it on the half-volley, and scuffed it badly. The attempt didn’t even register as an official shot.
“We just haven’t been able to be as dangerous as we should be on the attacking side of the ball,” Schmetzer said in a dramatic understatement.
It’s not just the Sounders’ five straight losses or eight games with just one win, it’s how ineffective they’ve looked in most of them. Against the Union they generated just seven shots and .36 xG. That’s the fourth straight game in which they’ve not managed more than 10 shots and the seventh time in eight games that they’ve scored one goal or fewer.
The offensive struggles aren’t entirely new, of course. Even during their hot start in which the Sounders went 7–1–3, they had only scored more than a goal on four occasions. There were some positive trend lines, however, as the Sounders seemed to be getting a bit unlucky with their finishing. That was still true in the final two games before the break, as they generated more than 1.5 xG in each of their losses to the LA Galaxy and LAFC.
None of that was ideal, but at least seemed manageable as long as the Sounders maintained an elite defense. Coming out of the World Cup break, the Sounders were tied for the fewest goals allowed with 11, even after failing to register a shutout in any of their last seven games.
After the Union loss, the Sounders have now given up nine goals in the three games since the break and been outscored 12–2 during this losing streak. The “elite” defense is much closer to mediocre. Some of that comes down to the absences of players like Yeimar, Cristian Roldan and Alex Roldan, but at the very least this roster is considerably less deep than I thought it was.
To put it another way, it’s a roster that is very clearly and obviously in need of reinforcements. Defensively, they could probably use a backup No. 6 and maybe another true left back. Offensively, there are much more glaring holes, specifically at the No. 9.
A year ago, De Rosario, Danny Musovski and Jordan Morris combined for 30 all-competition goals. Schmetzer once again referred to them as a “three-headed monster” following the Union game. When De Rosario came off in the 80th minute, though, it marked the 16th consecutive league match in which the Sounders failed to get a goal from their starting No. 9. They currently have six goals between them, all either off the bench or in Morris’ case when he was playing as a winger. It would require at least one of them to get hot just to reach half of last year’s goal total.
A big part of what made that trio so successful a year ago was chance creation. That’s been a major issue, too. The Sounders didn’t create a single “big chance” against the Union and they’ve now failed to create more than one of those in any of their past three games. The team’s two primary chance creators – Albert Rusnák and Ferriera – have all but disappeared.
When things were going well, this organization has taken great pride in trumpeting their homegrown successes. That’s still admirable. But in a game like this, it seems telling that 11 of the 16 players who featured were largely developed inside the Sounders organization and the other five came to the Sounders from elsewhere within MLS. Domestic talent might still be a great value, but it must be supplemented, especially on the high end of the roster.
Schmetzer can very clearly see what’s happening. He talked about having some tough choices to make once his roster is a bit healthier and acknowledged that his rotation may have to get tighter as well.
I figured he might take the opportunity to publicly press a little harder for some help. Like he did before the road trip, he kept his cards close to his vest. Yes, he talks to GM Craig Waibel and majority owner Adrian Hanauer. No, he doesn’t make demands.
“I think we’ve done this a long time, and we haven’t hit the panic button yet,” he said. “Might come, might not.
“Right now, we’re thinking things through because the worst thing we could do is go out and make a rash signing just for the sake of signing a player. Then, that player doesn’t work out. We have to be very specific in who we sign and make sure it’s the right fit, the right talent.”
That seems to be the same thinking that has kept the team from making a signing the previous four summers. Notably, the Sounders were never in a slump like this during those previous summers.
Pressed a little harder, Schmetzer at least acknowledged some urgency, albeit with a caveat.
“I have in the last couple of weeks, giving them some a little bit stronger opinion, just about what’s wrong with the team in my opinion and how we go about it as a club,” he said. “We’re still successful. I understand everybody’s calling for more signings and I, on one hand, I might say we probably should. But on the other hand, if your resources are such.
“We’re not going to go out right now with this window and replace five guys for a group that started off 7–3–3. We’re just not going to do that."
I understand that Schmetzer is trying to avoid calling out his bosses. That’s fair. He gains little by venting in public.
But at some point, it would behoove someone within Sounders leadership to give some outward acknowledgement that they understand why everyone is freaking out, that the alarms can be heard inside Longacres, too.
