Throughout their illustrious Seattle Sounders careers, Jordan Morris and Cristian Roldan have experienced some amazing highs. They’ve won two MLS Cups, a Concacaf Champions League title and even won Leagues Cup last year. They’ve seen the Sounders compete for trophies basically every year.
While there have been plenty of periods of struggle, they’ve almost always been met with a fierce determination to find a way out. For the most part, that’s exactly what has happened.
With the season once again hanging in the balance on Sunday, the Sounders exuded a certain confidence that they would find a way to respond.
They did not. Instead, they turned in one of their worst performances of the season.
When asked to assess how to move forward from the 5–1 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps, Morris and Roldan seemed almost dumfounded. It wasn’t just that it was such a thorough defeat, or even that the loss knocked the Sounders out of a playoff position that seemed all but assured as recently as the start of the week. It was more the undeniable sense of déjà vu that accompanied the loss.
This was, after all, the second time this year that the Sounders have lost by that exact scoreline to a Cascadia Cup rival.
“We have to learn,” Morris said while shaking his head, then seemingly realizing that this all sounded familiar. “I don’t even know what to say … We say that after every loss, and for some reason we’re learning from these moments, whatever that is.”
Notably, that previous 5–1 loss came at the hands of Portland Timbers in both teams’ first games back from the World Cup break. It was a chance for the Sounders to capture some of the positive emotions from what was one of the most uplifting months in Seattle sports history.
Like this Whitecaps loss, the Timbers led 4–0 before the Sounders even got on the scoreboard. The loss sent the Sounders into a tailspin that ultimately saw them lose eight straight games and go 13 consecutive matches without a win. Impressively, the Sounders managed to come out of it.
After the Sounders won four straight and ran their unbeaten streak to nine, they had pushed their playoff odds well over 90%. It now seems like they may have started to take their ascendancy for granted.
That was especially true against the Whitecaps, a team that had already clinched the top spot in the Western Conference. Vancouver scored inside the 1st minute, added a second before the 10th minute and were up 3–0 by halftime.
“I think that we didn’t come out flying again,” Roldan said. “The amount of fouls they had in the first 10–15 minutes showed their intensity. Their goal obviously flattened us a little bit more than most goals.
“You saw a team that came out to play and you saw an opposing team that lacked the desire. That’s what good teams do; they put away teams that are struggling, and Vancouver is a good team.”
Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer was so frustrated with his players that he made an unprecedented four halftime subs, sending the kind of message to his players that most coaches only sarcastically say they wish they could. The players seemed to understand the point of the moves, even if it didn’t get the kind of response they all would have liked.
"Obviously, we’re frustrated and embarrassed," Morris said. "Our fans deserve better. This club is better than what we put on the field today."
The stink of this loss will linger. Before this year, the Sounders had never lost a Cascadia Cup match by more than three goals, but have now managed that twice in the span of a few months. The Sounders also became the first team to go winless in a year when the Cascadia Cup was awarded, losing all four of their matches by a cumulative score of 14–3 that also left them with the worst goal-difference in the rivalry trophy's history.
Yet, the Sounders can still manage a measure of redemption. Although they no longer control their playoff destiny, there is a viable path to the postseason. In fact, if they beat LAFC at home in the regular-season finale, they only need one of the three teams ahead of them in the standings to drop points to get in.
But none of that can be taken for granted. To make the playoffs – to speak nothing of doing something once they get there – the Sounders will have to play with a level of seriousness they’ve struggled to summon in any of their recent matches, all of which were hypothetically being treated as playoff games themselves.
"We need to bring intensity," Roldan said. "Whether it’s a rivalry or not, this team lacks a bit of intensity, and it’s on us leaders to bring it out of our guys. Today was another example of lacking the desire.
"That's non-negotiable, honestly, in professional sports, and non-negotiable if you play for the Sounders. I expect a big reaction from our guys against LAFC."
