On Wednesday night, the Houston Dynamo rolled into Lumen Field with no intention of playing recognizable soccer, parked an orange bus directly across their own six-yard box, nicked a first half lead on their only real advance past midfield, and dared Seattle to do something about it. The Sounders responded with ninety minutes of sterile, soul-crushing possession. Almost 70 percent possession. Shots 21-2; nearly 700 completed passes; 10 corner kicks. Yet Seattle could have played until Sunday and still wouldn’t have broken that bunker. Final score: 0-1 loss.
What makes a night like that so depressing isn’t that the Sounders were overrun, it’s that they were mostly complicit in their own demise. Instead of quick, one-touch verticality or aggressive diagonal runs to pull Houston’s two banks of five apart, Seattle settled into the dreaded Horseshoe of Sadness. Ball to the left back. Back to the left center back. Over to the right center back. Out to the right wing. Panic at the sight of an orange shirt. Pass it back to the center circle and start the misery loop over again.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Pin Houston deep in their own defensive third from the opening whistle, use aggressive counter-pressing from the double pivot to suffocate their transition outlets, and overload the half-spaces until the low block cracks.
Blanks Fired: Seventy minutes of polite, risk-averse perimeter passing 35 yards from goal.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Floated crosses into a crowded box against towering center backs, telegraphed shots hammered straight into defenders’ shins, and zero killer instinct in a match begging for someone to do the thing.
Goalkeeper
Andrew Thomas — 5 | Community — 5.6
Playing goalkeeper behind a team that holds 70 percent possession and fails to defend the rare transition is a thankless task. Thomas spent most of Wednesday night watching his teammates play keep-away. He faced one shot on target, which resulted in Houston’s 26th-minute goal.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Act as a high sweeper-keeper to recycle cleared balls quickly.
Blanks Fired: Touched the ball 24 times, almost exclusively on uncontested back-passes from his center backs when the midfield ran out of ideas and reset possession from 70 yards away.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Left flat-footed on Houston’s 26th-minute corner when the backline parted, and later booted a 79th-minute clearance straight over the touchline when Seattle was desperately trying to push the tempo.
Defense
Nouhou — 5 | Community — 5.1 (off 46’ for Arriola)
With Houston ceding the flanks, Nouhou didn’t have much to do other than wander into the offensive third and drop a few speculative crosses into the congested box.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Lock down the left flank so the attacking band can commit numbers into the box without worrying about the back door.
Blanks Fired: Completed 96 percent of his passes because Houston gave him a 15-yard cushion every time he crossed midfield, daring him to either hit a line-breaking ball or pass it backward to Jackson Ragen. He chose door number two about forty times.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Subbed at half, but apparently removing Nouhou doesn’t magically fix all the offensive issues.
Jackson Ragen — 6 | Community — 5.5
Ragen accumulated 123 touches and completed 90 percent of his passes as Seattle pushed high. However, the spacing between Ragen and Alex Roldan collapsed on Houston’s lone goal, and his presence on set pieces didn’t result in clean chances on frame despite his height.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Step into the midfield stripe to compress the pitch, distribute quickly back into the box, and serve as the primary target on Seattle’s eleven corner kicks.
Blanks Fired: Spent the second half standing ten yards inside Houston’s half with his foot on the ball, waiting for a midfielder to make a run that never came, before rolling another five-yard pass wide.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Seattle found him zero times during the 20 minutes he spent up top as a target striker.
Alex Roldan — 5 | Community — 5.2 (off 85’ for Clark)
Alex was tidy in possession (96 percent passing on 122 touches). He was substituted in the 85th minute for Caden Clark as Seattle pushed for an equalizer.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Be a second distribution point to break lines and offer quality crosses.
Blanks Fired: Kept his passing clean and safe, rarely risking a vertical ball through the lines and instead deferring to Ragen or his brother Cristian whenever Houston showed even token front-line pressure.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Hasn’t shown his summer form on the back line, with Seattle’s defense struggling lately.
Kalani Kossa-Rienzi — 5 | Community — 5.2 (off 59’ for Kingston)
Kossa-Rienzi provided early energy on the right flank, but Houston’s low block limited his space to operate. He suffered turnovers in the final third and showed continual poor crosses before subbing off.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Provide relentless overlapping width on the right flank to stretch Houston’s back four horizontally and open up pockets in the half-space for Jesús Ferreira.
Blanks Fired: Touched the ball 54 times down the right channel, repeatedly running into a double-team near the eighteen-yard box, stopping his momentum, and playing the ball backward to reset the arc.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Seventy-nine percent passing including zero completed crosses or dribbles. Right back is a desolate place.
Defensive Midfield
Cristian Roldan — 6 | Community — 6.2 (MOTM)
Cristian finished with a ridiculous 132 touches, four shots, and five defensive recoveries. He consistently attempted to break down Houston’s bunker but had little success.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Own the central territory, win every loose ball outside Houston’s penalty box to sustain wave after wave of pressure, and unlock the defense with diagonal balls over the top.
Blanks Fired: Even Cristian occasionally got sucked into the lateral vortex when his front four stopped moving, though he was the only Sounder consistently looking to break the cycle with one-touch vertical passes.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: He was close on a lot of connections and shots, but close wasn’t good enough.
Hassani Dotson — 5 | Community — 5.1 (off 59’ for Brunell)
Dotson had 89 percent pass completion on 56 touches, but Houston’s defensive density limited his ability to drive forward. He kept possession moving before exiting at the hour mark.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Pair with Cristian to keep the ball moving at a two-touch tempo, and slip quick passes between the lines to Albert Rusnák.
Blanks Fired: Operated mostly as a human metronome in the center circle, receiving passes from the center backs and shuttling them out to the wings without penetrating the penalty area.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Had a rare clean look at the top of the arc in the 36th minute when Houston’s block sagged too deep, took an extra touch to set his feet, and watched his shot get smothered before it traveled three yards.
Attacking Midfield
Sebastian Gomez — 5 | Community — 5.8
Starting on the left wing, Gomez struggled against Houston’s low block. With limited space to utilize his shifty dribbling, he recorded 62 touches but failed to generate a shot on target, despite recording nine touches in the box.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Attack from the left channel toward the near post to pull Houston’s right center back out of position and crash the six-yard box on crosses.
Blanks Fired: Repeatedly rebuffed when trying to find space off the dribble, forcing him to check back and play simple five-yard lay-offs into crowded midfield traffic.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Hesitated to pull the trigger, like everyone else on the team.
Albert Rusnák — 6 (MOTM) | Community — 5.7
Rusnák completed 86 percent of his 71 passes, but much of his involvement occurred deep in midfield rather than in key attacking areas. Seattle’s set pieces generated little danger against Houston’s central defense.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Operate as the master locksmith between Houston’s compact defensive lines.
Blanks Fired: Spent seventy minutes dropping deeper and deeper into the center circle just to touch the ball.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Six key passes meant he was creating chances for others, they just refused to do their part.
Jesús Ferreira — 5 | Community — 5.1 (off 59’ for Morris)
Ferreira created a chance early on and connected well with Cristian Roldan. However, as space tightened, his final actions inside the box yielded few clear opportunities.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Float freely into the right space to overload Houston’s midfield, combine on quick give-and-goes at the top of the eighteen, and test the keeper early.
Blanks Fired: Had to constantly drop to get the ball from Kossa-Rienzi, effectively removing one of Seattle’s primary goal threats from the penalty area.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: He didn’t do anything to be joyful about, outside of a few nifty passes that were wasted on the other side of the field.
Striker
Dejan Joveljić — 5 | Community — 5.4
Joveljić was isolated between Houston’s central defenders, getting 35 touches and only three shots due to poor creation from wide areas that limited his chances inside the box.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Occupy both center backs inside the eighteen, attack the near post on early low crosses, and cash in on second-ball rebounds inside the six-yard box.
Blanks Fired: Spent the match being pummeled by two center backs in a crowded penalty box while watching his teammates pass the ball back and forth like they forgot he existed.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Finally got onto the end of chipped service in the 45th minute, but under heavy physical contact, could only loop a weak header onto the roof of the net for his only decent look of the night.
Substitutes
Paul Arriola — 5 | Community — 5.6 (on 46’ for Nouhou)
Brought on at half since a defense-minded left back wasn’t needed against the anti-soccer posture of Houston, Arriola showed bite and surprising capability on the defensive side of the ball, yet lacked composure on the other side.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Upgrade the quality of attack from the left and use his vision to hit early diagonal balls into the box before Houston’s backline could set its feet.
Blanks Fired: Slotted well into the left corner of the horseshoe, received the ball wide, looked up at six orange jerseys in the box, and passed it right back the way it came.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Had a big chance on a late shot in the box that nearly saved a point, but it wasn’t to be.
Jordan Morris — 5 | Community — 4.9 (on 59’ for Ferreira)
Morris wasn’t too injured to sub into this match, hoping to bring in speed to … bash itself repeatedly against a wall of defenders. He touched the ball a ridiculously low 11 times.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Bring an aerial presence and direct attacking play to the width.
Blanks Fired: His best efforts were repeatedly shoving defenders (uncalled) and creating space for teammates in the box.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Not on the same page, chapter, book, or library as Joveljić.
Snyder Brunell — 5 | Community — 5.2 (on 59’ for Dotson)
Brunell, the “attack minded” of the central midfield subs, tried. He had 32 touches. He had a shot. He had a key pass. He had a successful dribble.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Inject immediate pace and directness centrally to beat a tiring midfield and create chaos across the face of goal.
Blanks Fired: Had no answers to the defensive blocks in front of him, despite having 40 minutes to watch what Houston was doing.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: One of the better subs, which isn’t saying a lot.
Peter Kingston — 5 | Community — 4.5 (on 59’ for Kossa-Rienzi)
Entering as a change of pace for the right back position, Kingston quickly established his inability to defend. This meant his customary yellow card came only six minutes after arriving.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Slip into the tight pockets between the lines with fresh legs and use quick combination play to unsettle a tiring Dynamo midfield.
Blanks Fired: Made some interesting runs but repeatedly made the wrong decisions.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: A number of excellent crosses differentiated him from the player he replaced, but he offered very little else.
Caden Clark — 5 | Community — 4.4 (on 85’ for A. Roldan)
Thrown on for a center back during the final ten minutes of desperation heave-ho soccer, Clark was tasked with overloading the attacking midfield band and crashing the box. He logged ten touches and created one shot opportunity.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Sacrifice a defender to flood the penalty box with an extra attacker.
Blanks Fired: Joined the crowd standing along the eighteen-yard line watching the ball swing from left to right and back again as the clock bled out.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Had one half-chance on a cleared corner in the 92nd minute, skying a bouncing left-footed volley well into the Brougham End to continue the night’s offensive misery.
Referee
Lorenzo Hernandez — 4 | Community — 2.7
This referee was perfect for a rotated Houston team uninterested in attacking soccer. Allowing a ton of physical play, he facilitated Seattle’s inability to deal with physical, organized defenses when not getting calls. He let Houston turn every throw-in, goal kick, and minor cramp into a 90 second theatrical production without brandishing a card for delay of game until the 88th minute.
Bringing Butter Knives to a Bunker: Keep the match moving at a professional pace, punish cynical tactical fouls that break up rhythm, and accurately account for time-wasting in stoppage time. None of these occurred.
Blanks Fired: A clear foul in the box on Joveljić, who was trucked from behind, didn’t even go to the monitor — a clear sign on how this game was going to be managed.
Circling the Drain in Second Gear: Holding up the board for only four minutes of added time after a second half with eight substitutions and three fake injury timeouts was an insult to everyone who paid for a ticket.
Houston Dynamo MOTM
Jonathan Bond comes away with MOTM this time around, I guess. It was a fairly even split between him, the goalscorer, and the goal-assist-er. All of this speaks to a rousing performance by the visitors, really. Bond did get credited with five saves on the night, so I suppose there’s that.
Going Forward
Winless in four straight matches. Whatever good vibes remain from early October are gone. Seattle heads north to face the Vancouver Whitecaps before wrapping up the regular-season slate at home against LAFC. Unless someone on this roster remembers how to score, it’s going to be a very cold, very short November.
