Austin FC vs. Sounders: Highlights, stats and quotes

The Sounders won their fourth straight in MLS and fifth straight overall, while also running their unbeaten streak to seven in all competitions with a 1-0 win over Austin FC on Saturday. Jordan Morris scored his ninth goal in 10 games across all competitions, while Stefan Frei picked up his 111th career MLS shutout.

Highlights

Stats

MATCH SUMMARY 

Seattle Sounders FC 1 – Austin FC 0

Saturday, July 13, 2024 

Venue: Q2 Stadium

Referee: Jair Marrufo

Assistants: Jose Da Silva, Meghan Mullen

Fourth Official: Mark Allatin

VAR: Jorge Gonzalez

Attendance: 20,738

Weather: 83 degrees and clear 

SCORING SUMMARY

SEA – Jordan Morris (Paul Rothrock, Obed Vargas) 63’ 

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

SEA – Yeimar (caution) 34’

ATX – Brendan Hines-Ike (caution) 58’

ATX – Brendan Hines-Ike (ejection) 77’ 

LINEUPS & STATS

Seattle Sounders FC – Stefan Frei; Alex Roldan, Yeimar, Jackson Ragen, Nouhou; Obed Vargas, João Paulo (Danny Leyva 90’+3’), Paul Rothrock (Dylan Teves 86’), Pedro de la Vega (Albert Rusnák 46’), Léo Chú (Reed Baker-Whiting 66’); Danny Musovski (Jordan Morris 46’)

Substitutes not used: Andrew Thomas, Cody Baker, Nathan, Jonathan Bell

Total shots: 9

Shots on goal: 5

Fouls: 6

Offside: 1

Corner-Kicks: 3

Saves: 4 

Austin FC – Brad Stuver; Brendan Hines-Ike, Jon Gallagher (Ethan Finlay 86’), Julio Cascante, Guiherme Biro; Dani Pereira, Alex Ring (Jhojan Valencia 72’), Owen Wolff (Leo Vaisanen 82’); Gyasi Zardes (Diego Rubio 72’), Sebastian Driussi, Jader Obrian (CJ Fodrey 86’)

Substitutes not used: Stefan Cleveland, Matt Hedges, Hector Jimenez, Zan Kolmanic

Total shots: 12

Shots on goal: 4

Fouls: 15

Offside: 0

Corner-kicks: 7

Saves: 4

Quotes

Brian Schmetzer

“The players are fundamentally similar. De la Vega was huge. The players are the same they’re just executing better. We have a good squad, they believe they can win. The coaches have been doing a good job of saying what we want and the players have been delivering.”

“Get to know his teammates, understand how we want to play. We’ll give him some freedom but he has to understand the system. It’s still a work in progress. I was very pleased with the effort he put in and some of his touches. I’m not going to say he’s going to lead us to a championship, I want to keep expectation in line, but he’s a super talented kid. He’s pretty good at Jingle Bells as well.”

“Rothrock has been a delight, a surprise. Something you might hot have expected but he did it again. He started first half OK but he makes plays. With Obed you’re seeing a kid with unlimited potential. I’m glad Stef is talking about clinical and efficiency but kudos to him. He kept us in it. I love having Stef here.”

“They’re making plays, it’s hard to win on road. When Austin went down they didn’t quit. The ball just seems to be bouncing our way. Maybe earlier in the year, maybe they call a penalty. Maybe that corner sneaks in. But your luck tends to even out and at the beginning of year we had a ton of bad luck and it’s evening up.”

“I was going to make a few more changes but decided against it. We need to collect points. We’ll take some time and figure out a game plan for St. Louis. I’m sure they’ll be hungry but we’ll be at home. Wednesday seems doable for a lot of guys. Our sports science guys do a great job getting guys ready to play. The whole team had a really awesome performance. I kept JP on the field longer than I wanted to but these points are critical.”

“We had a different line of confrontation in first half. We pressed more like normal in second half. The only thing we have to fix is after we scored the goal we did give up more territory.”

“It’s the sports science guys, it’s the fitness, it’s the trainers, we’re seeing a really good version of JP. He’s been tremendous.”

“The team was awesome tonight … including Léo Chú.”

Jordan Morris

“It definitely feels different. I knew at the start of the season, things weren’t falling and it feels like you’re not going to score again and then you’re putting chances away. I’m happy with the run of form, but it’s really the run of form for the group.”

“Playing up front a little more that’s a good spot. We’ve been good on the transition, that’s been a focus especially away from home. The longer it stayed 0-0 the more they were going to push up. It comes down to my teammates who are finding me. Paul did the work to find me. Just playing on transition more.”

“We have a deep team and we’ve seen guys coming off the bench to have an impact. Watching the first half the guys did a good job and I was seeing places to exploit. The longer it stayed 0-0 they were going to keep pushing and we’d be able to create chances.”

“I know it’s a narrative out there but it’s not that I don’t have a good left foot, it’s that I have a good right foot. When it sets up like that I’m going to use it.”

“I’m not scoring goals without my teammates. They are finding me in really good spots. I feel really confident if I make the runs they are going to look for me. Guys are playing really well. We’re cooking as a group.”

Stefan Frei

“You can call it shaky or weathering the storm. They were throwing everything at it. You have to weather it and bend don’t break. You can’t have your foot on gas pedal for 90 minutes. The first half we wanted to get into halftime not down. We knew we needed to go more vertical to find our chances. It’s difficult for them as well. Be clinical and patient and ruthless. On defense we did that and did a good job of bending and not breaking.”

“We were always pushing really hard and it was inches away from going our way. We kept going and when it turns it feels great. Your confidence increases. The vibes at home are good. We knew coming in here that we’d had good results but that doesn’t make it easy. This is a tough place to get results. We wanted to extend this confidence streak and keep rewarding ourselves with points as long as we can. For us to do it at home and we followed it up with a really good result on the road. Guys are firing on all cylinders. When a deep team can get confidence as well that’s a good thing.”