On the heels of a 2-1 win on the road against Sacramento Republic FC to advance to the U.S. Open Cup, the Seattle Sounders hit the road once again to face Austin FC on Saturday. A 1-0 win for the Sounders keeps their good run of form – four consecutive league wins and six games unbeaten in MLS (five and seven games in all competitions) – with a chance to continue climbing ahead of the Leagues Cup.
The Sounders are a team reborn. Although they’re not blowing teams out of the water, you can’t argue with the results they’re getting. Mark Kastner talked about the idea that they’re a team of moments in this column after the win against the New England Revolution, and it feels like that becomes more true with every passing game. They’ve built up a structure around those special moments over the last few games, though, of simply being the better team and continuing to push on both sides of the ball in order to not only create those special moments, but to limit the opponent’s ability to have their own moments.
Enough preamble, though, let’s dig into some of the players who have been helping to create those special moments.
Winners & Losers
Winners
Jordan Morris: As long as he continues playing like one of the top forwards in the league, Morris is going to basically be a permanent fixture in the winners section. Appearing as a halftime substitute he scored the lone goal – his ninth MLS goal of the season – and got Brendan Hines-Ike sent off for a pair of yellows as he struggled to handle Morris’ strength and speed. The goal in particular showed a level of composure and precision that people less familiar with his game might not think of as a “Jordan Morris goal” but he’s shown an ability this year to use his touch to find a moment of calm amidst the chaos that so often fills the penalty area, and within that created calm he very rarely misses as he picks out the perfect spot to place his shot.
The way that he’s made the starting No. 9 spot his own since claiming it, especially with his blossoming partnership with Albert Rusnák, may well be changing the calculus for Craig Waibel and the front office as we enter the summer window and look forward to the offseason.
Obed Vargas: The midfielder picked up a well-deserved secondary assist on Morris’ goal for his outstanding dribble and layoff to Paul Rothrock. If you haven’t been paying close attention to the teenage midfielder you could be forgiven for having missed the run of form that he’s on. Somewhat overshadowed by the eye-popping numbers of teammates Morris and Albert Rusnák, during the current six-game unbeaten run in league play Vargas has contributed four assists, having played all but four minutes of the 540 minutes available during that stretch. He’s got 1 goal and 6 assists for the season now, with the second most assists on the team behind only Rusnák’s 10, and making him the fourth-highest in the squad for goal contributions at 7 behind only Rusnák (14), Morris (10) and Raúl Ruidíaz (10).
His performance against Austin was much more than just his assist, as he barely put a foot wrong on either side of the ball. He had 5 passes into the final third, a successful dribble and completed 21/26 passes along with winning all 3 of the tackles he attempted, 3 interceptions, 3 recoveries, drawing 3 fouls, and winning 8/11 duels. Him leaving the Sounders for a serious fee is a when, not if at this point, but as long as he’s here he’s not just a key part of the team and a starter, but a deserving star.
Pedro de la Vega: The Young Designated Player made just his second start of the year – coincidentally his first since the first round of this fixture back in March at Lumen Field – as he’s worked with the Sounders staff to build up his fitness and make sure that he’s able to stay on the field for the long-term. He’s still shaking off some rust as he works to start building up some form in addition to his fitness, and while he didn’t get on the stat sheet he put on a very promising performance during his 45 minutes. An excellent save from Brad Stuver on his long-range free kick denied him a goal, and a seemingly odd no-call on what looked like a pretty clear penalty denied him a tangible impact on the game, but he was able to show that his ability to become a regular starter is likely to be the cliché of a player returning to fitness being “like a new signing” when the window opens.
Losers
Stefan Frei’s haters and doubters: We’re not far removed from a time when there were genuine questions about whether Stef Frei was still the right choice as Seattle’s starting goalkeeper. It looked like Father Time may be catching up with the club legend at times over the last couple of seasons and on some of his more concerning concessions this season. He’s put those fears to bed recently, climbing the all-time MLS shutout ranks to put himself one behind Kevin Hartman for second with 111 after back-to-back shutouts against Austin and the Revs. It’s only the second time the Sounders have kept consecutive clean sheets this season, the first coming back in April with their 5-0 win over CF Montreal and the 0-0 draw against FC Dallas.
Frei made a total of four saves, and two of them stand out in particular. First in the 49th minute his reaction save at his near post to deny a Sebastian Driussi shot from about 12 yards out kept the score level as Austin looked to start the second half on the front foot, ultimately setting the table for Morris’s goal to give Seattle the lead about 15 minutes later. The other key save came in the first minute of stoppage time, and stifled a potential party in Austin before it ever started. CJ Fodrey’s snap header looked destined for the far side netting, but Frei made a spectacular diving save to get his fingertips to the ball to not only keep it out but send it off down the end line where Alex Roldan was able to collect and clear the ball rather than conceding another corner. Frei is cementing himself not only as a club legend, but one of the league’s all-time greats. As long as he’s able to continue to rebuff Father Time, we’ll be glad to have him here.
What happens next?
The Sounders are back at it on Wednesday facing a struggling St. Louis City side who have known only defeat at the hands of the Sounders. St. Louis are currently in 13th in the 14-team West, and have yet to win away from home as they’ve gone 0-5-5, -10 on the road so far this season. If Seattle can come out of that game on top they’ll head into the final game before the start of Leagues Cup possibly sitting as high as 5th in the West. That final game is likely to be the toughest home match on the calendar this year, as they host LAFC on Saturday, July 20. LAFC could hand Olivier Giroud his debut in that game, and the Sounders could cap off this excellent run of form with a serious statement.
We start with St. Louis, though, and I’m sure the Sounders will be ready to approach that game with the same ferocity as all of the games that have preceded it.
