SEATTLE — In the game’s waning minutes and the Seattle Sounders already leading 3-0, Jordan Morris had a chance to put an exclamation point on the result. Cristian Roldan had just played Morris into space and the forward was in a footrace with hulking Argentine centerback Lisandro Magallán.
But just as Morris picked up his head to check the positioning of goalkeeper Julio Gonzalez and prepared to shoot, Magallán stepped on Morris’ foot. It was a cynical and dangerous tackle and Morris immediately began to yell at Mallagán.
Magallán responded by pushing Morris away and soon their teammates joined the fracas. It took about two minutes for referee Joe Dickerson to restore calm and for the VAR officials to confirm no further punishment was required, but eventually Morris claimed the ball and prepared to take the first penalty of his professional career.
Morris confidently dispatched his shot in the side netting, just outside of Gonzalez’s reach. He celebrated with a muted fist pump, embraced his teammates and calmly went back to midfield.
Although he didn’t let it show, Morris understood that his penalty represented a bit more than the final goal in a 4-0 win over Pumas UNAM in the Leagues Cup Round of 16.
“I definitely wanted to score it, put the punctuation mark on the game,” said Morris, whose two goals in this game allowed him to tie Fredy Montero at second on the Sounders’ all-time scoring list. “I didn’t appreciate or like the foul that happened in that part of the game. I think it was a pretty dangerous play and I let him know that. I wanted to make up for the foul and put my own punctuation on the game and kinda end it. Winning 4-0 is obviously a statement.”
The win pushes the Sounders into the Leagues Cup quarterfinals where they’ll face either the San Jose Earthquakes or LAFC at Lumen Field on Saturday the 17th. Recent stumbles aside, they’ve now claimed consecutive wins over in-form opponents, beating the LA Galaxy and Pumas by a combined score of 7-1 and are now 11-2-1 with a 26-13 goal-difference over their past 14 games across all competitions.
In a sense, Morris’ penalty may have been the least consequential of any of those goals. The sequence that led to it, though, was emblematic of how the Sounders’ fortunes have shifted.
At various times in the game, Pumas seemed to be attempting to provoke the Sounders. It happened in the first half when Rubén Duarte kicked a ball at Cristian Roldan while he was on the ground; the defender seemed to give a smirk when Roldan picked up a retaliatory yellow card. There was another sequence where an attacker needlessly collided with goalkeeper Andrew Thomas on a cross into the box, which prompted the often mild-mannered Jackson Ragen to get involved. There were countless other hard tackles and off-ball incidents.
Combined with a crowd that felt at times to be nearly half Pumas fans, it created an atmosphere that finally matched what organizers promised when they conceived of Leagues Cup. The Sounders responded with one of their most inspired performances to date.
After each provocation, the Sounders had an answer. Sometimes it was in the form of teammates coming to each other’s aid or a well-timed tackle in response. Other times, it was something even more impactful.
Just three minutes after the Roldan incident, the Sounders opened the scoring with Paul Rothrock heading in a perfect cross from Albert Rusnák.
Until then, Pumas’ antics had helped put them in control of the match. Their high press was making it hard for the Sounders to sustain possession and their physical play seemed to be causing all sorts of problems. The Sounders had already dodged a couple of bullets when Pumas striker Guillermo Martinez missed a close range shot and Piero Quispe’s goal was correctly disallowed for offside. Rothrock’s goal in the 31st minute was the Sounders’ first shot, in fact.
“When teams are taking cheap shots at you, you can’t just let those slide and you have to protect each other in those moments,” said Rothrock, who found himself in the middle of several skirmishes throughout the game. “There were plenty of examples of that in the game where guys were looking out for each other. I’m really glad to have some of my teammates backing me up today. I felt that today. I appreciate that in some of those moments I was getting into with them.”
From Rothrock’s goal forward, the Sounders were clearly the better team. Morris made it 2-0 with an excellent left-footed half-volley off another assist from Rusnák and Rusnák converted a penalty drawn by Obed Vargas to effectively put the game away in the 76th minute.
A 3-0 win in a knockout game against a team who has so far been one of Liga MX’s best would have been a statement enough. But the Sounders kept pushing, never letting their foot off the gas up until the final whistle. In stoppage time, Rothrock had the ball on the wing, but instead of taking it into the corner he dribbled past highly-touted midfielder Cesar Huerta with smooth nutmeg.
That all set the stage for Morris’ final act.
At times, coaches have called into question the Sounders’ collective body language and willingness to meet their opponents’ intensity. Those complaints have mostly subsided over the past few months.
But this may prove to be the game where that narrative was entirely quashed, especially for Morris.
“I’m extremely proud that Jordan stood up for himself,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “That wasn’t a nice tackle. He could have been injured on that play. He jumped up and he got in that guy’s face and that in my opinion was very good. Whether it was calculated or not, whether Jordan is trying to shed the nice guy image he has, he earned that penalty, he stood up for himself, he buried that penalty and that shows he cares and that he was going to do whatever it takes to help his team in that moment. He’s going to take care of himself in that moment and that was a really really proud moment for me. He gets it. He wants to win.”
