Postgame Pontifications: New energy, new heights

VANCOUVER, Canada — In most obvious ways, Georgi Minoungou and Paul Rothrock could hardly be more different.

Rothrock is a Seattle-born player, who grew up just a few miles away from Lumen Field and went to college before embarking on his professional journey. Minoungou was born nearly halfway across the world in Ivory Coast and turned professional as a teenager.

Minoungou’s playing style is built on speed and physicality. Rothrock is a bit more tactical and nuanced.

But they’ve forged a friendship through a common goal and work ethic, pushing each other to become the best versions of themselves on the field as they’ve risen to the first team through Tacoma Defiance.

It’s now paying dividends for the Sounders.

Starting together for the second time in four games, Rothrock and Minoungou each delivered key plays in the Sounders’ 3-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday. Minoungou scored the opener — his first for the Sounders — while Rothrock scored the third goal and drew the penalty that led to the second.

The win allows the Sounders to retain control of their own destiny in pursuit of home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, as well as their ability to reclaim the Cascadia Cup.

“The team is confident, they’ve been confident for awhile,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “The way our team is playing, they’ve been doing it since we were on one win in nine games. We’ve been on a pretty good tear.”

No team in MLS has more wins (14) or points (47) and only one team has a better goal-difference (+16) since the Sounders beat the Philadelphia Union on April 30, their second win of the season. It’s now manifesting into a sense of swagger, possibly best personified by the rise of Rothrock and Minoungou.

Not exactly “kids” by soccer standards, Minoungou and Rothrock are playing with a youthful joy. There’s a willingness to take on opponents, to simply try stuff that has often been missing from a Sounders team that can sometimes feel a bit mechanical. And when it comes off, they’re not afraid to show how happy they are.

Following Minoungou’s goal, he was joined by Rothrock on the sideline. Minoungou then raised his arms and shook them as if an invisible energy was shooting out. Rothrock acted as though he was shocked and fell to the ground.

They said it was to illustrate how they can bring “electricity” to the Sounders’ attack. In their previous start together, the duo celebrated a Rothrock goal with a little dance that was done to honor Minoungou’s father, who had just passed away.

The idea that two players who had just one MLS start between them as recently as four months ago would now be staging goal celebrations in such important games on a regular basis might seem almost surreal. Even more, Rothrock has become a nearly automatic starter and a reliable goal-scorer, while Minoungou is now seemingly the top offensive option off the bench.

To hear Rothrock tell it, none of this is particularly surprising.

“Honestly, yeah, I did,” Rothrock said when asked if he ever thought starting important games alongside Minoungou was a real possibility. “Both of us have talked about it multiple times together, about being together on the first team and making things happen.

“Sometimes those dreams do feel a little big when you’re in certain situations, but I think we both thought we could get here even if there were moments where it felt more far-fetched.”

That they’re now here together is no accident. When Rothrock returned home to give professional soccer one last try with the Defiance last year, he found a kindred spirit in Minoungou. Different as their paths may have been, they were willing to do the extra work to push them higher.

Early on in his Defiance career, Rothrock was even willing to play right back if that would speed up his ascension to the first team. Minoungou couldn’t believe someone who had been an attacker throughout their career would make that type of sacrifice, but also drew inspiration from the commitment.

“He could play any position because he’s hungry,” said Minoungou, who has put off visiting family in order to seize this opportunity. “I’m hungry, too. When I get the ball, I’m trying to kill the defender, trying to dribble him. We have similar styles. When he went to the first team, I thought I had to go. Now we’re in the first team, we have to play together, be in the lineup. In training, we’re always talking. Those are little challenges are helping us a lot.”

As recently as Tuesday, Minoungou decided to stay late after training explicitly because he saw Rothrock doing the same thing.

“I said I’m not going to go inside,” Minoungou recalled. “I have to be better than him. We do that everyday. That’s been helping us, too.”

So far it’s been Rothrock enjoying the most success. With eight goals and four assists across all competitions, he’s not quite reached his own admittedly bold goal of 15-goal contributions, but he has given the Sounders a reliable third option on offense that they’ve been missing.

Minoungou isn’t quite there yet, but he’s showing flashes. In addition to his goal, Minoungou was also 4/4 on dribbles and created problems for the Whitecaps defenders virtually every time he was on the ball.

“It’s a a competition and a friendship that has developed,” Rothrock said. “Hopefully, we can continue to make that mutually beneficial.”