Postgame Pontifications: Not quite enough

LOS ANGELES — The end of any season is sudden. It was especially true for the Seattle Sounders on Saturday.

For 85 minutes, they had held one of the best offenses in MLS not just scoreless but relatively punchless. Until that point, the Galaxy had managed just 10 shots, with just one of them causing Stefan Frei any real trouble.

It had been a near Herculean task just to get to that point. The Galaxy offense had produced 15 goals in their previous three playoff games; hadn’t been shut out in more than four months; had only failed to score in the first half of 5 of 20 previous home games; and had never needed more than 75 minutes to score their first goal in a game at Dignity Health Sports Park all season.

The frustration was starting to show. The Galaxy were struggling to find their dynamic wingers in any sort of space, causing their teammates to repeatedly over-hit balls into the channels. Riqui Puig, the prolific playmaker, had just two touches within 22 yards of goal and had been mostly contained, and was repeatedly dropping into the defensive half to pick up the ball.

But the game turned in a blink. After receiving a pass near the sideline, Alex Roldan tried to one-touch a chip to João Paulo but overhit it a tad. Mark Delgado pounced on the loose ball and found Puig in a bit of space. Puig made one touch to control then somehow managed to thread and weight a pass perfectly into the path of Dejan Joveljic, who was making a diagonal run off the back shoulder of his mark. Joevljic didn’t place his shot particularly well, but hit it hard enough that Frei couldn’t do much to stop it.

The Galaxy got one good chance and made it count, securing a 1-0 victory that put them into MLS Cup for the first time in 10 years.

“We we did enough to not lose the game, but we didn’t do enough to win the game,” Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan said during a somber postgame press conference. “What we saw tonight was a bit of what had been happening all year, struggling to generate chances, but keeping yourself in the game by defensive actions. In the postseason at least, we were bend-don’t-break and, unfortunately, we just broke at the wrong time.”

In many ways, it was an impressive feat that the Sounders even got this far. Two months into the season, they had just one win and were in danger of completely falling apart. But the locker room stuck together and they managed to grind through enough results to at least make the season salvageable. Then something clicked over the summer. During the final four months of the season, the Sounders went 12-2-3 in league play, made a run to the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, got to the Leagues Cup quarterfinals and advanced to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2020. Prior to the season-ending loss, they had been on a 10-game unbeaten streak.

Leading the way was a defense that was the class of MLS. Over their final 28 games across all competitions, the Sounders only allowed 26 goals. During the final 13 games of their season, the Sounders only allowed more than one goal once and posted six shutouts.

As nearly flawless as the defense was, they were still playing with tiny margins. In their four playoff games, they led for a total of six minutes during regulation, never scored a goal before the 59th minute and twice had to win in shootouts.

“We’re in the game, we’re in control at times where we had good possession going,” Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei said. “But we’re not dominating. I think all you need is someone to take advantage of a tiny little opportunity, and that could have been us.”

The Sounders’ chances were sporadic, but they had a few. In the first half, they had a free kick just outside the penalty area that Albert Rusnák nearly put in the upper 90, but John McCarthy got just enough of to tip it over the crossbar. There was also a roughly 10-minute stretch in the earlier stages of the second half, where the Sounders had a couple looks at a breakthrough. The first came after Pedro de la Vega made a good run up the sideline and found Obed Vargas, who was streaking toward goal. Vargas made a nice touch to control the pass, but his shot was blocked. The Sounders’ most promising sequence came shortly after that when Jackson Ragen played a ball to Nouhou, whose cross deflected to Jordan Morris in the box. Morris controlled it and then laid it off to Rusnák for an open shot near the top of the penalty area, but it had far too little power to really trouble McCarthy.

Aside from those, the Sounders seemed a bit too cautious and unwilling to expose themselves to the Galaxy’s lethal attack.

As impressive as getting this far was, it’s also frustrating in part because this is a very similar way to how last season ended when they had an elite defense and an offense that was mostly punchless. The general consensus was the Sounders were one piece away from challenging the elite.

That’s still the case. The defense is rock solid and depending on how they approach the offseason, will likely be mostly intact for next year. Between Jackson Ragen and Yeimar Gomez Andrade, they have a centerback pairing that forms a solid foundation. Cristian Roldan emerged as a viable heir-apparent at defensive midfield and Obed Vargas is an absolute star-in-the-making as long as he sticks around.

The offense is still a piece short, though. Paul Rothrock and Georgi Minoungou emerged as viable contributors, but probably aren’t starters on a championship-caliber team. Jordan Morris and Albert Rusnák are very good, but they badly need more help. Maybe de la Vega can be a solution, but the Sounders can’t simply rely on that. There’s a good chance that the championship window is still open for the core of this roster. The only way that’s true is if they find a true difference-maker this offseason.

For the Sounders to maintain their standards, this is the assignment.

“In our situation with our club, the season has not been a success because we didn’t win any trophies,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “We were close, and a lot of teams around this league would say that’s a successful year. But for our franchise, that really doesn’t doesn’t hold water.

“It’s always been about at least getting ourselves into a final every year and giving ourselves an opportunity to win a trophy.”