RENTON — Believe it or not, we are already several days into the 2025 preseason and the Seattle Sounders are just about five weeks away from playing real, actual, competitive matches.
If you are just now tuning back in, don’t worry.
Consider this a bit a primer on the offseason that was and the preseason that is yet to be…
Can we start with a recap of the offseason?
The Sounders bid farewell to club legend Raúl Ruidíaz, veteran defender Nathan and Homegrowns Dylan Tevez and Sota Kitahara. They also traded away Léo Chú. They effectively replaced them with former MLS All-Stars Jesús Ferreira and Paul Arriola, Homegrown signing Leo Burney and Travian Sousa, who played for Tacoma Defiance last year. They also just signed former Sounders centerback Kim Kee-Hee and are still figuring out what they want to do with Chú’s old U22 spot.
Weren’t a bunch of other guys out of contract, too?
Yeah, the Sounders re-signed Albert Rusnák as a Designated Player and they brought back João Paulo on a pretty deep discount. The Sounders apparently offered Rusnák the chance to have more guaranteed money if he was willing to come back on a TAM contract, but after his career year it’s probably not surprising that he chose to take more money up front. João Paulo probably lopped off at least half of his previous salary and while that’s still a decent chunk of money, he’s going to provide some veteran leadership and still seems to have something in the tank.
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I guess Obed Vargas didn’t get sold?
No, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be sticking around too much longer. Sounders GM Craig Waibel gave very strong hints that their plan is to sell him in the summer, most likely after the Club World Cup.
What happened with the new Designated Player?
With Ruidíaz leaving and Rusnák out of contract, the expectation was definitely that the Sounders would sign at least one new DP to join Pedro de la Vega. Unbeknownst to just about everyone outside of Longacres, though, Jordan Morris hit an escalator clause in his contract that pushed him over the DP threshold. Combined with Rusnák re-signing, that means the Sounders now have three DPs, none of whom can be bought down for at least the next two years. If you’ve sensed some dissatisfaction in the fanbase, this is the main reason why.
Is that fair?
It’s definitely understandable. Fans got their hopes up about making a big signing and instead found out that the only three spots on the roster where salary and acquisition cost don’t matter will be filled by three players who were already on the team.
At the same time, it’s hard to argue that Rusnák and Morris don’t deserve their contracts. Rusnák is coming off a season in which he had 30 goal contributions across all competitions, while Morris is coming off the two most productive seasons of his career. The two of them are tied for the 20th most goal-contributions over the last two seasons, which might not be elite but is also better than the vast majority of other teams’ DPs. In fact, last year only three teams had two DPs with more goal contributions than Morris and Rusnák.
Brian McKay
Do you think the Sounders improved?
On paper, they have kept all the key pieces of the league’s best defense and have added some players who should make them a bit more dangerous in the attack. Even pessimists have to admit that the net result is an improved team. The real question is “did they improve enough?” That’s tougher to answer.
Looking at the rest of the Western Conference today, I’m inclined to say they’ve improved by more than any of the other expected contenders. Even though most of their starters are likely back, the LA Galaxy have lost at least some of their depth as they’ve had to shed payroll. LAFC probably still have some big moves to make, but right now seem to have less talent than they ended the year with. Real Salt Lake just traded away their leading scorer and have moved one of their key midfielders. Meanwhile, the two teams who have probably improved the most – Austin FC and the San Jose Earthquakes – also had the most ground to make up.
How’s everyone looking health-wise?
So far, so good. The only players who have been limited in training so far are Paul Rothrock and Reed Baker-Whiting, who are still working their way back from injuries suffered during the playoffs last year. From the sound of it, both should be back in full training relatively soon.
On Wednesday, we also found out that Ferreira has been sent home from the United States men’s national team camp after undergoing a physical and medical test. What does that mean? The wording on the release was pretty vague, but seemed to imply it was more of a fitness issue than an injury. Assuming that’s the case, it shouldn’t be too big of a deal since building fitness is exactly what preseason is for.
Have there been any standouts in training?
With the obvious caveats that it’s still quite early and we’ve only seen a few sessions, there have been some clear standouts. Chief among them is Georgi Minoungou, who seems to have put in a lot of finishing work. If anyone is keeping track, I suspect he’s scored more goals than anyone else. João Paulo said he’s feeling healthier than at any point since his ACL surgery and looks really fit. Danny Leyva has been flying all over the place. Among the new guys, Arriola has probably been the most impressive. I also have been impressed with what I’ve seen from Burney, who looks to be a bit of a Jackson Ragen clone.
Any storylines I should pay attention to?
Yeah, I have three that I think bear particular attention:
- How do Ferreira and Morris fit together? I put this first because it might help determine the answer to the other two. While both Ferreira and Morris are reasonably positionally flexible, they also prefer to play as 9s. There are a number of ways the Sounders can make this work and my suspicion is they’ll try having one of them deployed as a winger. Whatever the team does, it seems to make sense that unlocking them as a duo is the primary objective.
- What is the Sounders’ default formation? Aside from 2021 when the Sounders played mostly out of a 3-4-2-1 formation, Brian Schmetzer has leaned heavily on the 4-2-3-1. It’s not hard to understand why. It’s defensively sound and can be altered to fit a variety of skillsets. But we’re already seeing the Sounders use more three-centerback formations in training than I’ve seen in the past three years, which tells me they’re seriously considering a more significant change. The downside to that formation is it seems to leave Pedro de la Vega without an obvious position. But the upside is it arguably makes better use of a roster that seems to be loaded with wingback and centerback options.
- Will Josh Atencio’s move to centerback stick? Perhaps hinting at a move to a three-centerback formation is the decision to try to make Atencio a centerback. It’s not a completely unfamiliar position. He got six starts at centerback during his first full professional season in 2019 with Tacoma Defiance and has gotten a handful of other run-outs there with the Sounders. But this is the first extended effort to really make it stick. Atencio’s defensive rate stats are very good, and the Sounders have said his size, mobility and passing range make him a potentially elite centerback. If it works, the Sounders may have found their centerback pairing for the next four or five years. If it doesn’t, they can simply move him back to defensive midfielder where he’s got plenty of upside, too.
What happens next?
The Sounders have a couple more sessions at Longacres before leaving for Marbella, Spain on Sunday. They’ll be there for a little over two weeks during which they’ll face three European opponents (they’ve not yet released that schedule). Their last couple weeks of preseason will be spent here — during which they’ll likely play at least one more game — and then they’ll head to Guatemala for their first Concacaf Champions Cup match on Feb. 19. The regular season starts on Feb. 22 against Charlotte FC.
