Realio’s Ratings: Seattle Sounders vs. 2024, #1

#1 Jordan Morris – 6.45 in 44 appearances

Community Rating: 6.12

MLS Regular Season: 6.33 in 34 appearances

MLS Playoffs: 6.41 in 3 appearances

US Open Cup: 6.50 in 2 appearances

Leagues Cup: 6.80 in 5 appearances

MOTM = 6 | High = 9 | Low = 4

Finally, the end of 2024 ratings, and at the top is a standout striker who had a standout year. His first time at #1, Jordan Morris earned a Designated Player appointment due to scoring goals and becoming a dynamic, game-changing attacking force. He made 44 appearances, earned six MOTM awards and amassed a 14g/4a season. Jordan was finally unleashed as a central striker, and while always a threat to score on a breakaway, Jordan’s attacks became more diverse. In 2024 he stretched the field with incredible direct pace, used his size and strength on set pieces, combined in the middle with steady hold up play, made impressive and essential off ball runs, and developed a finishing touch that made him deadly inside the penalty area. It all came together for Morris, whose great connection with the #2 and #3 Sounders (Roldan, Rusnák, respectively) led to consistent goal creation. 

Highlights: To start the season, Jordan was often isolated as Seattle had limited attacking options. He grew into the year, however, and earned great numbers even when packed-in defenses set up specifically to deny him getting in behind. He had plenty of standout performances, like this one against Pumas in the Leagues Cup: “Jordan Morris haters, have a seat. Dude stretched the field, won aerials, and held the ball up expertly for 60 minutes, and on at least one occasion from a brilliant Nouhou pass, actually got into the box alone having outraced the defense and his own team, left forlornly to try to find a cross from a tough angle. Throughout this, the opponent double- and triple-teamed him, hacked and pushed and climbed on him, offering physicality in droves. Jordan shrugged this off, first latching on to a ball in the 58th and controlling before finishing brilliantly with his “preferred” left foot. In the 89th minute, he nearly ran through the entire defense, weaving but unable to find a finish after clowning on at least five defenders. Not done, he relentlessly posted high, and when his buddy Cristian found the ball, THAT MAN MORRIS found the space, driving into the box and receiving a dangerous foul for his efforts. After a scuffle, it was surprisingly Jordan himself who took the penalty and finished cleanly into the side net, to end the scoring at four. Classy Morris barely celebrated, letting his dominating performance do all the talking.”

Morris brought teammates into the play and continually stretched the field, creating the depth and spacing that allowed Seattle success in the second half of the year. Jordan became clinical, scoring off breakaways, from a variety of angles and was a dominant force on set pieces. One sign of his evolution to a dominant striker was his ability to score “poacher” goals, where the forward has an innate ability to be in the right place at the right time and score in any way necessary. Jordan had been criticized for not scoring those, but new comments started to show up: “Once again it was Morris who carried the scoring load, earning both Sounders tallies. These were “strikers” goals, both coming in the box in scrambles, as he fired each home first time and through traffic. His first volley was an excellently powered shot, and the second an even better finish, this time swiveling his hips immediately to get over the ball and punch it home.” 

With confidence growing, Morris was electric in the second half of the season, able to influence games from multiple facets of play, and be a durable leader of the offensive push, someone to put pressure on the opponents and force breakthroughs. This meant that he constantly ran creative angles, offering an option or pulling opponent defenses apart. Seattle ran much of their offense centrally, with Jordan holding up play to bring a slower midfield into matches. As Rusnák began to cook on set piece delivery, Jordan was a consistent option, scoring or creating opportunistic space for teammates. All of this combined to help eliminate LAFC in the playoffs: 

“In a game where the focus is on total team defense, you knew the forward wasn’t going to see a lot of possession. Jordan worked incredibly hard to be relevant for 120 minutes, and he did it via 38 touches. On nearly every one he was blanketed by multiple defenders, beaten and battered while fighting to hold up the ball in traffic or get by center backs. Not known for his resurgent fitness, it was Morris who grew into the match, creating at the end of the first half, nearly scoring a diving header in the 67th minute, and showcasing a fantastic backheel flick-on when winning a long ball over two defenders. He had another important flick in the 90th minute, and outside of a random hand ball after a great Rusnák pass, Morris did his job, which included defending all the way to his own endline in the 97th minute to ensure extra time. This job included making the biggest offensive play of the match, the kind of striker’s goal Jordan is increasingly showcasing. With just an inch of space, he turned to goal and thrashed home the game-winner in the 109th minute, a perfect single-touch movement where his hips knew where the goal was without needing his eyes.” In this critical game, we saw an evolved Sounders striker who poked and prodded and banged, taking a tiny sliver of space and exploiting it into a game-winning goal by force of will and opportunistic technique. This was the difference for Jordan Morris in 2024: a striker’s goal scoring instinct. 

Lowlights: Early in the season and coming off the left wing, Morris didn’t get the ball into the net, or onto the feet of others, and he was criticized for missing chances that he didn’t finish cleanly. Never a volume shooter, Jordan is an efficient player who doesn’t need the ball a lot to make an impact, but that bled into passivity on a number of occasions and as a result, a lack of impact. At times Morris got lost against compact defenses, starved of service and struggling to be both a creative force and finisher. This meant in a few matches that he was neither, and when teams set up to deny him the ball, Jordan was unable to impose his will on the game. Especially in the beginning of the year, Morris was overly dependent on others to provide for him, and when the team struggled in midfield, Morris disappeared. 

Until Cristian Roldan was moved centrally, there were few Sounders who looked over the top for Morris, and he didn’t find connection with Pedro de la Vega, as these two took a long time to gel. Against RSL in May, the team attempted to insert Jordan in the 65th minute. He was completely invisible, prompting this less than glowing review: “It was hard to tell what the plan was. Should he have been stretching the field vertically with no service? Playing wide as a winger and looking to pass? Building a teepee out of his shin guards at midfield? Who knows! All these are irrelevant because nothing happened, and Morris had zero impact on the match.” When Jordan couldn’t get the ball enough to create opportunities, he didn’t demand the ball at midfield and take over, so he was marked out of the match by multiple defenders and his runs were not utilized. 

Outlook: Similarly to Rusnák, sometimes you need your DPs to take over a match, constantly demand the ball, and overwhelm opponents with their skill. Morris can do that, but Seattle’s 2025 attacking additions could unlock even more dominant play from him. As he’s just scratching the surface of being a full-time striker, it’s still unclear what role Sounders staff see him filling in 2025. Adding Jesús Ferreira means the team has decisions to make, like whether to use two strikers, or use one as an elite winger and the other up front, or other tactical variations. What isn’t debatable is that Jordan Morris makes elite runs, vertically stretches the field with his pace and size, and improves the Sounders offensive shape no matter where he lines up. His movement creates opportunities, and he showed in 2024 that he can make field-stretching runs and combination play and be a clinical finisher inside the box. With more creative tools in the midfield, Morris is poised to be an unstoppable force, with the size, strength, speed, and skill to dominate any Sounders competition in 2025.