Realio’s Ratings: Seattle Sounders vs. 2024 recap

In the final Sounders ratings post to recap the 2024 season, I’ve compiled some stats to see the big picture in a season where we played 47 games in MLS, US Open Cup, and Leagues Cup competitions. A few trends emerged, most notably the swoon at the start of the year, and the improvements and surge throughout the second half of the season. 

Team

2024 Team Average:

MLS Regular Season: 5.79 
MLS Playoffs: 6.17
US Open Cup: 5.42
Leagues Cup: 5.81

15/48 points for .93 PPG in the first 16 matches, then 42/54 points for 2.33 PPG in the final 18 games. 

2024 Highest Rated Matches: 

6.79 4-0 Pumas Leagues Cup (8/12)
6.75 2-1 LAFC away Playoff Round 2 (11/23)
6.375 5-0 Montreal (4/6)

2024 Lowest Rated Matches: 

4.80 0-2 Vancouver (4/20)
4.89 2-2 Louisville City (5/8)
4.94 0-3 LAFC Leagues Cup (8/17)

Players

2024 High Ratings: 

10 – Frei 1x, Thomas 1x
9 – Rusnák 2x, Morris 1x
8 – Morris 9x, Rusnák 6x, C. Roldan 5x, Frei 4x, Yeimar 4x, Ragen 3x, Rothrock 3x, Atencio 2x, Ruidíaz 2x, João Paulo 2x, Nouhou 1x, A. Roldan 1x, Bell 1x, Vargas 1x, Thomas 1x

Most MOTM: 10x (Rusnák) 6x (Morris, Frei) 5x (C. Roldan) 4x (Yeimar) 3x (Atencio)

2024 Low Ratings: 

3 – Frei 1x, A. Roldan 1x
4 – RBW 7x, Musovski 6x, Baker 5x, Chú 5x, Ruidíaz 5x, A. Roldan 5x, Rothrock 3x, Ragen 3x, PDLV 2x, Atencio 2x, Leyva 2x, Vargas 2x, Frei 2x, De Rosario 1x, Brunell 1x, Lopez 1x, Kitahara 1x, Arreaga 1x, Thomas 1x, Yeimar 1x, Morris 1x

Top 3 MLS Playoff performers: Frei 7.5 (4 app), Yeimar 7.33 (3 app), CRoldan 7.25 (4 app)

Top 3 Open Cup performers: RBW 7 (1 app), Thomas 6.75 (4 app), C. Roldan 6.67 (3 app)

Top 3 Leagues Cup Performers: Morris 6.8 (5 app), C. Roldan 6.4 (5 app), Rusnák 6.4 (5 app)

Side note: the four highest rated Sounders since I’ve done ratings (2015-2024) are: Obafemi Martins (7.0), João Paulo (6.71), Nico Lodeiro (6.66) and Víctor Rodríguez (6.65) during the regular seasons, and Clint Dempsey (7.43), Chad Marshall (7.4), Nico (7.15) and Stefan Frei (7.06) in the playoffs.

Referees

2024 Referee appearances:

4x - Drew Fischer, Joe Dickerson; 3x - Guido Gonzales Jr., Rosendo Mendoza, Allen Chapman

2024 Referees High Ratings (apps):

8 - Filip Dujic (1)
7 - Fotis Bazakos (1), Sergii Boiko (1), Rafael Santos (1), Brandon Stevis (1), Armando Villarreal (1)
6.67 - Gonzales Jr. (3)

2024 Referees Low Ratings (apps):

3 - Wesley Costa (1), Cristian Campo-Hernandez (1)
3.67 - Allen Chapman (3)
4 - Ramy Touchan (1), Oshane Nation (1), Jair Marrufo (1), Ricardo Fierro (1)
4.5 - Ismir Pekmic (2)

Referee Comments:

In 2024, Seattle met a lot of new referees via the different competitions they played in. The Open Cup tended to have awful referees, including the terrible Ricardo combo of Ricardo Ocampo and Ricardo Fierro whose games were lucky to be relatively injury-free. 

The worst referee for the year was Allen Chapman, who rated 4, 3, 4 and was poor every time out, lowlighted by a terrible outing in Seattle in which he and staff were helpful to the visiting LAFC team, with a ridiculous non-PK and a wrong simulation card combo, reminding us how dreadful it is to see him on the lineup sheet prior to games. 

Dujic has now done two Sounders games in the last two years and keeps his ranking as highest rated ref ever, with Boiko joining him at the top. Marrufo reminded everyone he’s still bad, for the 10th year in a row. Special shout-out to Pekmic who rated a 7 early in the season, and then turned in the worst individual rating of the year, scoring a dismal 2 in the final MLS match of the regular season, a 1-1 draw against Portland that earned one of the lowest referee ratings ever. 

Realio’s Recap

2024 was a rollercoaster of a year for the Seattle Sounders. They started out with their worst first 10 matches ever, earning a measly 9 points from 30 possible that wasn’t even that good, bolstered by a 5-0 thrashing of Montreal at home and an improbable win at Philadelphia that was aided by some crazy weather scheduling. Maybe forgotten was that the next handful of games were similarly awful, and the team didn’t start to turn the season around until June. What seemed to help Seattle was the introduction of other competitions, with the Open Cup providing both a break and a spark as the Sounders slowly returned to health and made some necessary changes to the team makeup to better compete. 

Mid-June saw everything start to come together, as Seattle won 7 of 8 (and tied the other) as part of an incredible end of season run that had the Sounders win 15, lose 5 and tie 3 across all competitions, culminating in another deep MLS postseason run. Although the team missed out on another try for MLS Cup, they did finally beat LAFC in a massive road win and showed they are close to again being a title contender. 

What I liked: Seattle found a new identity in 2024. Coming out of the Nico Lodeiro years and transitioning to a new tactical era was bound to have some growing pains, and added to that was the Ruidíaz Conundrum. By changing the tactics to concentrate on the talents of Morris and Rusnák (1, 2 on our ratings for the year) Seattle went all in on a new generation and these two delivered. Combined, they had 29 goals and 25 assists for the year, and showed that after the formation gelled around these two, Seattle was formidable. Fully moving past those legendary players took time, but once the tactics were decided and healthy players were put in positions to excel, the team took off. Finding quality at Tacoma Defiance in Paul Rothrock and Georgi Minoungou was a surprise, but spoke to a team culture of developing quality throughout the entire organization. 

It’s a little unfair to say “as usual” the defense was great, but this deep defense was somehow underrated all season en route to being the best in the entire MLS. The ever-present Yeimar was joined by DPOY finalist and emerging star Jackson Ragen, Nouhou, and a Roldan brother. Added to this impressive group was the ageless Stefan Frei (12 shutouts) and a defensive midfield that saw impressive growth from Obed Vargas and a revitalized and central Cristian Roldan. This team was very difficult to score on, turning team defense into a strength and leaning on the cohesiveness of the unit to defend everywhere on the field. 

What I didn’t like: There are arguments and legitimate criticism to be made around roster construction and how long it took the Sounders to find their stride. The start of the season was dreadful, and honestly very difficult to watch. The team had zero positive identity, didn’t seem well constructed, and was caught in two minds for much of the first half of the season. Their leading scorer was an aging star who did nothing outside of penalty kicks, multiple players took big steps back in form, injuries were rampant, and their big money signing looked awful. Add into this a definite reluctance to go away from many of the biggest problems, and confidence in the players, staff, and ownership was low. Seattle held onto the ghost of Raúl Ruidíaz too long due to a few penalties, failed to find a tactical setup that gave them opportunities, and kept shooting themselves in the foot via uncharacteristic red cards. Was this an undisciplined team? A lack of leadership? Not enough talent? Potentially all three, and that’s not even mentioning the Boogeymen down south. Time and again, Seattle had a chance to make a statement, advance in a tournament, and turn it completely around, and every time the team ran into LAFC and found new and creative ways to lose. The Sounder nemesis knocked them out of both the Leagues Cup and the US Open Cup, as even the hallowed grounds of Starfire couldn’t protect Seattle from LAFC dominance. Seattle was underwhelming for half their season, and then made a few Defiance signings as their “big summer moves” — unambitious ones that many fans were loudly upset about. This team failed to meet expectations for a majority of the year. 

Moving forward: The Sounders prioritized continuity over a complete overhaul last season, and while it took time to get there, it worked. Once again in the Western Conference Finals, Seattle was moments away from playing for another MLS Cup title. The bar is so high for the Sounders that many saw this season as a failure, but the team enters 2025 with a clear path forward and again has prioritized continuity by re-signing key pieces. We learned some very important things about the Sounders in 2024: Morris and Rusnák are true stars who can carry the load. Frei still has it, but we have the best goalkeeping depth perhaps ever in Seattle with Thomas ready. Our defense is deep and capable across the board. Cristian Roldan has found a new fit and looks poised to be dominant pulling the strings in the middle. Obed is a star. Seattle found multiple Defiance players ready for real, legitimate minutes as full-time MLS players and there are more in the pipeline. And with DP players up the middle of the field who are coming off their best seasons, a defense that is the best in the league and the addition of a few high level players that move the floor up in order to play in many different competitions, Seattle should expect to be a top team competing for everything. Like 2024, the new season will likely depend on how a few Sounders perform, especially Pedro de la Vega, who hopefully shows that he just needed a season to acclimate. There should be guarded confidence heading into 2025, with a talented team and plenty of opportunity to win hardware. 

[Ed. Note: Also moving forward is the better half of our editing team, Diane Perry, who is recovering well from her recent hip surgery. We know you will be back on the field soon!]