Sounders vs. Puskas Akademia, recap: Pedro de la Vega shines

The Seattle Sounders started preseason with a bang, mostly dominating Hungary’s Puskás Akademia in a 2-0 win on Thursday. Pedro de la Vega was the obvious standout with a goal and an assist, while also hitting the crossbar in one half of play. The assist was to Jordan Morris, who had a nice left-footed finish after cutting it back. Danny Musovski also had a goal in the second half that was disallowed after a very tight offside call.

Lineups

First Half (3-4-2-1): Stefan Frei; Yeimar, Stuart Hawkins, Nouhou; Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, João Paulo, Danny Leyva, Paul Arriola; Pedro de la Vega, Sebastian Gomez; Jordan Morris.

Second Half (3-4-2-1): Andrew Thomas; Josh Atencio, Jackson Ragen, Jonathan Bell; Alex Roldan, Cristian Roldan, Obed Vargas, Travian Sousa; Georgi Minoungou, Snyder Brunell; Danny Musovski.

Highlights (full replay)

Takeaways

New year, new formation: It’s obviously a little early to read too much into anything, but it’s hard to ignore that the Sounders played both halves in three centerback sets, which they also did in their intrasquad scrimmage before leaving for Spain. As Brian Schmetzer has said before, the tactical difference between this and their normal 4-2-3-1 formation is pretty marginal, but I think this at least suggests we’ll see this look a bit more often than we did the last few years. It should also be noted that neither Albert Rusnák nor Jesús Ferreira suited up for this game — presumably they are still working themselves back into fitness — so we might see a more familiar look once they’re available.

Pedro shines: Again, it’s the first preseason game, but let’s give de la Vega his shine. At no point last year did he look as sharp as he did in his 45 minutes against Hungary’s best team. In addition to the goal and assist, he also made a really nice run before hitting a shot off the crossbar. (For the record, Kalani Kossa-Rienzi had the cross to de la Vega on that chance and Danny Leyva made a very nice pass through lines to start the sequence.) This was a bit of a different look for de la Vega, it should be added, as he was effectively playing as a dual-10 as opposed to as a winger.

Strong impressions: This was a rare chance for Stuart Hawkins, Kossa-Rienzi and Sebastian Gomez to get a runout with the first team. None of them looked out of place, but Hawkins and Kossa-Rienzi looked particularly good. Kossa-Rienzi was flying up and down the right wing and seemed to have no problem carrying the physical load of a wingback. Hawkins has clearly bulked up a bit and looked very comfortable playing in between Yeimar and Nouhou.