SEATTLE — Over the past couple of seasons, there have been precious few games at Lumen Field that have felt as cathartic as Saturday’s 5-2 win over LAFC.
What started with a wonderful goal by Kalani Kossa-Rienzi — in his Lumen Field debut while on a short-term loan, no less — eventually blossomed into a full-blown romp by the second half. Along the way, fans were treated to an absolute banger of a goal by Seattle native son Paul Rothrock; a record-breaking goal by fellow Seattleite Jordan Morris; another well taken goal by adopted son Cristian Roldan; and finally punctuated by brutal display of physical dominance by Georgi Minoungou, who destroyed his defender before putting a ball on a platter for Albert Rusnák.
Jeremiah Oshan
That the Sounders did this all with a lineup that featured eight changes from their midweek match only made the performance even more satisfying. LAFC were, admittedly, equally rotated, but given the history of these two teams — the last time the Sounders won this home fixture was 2021 — no win against them can be taken for granted.
“I’ll temper this by saying, yes it feel really good but our record against them is still 4-9-4, so we still have some work to do,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer told the media in the postgame press conference. “Days like today, we’re certainly going to enjoy the moment. That locker room is extremely happy for a lot of reasons. That group played a tremendous game against a top Western Conference team. It felt really, really, really good to win at home and score five.”
In perhaps the best illustration of just how good the vibes were, just watch what was effectively the last real play of the match.
In the 90+6th minute, Minoungou got the ball on the wing. He almost seemed to wait for Denís Bouanga to close him down. Minoungou beat him once, then Bouanga sort of wrestled with Minoungou as they fought for the ball near the sideline. At that point a second defender came over to help, as Minoungou led them to the corner flag. Minoungou then did a little stepover and split them with a ball to the endline. Bouanga gave chase and tried to shield Minoungou, who then put the ball of Bouanga to win the corner. The crowd erupted and Minoungou gestured toward them to give more. They obliged.
When Georgi dribbled longtime Sounders nemesis Denís Bouanga three times to close out the game...
— Jeremiah Oshan (@jeremiah.sounderatheart.com) 2025-03-10T16:44:33.633Z
As he did with Pedro de la Vega about a week earlier, Schmetzer seemed a little miffed with what he called a “tinge of showboating”, but it was very much in the spirit of growth.
“Everybody loves that kid,” Schmetzer said. “Everyone wants to help him.”
If Schmetzer seemed particularly forgiving, it wasn’t hard to understand why. Even after the Sounders finally ended their 10-game winless streak against LAFC in the playoffs last year, it didn’t necessarily feel like that demon had truly been vanquished.
Even with that playoff win, the Sounders had been outscored 18-5 over their previous 11 matches against LAFC. They had only had the lead for 32 of those 1,020 minutes.
The Sounders needed this one. Sounders fans needed this one.
“We were just having fun out there,” Rothrock said. “It was a party. I know the marketing team has been doing stuff with ‘Rave’ but it felt like a rave out there today. Especially against LA, it’s a big statement for us. Going down to Mexico with that kind of confidence is great.”
This early stretch of games was always going to be challenging. Tuesday’s return leg against Cruz Azul will be the Sounders’ seventh competitive match in 21 days. So far, they’ve managed it reasonably well, going 3-1-2 while averaging six starting lineup changes from one game to the next.
The tests are only going to get bigger. Getting a result at Cruz Azul will not be a remotely easy task. But this was also what this roster was built to endure. Buoyed by a result like this, there seems to be a genuine belief they can handle it.
“We’ve had some hard games,” Rothrock said. “It feels really good to get a result like that, have five different guys on the scoresheet. Hopefully we just get rolling now.”
