The Seattle Sounders traveled on short rest to their own personal house of horrors as they visited Real Salt Lake on Saturday afternoon. Despite a reasonably strong start things took a terrible turn as a Nouhou own goal in the 8th minute set the stage for a 2-0 RSL win. The 8th minute own-x`goal was paired with a 79th minute insurance goal from Forster Ajago as the Sounders head home having been shut out 6 consecutive times across all competitions in Sandy, UT.
Things looked bright at the start of the game for Seattle. In the 5th minute Obed Vargas and Albert Rusnák worked together to win the ball in a dangerous position and find the feet of Jordan Morris. Morris gave the ball back to Rusnák who got off a shot from a dangerous spot that was blocked out for a corner. On the ensuing corner, Morris rose up and won a header that looked destined for goal, but Georgi Minoungou was in an offside position and provided a likely unnecessary final touch. The play was obviously called back for offside, and shortly after disaster struck.
In the 8th minute, RSL took a routine throw-in in Seattle’s half, setting up a decent but unthreatening cross from Alexandros Katranis into the box that Frei has easily handled. With Diego Luna the only real threat on goal, Nouhou opted to abandon the runner and instead run in front of Frei to head the ball down into the center of the goal to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. As bad or frustrating as the own-goal against Charlotte was, it was the product of a series of unfortunate errors; this was a series of bad decisions executed nearly to perfection.
The Sounders had a handful of chances to pull a goal back during the first half, but offside flags, poor finishing and a lack of luck kept them off the scoresheet. Minoungou in particular seemed snake-bit as multiple opportunities fell to him and his final touch, whether a shot or pass, just wasn’t good enough. Morris had a particularly frustrating miss as well in the 37th minute when a good shot from Vargas forced goalkeeper Rafael Cabral into a diving save that yielded a rebound that fell to Minoungou. Minoungou laid the ball off for Morris whose shot from inside the area skewed completely off the mark to release the pressure they’d applied.
It looked like Seattle may have found an answer in the 59th minute when Cristian Roldan played a pass over the top for Morris, who played a simple pass inside the box to Rusnák and he provided the finishing touch but the flag was raised for at most a marginal offside in the build-up. Both sides continued to push for the next goal, and it was RSL who found it.
In the 79th minute Cabral played a ball from his area up to Ajago. Jackson Ragen dropped back to provide cover in case the ball got through Ajago and Jon Bell, but Ajago controlled the ball and found the feet of Diogo Goncalves in a pocket of space in Seattle’s disjointed defense. Ragen attempted to step up to stop Goncalves on the ball as Yeimar and Bell scrambled from behind, but couldn’t stop a pass through the broken back line for Ajago to run onto and he won the foot race before beating Frei with his shot to the far corner to make it 2-0.
The only real moment of note after the goal came from an odd sequence to end the game when Ajago was called for a terrible foul on Roldan and given a yellow card. The play was reviewed for a possible red card offense as Ajago put his studs into Roldans leg at knee height, but upon completion of the review as soon as the Sounders took the free kick the final whistle was blown.
The Sounders now have to put this deeply frustrating outing in the rearview with their attention turned to a home match in Concacaf Champions Cup play against Cruz Azul on Wednesday night.
Key moments
5 - Corner! Vargas and Rusnák combine to create a turnover at the edge of the box and get the ball to Morris, who lays it off for Rusnák to get a shot and win a corner.
8 - Goal, RSL. Nouhou heads home a cross for absolutely no reason with Frei coming out to collect to give the hosts a lead on a terrible own goal. 1-0 RSL
22 - Chance! Rusnák gets the ball to Morris’s feet and he cuts it back to play a cross that just misses the head of Rothrock and is cut out before it gets to Minoungou. Cristian Roldan hits a shot from distance that forces a save, but the play is blown dead for an offside.
23 - Miss! RSL have a great look as Alexandros Katranis gets in behind down Seattle’s right side, finding Ariath Piol with a cross but he puts it over the bar.
27 - Shot! Rusnák drives towards goal before playing Minoungou into space, but with runners to his left he puts a shot wide from a tight angle.
36 - Header! Another corner from Rusnák, this time it’s Minoungou getting the header but it’s easily caught by Cabral.
37 - Shot! Vargas with a shot from the top of the box that forces a sprawling save. Minoungou gets the rebound and plays it to Morris, but his shot is sliced well away from goal.
45+4 - Save! RSL have a header off of a corner that Frei dives to get a hand on and the rebound is cleared just before the ref blows the whistle for halftime.
54 - Shot! Good work by de la Vega to get onto a slip pass and find a cross for Rusnák who gets a shot through some legs that’s saved by the GK.
71 - Chance! A slight touch by Ferreira on a slip pass nearly sets up Morris for a great look at goal, but a timely tackle turns it into a corner.
75 - Catch! Diogo Goncalves makes good contact on a shot from distance, but Frei catches it easily.
79 - Goal, RSL. Ragen drops back to attempt to deal with a ball over the top but gets beat by a pass leaving Ajago with plenty of room to run into and he bets Frei with a shot low and into the corner. 2-0 RSL
Quick thoughts
Hell is Real Salt Lake road trips: A quirk of MLS scheduling has meant that when the Sounders travel to face RSL it is often on short rest, as was the case today. RSL were also on short rest, as both teams played on Wednesday night, but RSL played at home. With the altitude being a factor when traveling to Sandy, Utah the challenges are compounded for the visiting Sounders. Still, the wounds today were largely self-inflicted, with some truly bad decision-making hurting the team on both ends of the field. There’s just something about playing there that absolutely does the Sounders’ collective heads in. It’s been widely noted that Seattle hadn’t won a regular season game on the road against RSL since May 28, 2011, but in that time they’ve been outscored 29-7 in all competitions away against RSL with a single playoff win to their names. They’ve recorded this exact 2-0 result 6 times. It is truly hell for the Sounders.
The lineup shuffle: It’s been a frequent talking point that with the number of games the team will play this season, particularly at the start of the year, there is going to need to be some real rotation and everyone is going to get their chance to play. The Sounders made 7 changes from last weekend’s lineup against Charlotte FC for the midweek meeting with Antigua GFC, and made 8 changes from the midweek lineup to this one. That’s a lot of change, but the volume of changes isn’t really the source of the struggles in this game. Many, maybe all but at least most, of the players on the field had a difficult time, but the particular personnel mix didn’t particularly seem to help. The pair of Minoungou and Kalani Kossa-Rienzi on the right side struggled as KKR did his best to help contribute getting forward and covering that side defensively, but in the absence of Alex Roldan – who was at home in Seattle for the birth of his child – the pair weren’t able to provide the assistance in midfield that the team often depends on to control the game. Absent Ragen, the passing from the back line wasn’t up to the usual level, and breaking lines was made more difficult. Brian Schmetzer and his staff have a difficult challenge in finding the right balance, and it’s made harder when individual players struggle, but it feels like there were obvious-in-hindsight issues with the group they started with.
Memory like a goldfish: The biggest game of the season so far is just a few days away, as Cruz Azul come to town for Seattle’s CCC Round of 16 home match. The Sounders need to take whatever lessons they can from this result and the games that have preceded it, and focus during the limited time they have to prepare. They can’t let themselves be bogged down by disappointment or frustration, they just have to pick themselves up, brush this off and keep going. It’s obviously much more easily said than done, but that’s the task at hand. We’ll simply have to leave Saturday, March 1 in the past and hope that they can break whatever curse hangs over them in the Beehive State the next time they visit.
Notable quote
Schmetzer: “If you want a dose of reality, we’ve won two games from a team from Guatemala. That’s not disrespecting Antigua, but they play in a league that’s not as strong as ours.”
— Sounder at Heart (@sounderatheart.com) 2025-03-02T00:16:33.565Z
Player spotlight
Albert Rusnák – It wasn’t a perfect game, but Rusnák was a rare relative bright spot. His set piece service provided multiple dangerous chances, and he had a couple of good looks at goal that he’ll wish he could have back.
