I don’t have any pointed insights on what went wrong for the Seattle Sounders against San Diego FC, or what Brian Schmetzer and the coaching staff can do tactically in the coming weeks to help turn the team around. I was only able to watch about 15 minutes of this game live, on my phone in a dressing room at the 5th Avenue Theater in between numbers, during which time I saw some shockingly inept and disjointed play bracketed on one end by Alex Roldan leaving the game and Anibal Godoy doubling San Diego’s lead on the other.
Even if I had a thorough breakdown to offer on what exactly happened and how to fix it, that wouldn’t really do any of us much good. Famously everyone reads Sounder at Heart, but I don’t think Freddy Juarez and Andy Rose are reading these pages looking for answers, even if they were to be found here. What I can offer is my own assessment of where we’re at from an emotional perspective.
I’m something adjacent to an eternal optimist. It’s not that I think that bad things don’t or won’t happen – I know from my own personal life and my experience as a sports fan that they do and will – but that time and again those bad things have proven to be learning experiences or catalysts for positive change. Having grown up in Everett during the ‘90s, some of my earliest memories are of the Seattle Mariners making their miraculous run to the playoffs in 1995. It’s funny to think that a season that didn’t end with the ultimate prize has fully cemented in my mind a belief that there’s always a chance, almost regardless of how bad things look. It was the kind of run that lives long in the memory for many reasons, but for me one of the things that has caused it to stick with me was how the team responded when Ken Griffey Jr. broke his wrist on a catch as he crashed into the wall at the Kingdome in May of that year. Despite losing a superstar, unicorn player to injury, the other pillars of that locker room shouldered the burden and other guys stepped in to help lighten the load and set the stage for SoDo Mojo to carry them through.
I bring this all up in part to emphasize just how frustrating it has been to watch this Sounders side over the last month. Injuries to Pedro de la Vega, Paul Arriola and Jordan Morris in back-to-back games left the team without three key players, but the greatest strength of this group was supposed to be its depth. With Jesús Ferreira and Albert Rusnák joined by last season’s breakout players Georgi Minoungou and Paul Rothrock, as well as Danny Musovski ready to help fill in up top, Seattle should have had the firepower in attack to pick up the slack during the month without Morris and de la Vega. On top of that, the defense that has been one of the best in the league over the last several seasons was still behind them, as was what should be one of the best midfield groups in the league.
Despite all of that, since the 4-1 loss to Cruz Azul in which Arriola and Morris were injured, the Sounders have been outscored 5-1 across four games. To be fair, it was only 2-1 going into the game against San Diego, but frankly that almost makes matters worse. With his goal against the San Jose Earthquakes last weekend, it seemed like maybe Rusnák would be the first player to step up and help guide the Sounders out of their slump, but his injury this weekend means it won’t be him for at least a little while, as another pair of names got added to the injured list just when it looked like the team might be getting healthy again.
With seemingly no one providing the necessary quality in attack, the midfield got overrun against San Diego and a defense that has previously been a strength looked much more like a liability. Things are bad, but they don’t have to stay bad. We are 20% of the way through the season, but there is still time to have the kind of season many people – myself included – thought the Sounders could have this year... but they have to start now. You obviously don’t want to find yourself in this sort of situation at all, let alone repeatedly, but Brian Schmetzer has time and again found a way to turn things around in Seattle. Getting Morris back will be a huge help, but even once he’s ready to go he can’t do it all on his own.
Paul Rothrock spoke to the press after the latest loss, saying, “this has to be rock bottom so far this year. Brian talked about it in the postgame, but things have to change, things have to shift, mindsets have to be better.”
That change needs to start this week, and it needs to be driven by team leaders and players who have in the past been among the league’s best, like Stefan Frei, Cristian Roldan and Yeimar. It needs to be bolstered, though, by players brought in to help elevate the squad like Jesús Ferreira – who, to his credit, has shown his quality in flashes but still needs to find a way to be more consistent and more impactful week in and week out – and newcomer Ryan Kent.
No one involved is without fault for the start of the season. There have been personnel and tactical decisions that have made the task at hand more difficult, but ultimately the proof is in their play. It can get better. Frankly, it seems much more likely that performances will improve than that they will get worse than this weekend’s. But for it to mean anything – to mean that the team has hit rock bottom, and for them to climb and stay back up – serious change in some shape or form has to come and be committed to going forward. It can get better, and good things can still be in our future, but it won’t come easily.
