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| Different one, no Streisand. |
[Standing Disclaimer: While I have watched…just a stupid amount of MLS over the years, I don’t watch the vast majority of games, never mind all of them. As such, it’s fair to take anything below that isn’t a hard number or a physical trophy as an impression, a couple steps removed.]
Thumbnail History
Hurts to admit this, but the Seattle Sounders managed to reach second place in terms of all-time success in Major League Soccer (based on the Joy Point Scale; methodology below*) and that’s with nine other teams having a 13-season head-start. They joined in 2009, just the fourth expansion team in the post-contraction era, but took only one season to fall in step with the first two (and their direct rivals), Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake; moreover, Seattle hoisted their first Supporters’ Shield (2014) the season before MLS’s third expansion team, Toronto FC, made the playoffs for the first time. And, in a flourish that feels unintentional in the way Kristofferson just could not stop outdoing Ash (Fantastic Mr. Fox), Seattle snatched its first MLS Cup on Toronto’s home field in 2016 (if in one of the shittiest finals in league history, btw). The Sounders had something gratingly close to a standing invitation to MLS Cup over the next four seasons - and they won two of them (2016 and 2019). Hell, they won U.S. Open Cup in each of their first three season in MLS, and then won it again in 2014, aka, the same season they won the Shield. Bottom line, Sounders fans have never experienced pain, only mild discomfort…the spoiled assholes. Seattle missed the playoffs for the first time (the first!) in 2022.
Best Season(s)
Tough call, but I’m guessing Seattle fans feel more pride about the 2019 team that beat Toronto 3-1 than they do about the one that beat a better version of the same team by the tips of Stefan Frei’s finger-nails in Toronto. Looking at the rosters for 2014 (Shield), 2016 (Cup) and 2019 (Cup) doesn’t give you a lot to work with in terms of tie-breakers. I have answers to all of these questions, but: who do you choose between Kasey Keller and Stefan Frei? Was Chad Marshall really a better defender than Roman Torres, or Xavier Arreaga or Yeimar? Did Obafemi Martins have more upside than Raul Ruidiaz? Then again, what’s the point in arguing about which player is better when all of them worked? Seattle has won eight trophies in its 15 years in MLS, including the league’s first‑ever CONCACAF Champions’ League trophy. So, yeah, hard to say.
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Long-Term Tendencies
In a parallel that seems relevant, Seattle has been on the wrong side of average for goals allowed just once during their time in MLS…and it was just a bit over and that was 2014 (i.e., the season they won the Sheild). Every other season has seen them either under or well-under the average for goals allowed and, oh, the peace of mind that must give a fan-base. (And what horror they must feel knowing that the Portland Timbers are their kryptonite; so many lopsided losses to their rivals to the south.) For all the famous attackers they’ve fielded – e.g., not just Martins and Ruidiaz, but also Mauro Rosales, Clint Dempsey, and the recently departed(?) Nico Lodeiro – the Sounders generally slump closer to average on the attacking side of the game. They absolutely had their seasons (and, fwiw, the Dempsey/Martins years were better), but, with the COVID season excepted, Seattle’s attack has been average or worse in terms of goals scored since 2015. Defense, with that talented bastard Frei behind it, has been their calling card.
Identity
Outside of every time they play the Timbers (just ask head coach Brian Smetzer), compact, efficient and ruthless. Hell to beat and nearly always staffed with the talent to score goals. Just insanely consistent and reliably well-coached. Real talk, I want them to suffer (to make the subtext plain, I am a Timbers fan), but I also think they’ll be happy for it later.
Joy Points: 36 (again, this is the second highest total in MLS history based on the scale below)
10 Names to Know
Chad Marshall (2014-2019)
Easily one of the most dominant defenders in MLS history - and he was immense in the air on both sides of the field (i.e., Seattle’s area was a no-fly zone and he scored plenty with that big, blocky cabeza) – the Sounders got him for a throw-away ditty in 2012. He went on to back-stop three of their trophy-winning teams. Shows their penchant for smart business.
Osvaldo Alonso (2009-2018)
Due to the position they played, I doubt future Cascadia fans will fully appreciate the blood-‘n’-guts glory of witnessing Ozzie Alonso battle Portland’s Diego Chara for control of the midfield. Alonso came up from the USL with Seattle and he was everything any team would break the bank on for a No. 6: combative, tireless and an accomplished passer. Can’t believe he was around until 2018…
Brad Evans (2009-2017)
When someone tells you they can’t believe how many positions a guy can play on a professional team, tell them you’ve seen Brad Evans play…and when they say, “who?”, that’s more or less the point. There are utility players, then there is Evans. Talented, driven, smart, Evans gave every Sounders coach a wild card to play in his starting XI.
Stefan Frei (2014- )
I get giddy every time I see Frei make a mistake because it’s like seeing a white raccoon crossing a busy street, i.e., rare and delightful, because he’s one of the best shot-stoppers in MLS history. Having that kind of consistency at the back is invaluable.
Clint Dempsey (2013-2018)
While some part of me knew Dempsey never scored 100 goals in MLS, but for six seasons in England, he would have. He had talent, to be sure, and audacity, but Dempsey was hungry like few players I’ve seen before or since, especially Americans. You could see this even in his New England Revolution days. Hell to mark, hell to handle, and lethal with Obafemi Martins running with him…who regrettably, but reasonably, does not make this list, because…
Lamar Neagle/Marco Pappa (2011, 2013-2015, 2017-18 for the former (also, wow...) and 2014-2015)
Yeah, yeah, I’m doubling up on this entry, but the Sounders have had incredible luck with having a random player come good enough in some random season to lift them above the fray. It almost didn’t matter what they did – I recall Neagle as more of a wide player while Pappa tended to collaborate in the channels – they just had to be on the roster and healthy and, voila, Seattle makes the playoffs. Again.
Gustav Svensson (2017-2020)
Unfussy, large, and yet not totally without the odd flash, Svensson offers a great example of the strength, presence and discipline that carried Seattle to grinding glory. Svensson was one of those players who could hit a booming diagonal to launch a country immediately after doing the dirty work. He just kind of typifies the brand and the type of player that sustains it.
Cristian Roldan (2015- )
I get confused every time I see people shitting on Roldan, a player who consistently manages to be essential without being the best player on the field. A really solid two-way No. 8, Roldan has spent years connecting Seattle’s rock-ribbed defense with its flashy attack. I hear him say, “as you wish,” every time he gets on the ball…
Nicolas Lodeiro (2016-2023)
For my money, the best classic No. 10 in Seattle’s short MLS history. A next-level passer, whether playing short or long, capable of line-breakers, decent on the dribble and the kind of free-roaming headache every defense dreads: Lodeiro led Seattle’s attack through its second cycle of success in MLS – i.e., MLS Cup 2019 and the CCL crown in 2022.
Raul Ruidiaz (2018- )
On the one hand, a poacher extraordinaire, the kind of player with the timing and technique to feast on service – i.e., the kind Lodeiro delivered for as long as he played for Seattle – but also capable of finding space in transition and banging in the odd goal from range. A very good forward, who’s had some struggles with injury lately, hence…
Where They Finished in 2023 & What the Past Says About That, If Anything
Seventh overall (2nd in the West) and with a +9 goal differential. They (literally) survived a two-game series against FC Dallas (who ran Seattle’s legs off in Game 2 of the three-game series) before succumbing to eventual-finalists Los Angeles FC in the Western Conference Semis. Still, they got results both home and away (and in nearly equal measure) all season long and Seattle limbo-ed comfortably under the league average for goals allowed (39 v 48.6 average), but the offense stumbled nearly as far behind (they scored just 41). Funny seeing how strong the Sounders started – they scored 15 of those goals over their first six games – and I have dim memories of Leo Chu to Jordan Morris looking menacing as all hell (and who ended that early, stirring streak? Yep, Portland). Then came the injuries – and to players like Chu, Ruidiaz, and, to a lesser extent, Lodeiro and Morris. All things considered, and injuries acknowledged, 2023 didn’t look so different from Seattle’s history writ large.
Notes/Impressions on the Current Roster/State of Ambition
Lodeiro moved on (apparently), but he also wasn’t his best self this season and likely won’t be again (bon chance, Orlando) and Seattle has so far kept most of its solid, if less than spectacular roster whole. The immediate question is how whole it can be through 2024 – e.g., they’re a different team without, say, Jordan Morris (a one-vertical-trick player if I’ve ever seen one, but he’s still good) or the young, high-upside Leo Chu, and, as 2022 argued, they’re a shell of themselves without Joao Paulo, who is without question their best anchor-mid since Alonso. Going the other way, at age 37, Frei probably has a couple seasons left and the defense remains brick-shithouse sturdy and all of those players appear to have bounced back as most of themselves. Basically, and as much as it pisses me off, the Sounders have a great foundation.
With that, I have two notes on ambition. First: the Sounders have some promising homegrown players – e.g., Josh Atencio, Obed Vargas, and even Danny Leyva (? assuming they didn’t lose his rights) – who they feel comfortable actually playing now and again. This is a process I trust, for what it’s worth, and enough to make me wonder about how little the Timbers get out of their academy system (because it sure looks like bupkiss). Second, Seattle has a history of doing well with this and you don’t bet against history until it gives you license to do so. However they’ve done it and whatever bitter, bitter Timbers fans think about it, Seattle has stayed at or near the mix since joining MLS. No matter how much I’d like to, I don’t see that changing soon.
* Joy Point Index
Winning the CONCACAF Champions’ League: 5 points
Claiming Supporters’ Shield : 4 points
Winning MLS Cup: 3 points
MLS Cup Runner-Up: 2 points
Winning the U.S. Open Cup: 2 points
Winning CONCACAF Champions Cup: 2 points
MLS Is Back Cup: 2 points (yeah, yeah, I’m a Timbers fan; still, that was a tough one)
CONCACAF Champions League Semifinalist: 1 point
Making the Playoffs: 1 point
Missing the Playoffs: -1 point
Missing Playoffs in 1996-97, 2002-2004 (when 80% of the league qualified): - 2 points
Wooden Spoon: -3 points
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