Seattle finally gets one!

Cathartic. That’s the word that describes watching this game after five matches where the Sounders have looked lifeless.

The Sounders annihilated CF Montréal 5-0 on Saturday, April 6, 2024. For most of the game, it felt like some sort of inverse of Murphy’s Law was in operation: everything that could go right, did. Well, almost: Raúl didn’t get a hat trick.  

Schmetzer went with the tried-and-true, the 4-2-3-1. Although JP was available, Schmetz opted to use him as a sub in his first game back from injury. The starting lineup looked like this:

Raúl

Jordan – Rusnák – Cristian

Josh – Vargas

Nouhou – Ragen – Yéimar – Alex

Frei

Raúl breaks ground in first half

You wouldn’t know it by looking at the final score, but Seattle started off the game on the back foot. Montréal had a Teflon midfield that bounced the Sounders’ attempts at breaking through and creating chances. Nouhou went down with leg pain before the tenth minute and had to leave the game, with Cody Baker coming on as his replacement. There was a hint of worry that this might be another 2024 Sounders dud. The crowd began to quiet down.

Then, in the 20^th minute, the wind shifted. Albert Rusnák sent a free kick into the box, which found Jackson Ragen, who headed it backwards towards the edge of the box. Raúl charged forward and threw his left foot into the ball, lofting it over helpless Montréal defenders and over the arm of keeper Jonathan Sirois, into the right corner of the net. 1-0 Sounders.

ECS and Lumen Field erupted. The energy was back. A weight was lifted off our chests. Seattle found life, while Montréal was rattled. In the next few minutes, their shield showed cracks – Sounders were making passes and being active.

In the 24^th, Alex sent in a long ball up top to Morris, who headed it back to Albert. Albert charged forward, ready to make a shot, but was tripped by Montréal center back Joel Waterman, awarding Seattle a penalty kick. Raúl took the penalty shot in the 27^th, whisking it past Sirois. 2-0 Sounders.

Remember how I said things just seemed to go right for the Sounders? That applied to defense, too. A few times in the half, the Sounders back line slipped and allowed a chance for Montréal to strike. But every time, the Sounders would recover in time, the luck would bend Seattle’s way, or Frei would nab the ball. Frei’s best save of the half came in the 38^th, when Montréal left back Joaquín Sosa sent off a header at near point-blank range to the net, but Frei dove and deflected the ball away.

Second half turns good win into beatdown

Montréal was still in the game as the half closed, but it wasn’t long into the second half until Seattle got that third goal. In the 48^th minute, Obed Vargas charged into the box, then gave the ball to Cristian on his right, who sent Jordan Morris a cross right in front of the goal. Without looking, Morris tapped the ball toward the net. Sirois got a hand on it but was unable to change the shot’s trajectory enough to keep it from hitting its target. 3-0 Sounders.

As if things weren’t bad enough for Montréal after that point, midfielder Nathan Saliba got his second yellow card of the night in the 53^rd, sending him off the pitch.

After that, Montréal’s once-strong shield, cracked by the Sounders’ attack and rusted from the passage of time, shattered. Seattle dominated the flow of the game after that point. Montréal’s players were largely just going through the motions. From time to time, one of their players would try to make something happen, but it was no use. The game was essentially over.

That didn’t mean the Sounders were going to stop, though, though they did slow down a little before subs came on in the 79^th, when Schmetz pulled Josh, Ragen, and Jordan for JP, Xavier Arreaga, and Danny Musovski.

In the 81^st, Albert and Raúl connected for a breakaway that got Albert in the side of the box ahead of the defenders. He drew Sirois toward the near corner of the goal, then passed to Alex Roldan, who tapped the ball into the almost-empty net. 4-0 Seattle.

As the game wound down, Schmetzer made one more change, bringing on Dylan Teves for Cristian Roldan. But even as fans began to stream up the stairs and out of the stands and reporters in the box were packing up their laptops like students at 10:57 in their morning class, Seattle put one more nail in Montréal’s coffin. In the seventh minute of stoppage, Danny Musovski sent a diagonal ball bouncing up the box to Teves, who put the ball behind a sliding Sirois and into the net.

5-0. The whistle sounded not long after.

Everyone shone bright in this one

The whole team looked good. Frei got another clean sheet, his 87^th in Sounders regular season games and 100^th in all competitions. He now has 106 in MLS regular season play. Alex found a form he hadn’t seen all year. Jordan Morris was faster and sharper than the last few games. Cody Baker, coming off the bench, looked amazing.

Raúl Ruidíaz, however, was the man of the match. He had two goals. He had 6 shots on target and 11 total shots. He had a 100% pass percentage, 33 for 33. He had 54 touches.

And he got it all started with his back-footed goal in the 20^th. According to him, it’s all about seizing the opportunity.

“I’m always thinking about shooting a goal. And I saw the opportunity and I took it,” Ruidíaz said. “If we don’t try, then we’re not going to be creating chances and opportunities.”

Moving forward

It’s a game like this that gives me hope for the season, but the team still dug itself a little bit of a hole. The Sounders went from a -3 goal difference to +2, which is tied for fourth in the Western Conference, and they moved up two spots in the table, but that jump was from last place to third-to-last. Seattle will need a lot more strong performances in 2024 – but they just might have the chops to do it. Saturday’s win was a fantastic step.

Seattle’s next game is on April 13 on the road against FC Dallas, one of the two teams below the Sounders in the standings, making a good opportunity to get back into the race. But their next home game is going to be a big test, as they face the first-place Vancouver Whitecaps in their first Cascadia matchup of 2024.