Sounders Comfortably Beat St. Louis as Cristian Roldan Shows World Cup Chops

The Sounders are off to the second-best MLS start in their history, with a 5-1-1 record through seven matches. Yet with the strange Spokane-detoured schedule and a loss on road goals to Tigres in Concacaf, it may not immediately appear so from the visages of the team's stars.

Take Albert Rusnák, for example. He excelled in the Sounders' Saturday night 4-1 victory over St. Louis CITY SC, with two corner kick assists and a penalty goal topping out his scoresheet, though he powered much of Seattle's attacking prowess from his role as the 10. But the way the team bowed out of CCC still weighed down the good feelings.

With much of the team gassed from their Wednesday marathon against said Tigres, there was a fair amount of rotation for Saturday's MLS game. Antino Lopez played center back alongside Alex Roldan, while Hassani Dotson filled in as a pivot alongside Cristian Roldan, but perhaps the most unusual was Snyder Brunell as the starting right wing.

Seattle found themselves caught off-guard by some aggressive pressure from St. Louis early on, with Andrew Thomas having to make a diving save in the second minute. Even after some of the pressure abated, the Rave Green struggled to find passing quality in the midfield and were without any sort of attacking prowess for much of the first half, though later events would make their slow start all but forgotten.

There was a potentially fruitful transition moment around the 15th minute, with the Sounders finally rolling up with Rusnák dribbling and a clear through ball opening for Musovski up top, but Rusnák hesitated to make the move and wound up sending it over to his right side, where attacking play sputtered and St. Louis returned to their earlier edge.

The Sounders flipped the script quickly in the 20th minute, driving the ball up the right side of the pitch and producing a threat in the box. Visiting right back Rafael Santos prevented immediate disaster for his side with a corner concession, but after the first corner's run of play ended when St. Louis keeper Roman Bürki dove to deflect a seemingly unexpected medium range shot from Snyder Brunell, Seattle pounced on a blown set piece coverage from St. Louis' Rafael Santos.

St. Louis' right back made quite the lapse in execution as Rusnák's ball flew up, as he failed to cover Cristian Roldan. Potential USMNT World Cup midfielder Cristian Roldan. Predictably and beautifully, Roldan headed it into the back of the net to bring the Sounders up 1-0.

Lightning struck twice, as it turned out. Seattle worked another corner kick in the 37th minute, Rusnák struck it in the exact same manner to the exact same spot, and crucially, Santos was far away from Cristian once more. This time, the star midfielder tapped it in with his boot, but the result was identical.

A back post blind spot was apparently something that the Sounders had noticed in St. Louis' set piece defense, and both the goal-scoring Roldan and the service-sending Rusnák executed the twin chances to perfection.

There was definitely some element of surprise for everyone in the stadium and on the field that the same goal happened twice in the span of 15 minutes, especially for a team without their tallest players.

"Well maybe [I wasn't surprised at] the first one, but definitely once you score one, it's like, for the same thing to happen, identical thing happen again, you don't see that a lot," Rusnák said. "Given that our tallest guy on the field is probably 5-11, it's surprising that we scored two corners ... we have to face it, we're not the biggest team."

Roldan joked that it was his height - he's 5-8 - that caused St. Louis to forget to guard him on the back post, but knowledge of the actual blind spot was something of an ace up the Sounders' sleeve going into the match.

"Teams have been usually setting up like that and running first post, and they (St. Louis) probably assumed that we were gonna go first post, and credit to our staff for chalking up that play, and the guys blocking - and great delivery, to be honest," Roldan said. "I didn't have to move too much, and at that point, it's about getting it across the goal for the first goal and heading it hopefully side net against the grain."

As the game resumed, St. Louis had a nice gift from an otherwise stalwart Tino Lopez in the 40th minute, with a foul mere meters outside the box resulting in impeccable set piece location for the visitors. While the biggest errors on set piece defense had thus far come from St. Louis (and one player in particular), Seattle hasn't exactly had the best track record on set pieces in recent days. The ball caromed back and forth, seeming to be in nobody's true possession. But Seattle managed to get the ball out of danger, and by the end of the first half, the score remained 2-0 in favor of the Sounders.

Where the second half had begun with a somewhat unexpected slow start from Seattle, the home crew roared right back to where they had been as they began the second half, rushing the ball up towards the final third as they sought to escape the clutches of the most dangerous lead in soccer.

There were some opportunities that showed themselves early in the second half, but the primrose path opened up as Paul Rothrock, who had subbed in for Paul Arriola to begin the half, was tripped up in the penalty box. Roldan, on hat trick watch, said that Rusnák asked him if he wanted to take the penalty, but he gave a rather laconic response in their five-second exchange.

Rusnák went up to the spot, prepared himself, and knocked the third goal into the back of the net. Seattle had put themselves in incredible position to take another three points at home.

But the visitors did manage to push into Seattle's final third and get some set piece opportunities as the second half wore on. The Sounders did well to keep the ball out of truly dangerous areas against a pair of free kicks and a trio of corners around the halfway mark of the final 45, though they had to scamper back in line after some disjointed open play in the 76th minute and an 83rd minute transition moment looked to be some of the most dangerous action St. Louis had produced all game, but Nouhou - as he had all game - bailed out his teammates with another mighty clearance.

Substitutions of Jordan Morris for Dotson and Jesús Ferreira for a tired Rusnák in the 53rd minute set up some positional changes, as did Peter Kingston coming on for Alex Roldan in the 60th minute. Although the triple connection between Ferreira, Morris, and Musovski looked potentially fruitful, Moose was pulled for Osaze de Rosario late in the match.

Not that he looked all that much worse in connection with the two other attackers. Ferreira found him in the box during the 86th minute, and although Osaze twisted and twirled around twice over looking for an opening - this usually doesn't result in goals - he found a window after all and banged the ball through into the back of the net for the Sounders' fourth notch on the sheet.

Things began to break down defensively in stoppage. St. Louis pushed in towards the box in a semi-transition with Seattle slow to adapt two minutes past the 90 mark, and as Brunell tried to contain Brendan McSorley, the St. Louis striker sidestepped him with possession and dropped it off for Sergio Córdova, who rattled off a blocked shot. No matter for the visitors, as Eduard Löwen took the ball and blasted it past Andrew Thomas to end the clean sheet.

It didn't matter for the table, however, as the final whistle blew without any more goals on either side.

Cristian Roldan played as a selfless center back for much of the second half, even as his every move is tracked ahead of the World Cup.

A bit of personal anecdote incoming. I'm not a very good soccer player, but when I do play a bit of pick-up, center back is sort of my best position. I say "sort of" because my only real trick is to look big and scary when an opponent comes in with the ball and I pass to a teammate whenever I get the ball.

That being said, there is no way I would be able to keep myself in position if I were (miraculously) on hat trick watch. Cristian Roldan, meanwhile, swapped over to center back mid-second half as Morris came on for Dotson, an act of selflessness almost as impressive as when he let Albert take the penalty.

There's a reason Cristian is a USMNT contender and I'm in the press box. Actually, there are a lot more reasons.

As to his performance, he played quite solidly in his newfound role. Seattle had a lot less attack after the 60th minute or so (St. Louis had five second half corners and more than a few free kicks, though the big lead perhaps took some of the edge off the home side in the final 15 minutes), but the Sounders were still producing some action up top. It wasn't just the Osaze goal, though that was the only time they managed to punch through.

If anything negative could be said about an offense that punched through four goals in 90 minutes, it was that they sometimes (especially in the second half) failed to make quick decisions on the ball in the final third. These hesitations were a big part of the reason they didn't manage to sink their fourth goal against Tigres on Wednesday, and although they didn't matter one iota in a comfortable three-goal win against a side currently in the Western Conference cellar, they will become important in closer matches.

Schmetzer sensibly sees Cristian's case for being a World Cup midfielder for the USMNT.

There is some edge lost in the carry-over, as Cristian (like most Sounders) excels most in the Sounders system and environment, but his work rate, intelligence, and leadership are qualities that the USMNT will need if they are to go on any sort of dark horse World Cup run.

On Cristian's part, there is always the knowledge that he is under a special microscope ahead of the biggest event in the world.

"Yeah, it's always in the back of my mind. It's a dream for everybody as a kid to be able to go to a World Cup. And for me, I don't see myself as a lock by any means, so I have to keep performing with the Sounders to give myself the best chance," Roldan said. "And look, I don't get on the scoresheet very often, but when I do, I gotta appreciate it and I just hope that I'm being seen for all the little things I do for the group."