The Deki Era Begins

SEATTLE - The pre-Deki 2026 Sounders would have lost on Saturday without a question. The Deki Squad still left the game against the Chicago Fire without a victory, but it was undeniable that Dejan Joveljić had an immediate impact for his new team.

For the first time in ages, the Seattle Sounders opened a match at home with a true striker's goal. Yet another came in the beginning of the second half. Lumen Field - 38,287 people strong on Saturday, a record attendance for 2026 - roared Joveljić' three-syllable name with a renewed joy, intensity, and hope.

"I wish that they are like this every game," Joveljić said of the fans.

But green shoots of hope were not enough to overcome the lingering flaws of the still-struggling Sounders. Although they opened the game with brutally clinical tiki-taka play and enough sustained offensive pressure to make anyone forget that the visitors had just signed a guy with 312 career goals in the Bundesliga and 83 in La Liga.

Then one giveaway in the midfield, then another. It became a trend that allowed the Fire back into the game again and again, and when Robert Lewandowski logged his 431st career goal late in the second half to knot the game at 2-2, what could have been a clean, beautiful beginning became a muddled draw - and the Sounders logged their 10th straight league game without a win.

Head coach Brian Schmetzer described that dour trend as a cycle the guys have to break at some point this year.

The First SeDektion:

Although Jordan Morris, Hassani Dotson, and Cristian Roldan were available to play for the first time in weeks to months, all of these returners were on minutes restrictions and made their appearances in the second half.

And with Jackson Ragen injured, there were two center backs who the Sounders could trust to see out 90 minutes: Kim Kee-hee and Stuart Hawkins. Snyder Brunell and Alex Roldan got the starts in the midfield while Seba Gomez started on the wing.

None of the three were otherworldly impressive, but they all had healthy returns and provided fresh legs when Seattle needed them.

"I think Cristian came on, did okay, but he was finding his feet," Schmetzer said. "Hassani, same thing; Jordan, same thing - I think they were just trying to find their feet a little bit."

The game itself was a back-and-forth affair.

An early free kick for Seattle in the third minute didn't materialize into a goal - with a long left-footed shot from Kalani going 10 feet wide of the post - but it began a spell of pressure in the ensuing minutes. Still, Seattle struggled to get the ball into final third past Chicago's 5-3-1-1 defending structure, and the chance creation looked similar to their previous games, with plenty of entry into the wings but difficulty providing service in the middle.

Lightning struck in the 12th minute. Kalani and Seba once again connected on the right side and Seba found Deki in the right half of the box. With one touch, the new signing found the back of the net far from the grasp of Chicago keeper Chris Brady and Seattle led 1-0.

A 17th minute follow-up chance for the Sounders showed the difference between Deki and Paul Rothrock. With the pressure once again mounting and green jerseys exchanging quick passes along the right touchline, Seba got a similar pass up into the corner and similarly cut back to a teammate in the box. But instead of Deki's one-touch magic, Rothrock needed a second to gather the ball, allowing the Fire defense to coalesce around him and deny the Sounders' opportunity.

Seattle kept the Fire from any serious threats for 23 minutes on Saturday, but in the 24th, they finally had a breakaway. Maren Haile-Selassie overtook Stuart Hawkins and roared up the pitch before dropping it off to Philip Zinckernagel, and although the latter's shot went right to Andrew Thomas, it marked a change in momentum that lasted for much of the rest of the half.

This run of play was the first in a series of instances where the Sounders lost the ball in the midfield. Though these breakaways kept coming over the following minutes, but it took a little over 10 minutes for the chickens to come home to roost.

Seattle did a decent job of immediately containing Chicago's breakaway in the 36th, rushing numbers back into the box and getting a clearance from Hawkins, but another giveaway in the midfield resulted in extended minutes of pressure for the Fire. It seemed for a brief moment like the Sounders might have Houdini'd their way out of it - with a shot that bounced off the bottom of the crossbar and worked its way back out of the mouth of the goal - but once more the Fire resumed the attack once, then twice, and then a third time along the right touchline as Lewandowski went forward along the edge and passed in to Haile-Selassie, who launched it into the far corner of the net to tie the game in the 38th minute.

The second half began with Deki's second strike. Unlike in the first half, when - though it was a difficult shot - he was in a pretty solid place to score, the second goal was all but a bolt from the blue. Seattle had started the half with momentum, sure, but about three Fire were between Joveljić and the goal as he turned around and fired a shot towards the top of the net. Brady leapt up and got a finger on it, but it bounced off the underside of the crossbar and backwards into the net. Seattle was once again in a one-goal lead, 2-1.

For the second time in as many halves, Chicago turned on the gas after a Sounders goal, but it was much quicker this time. A giveaway by Deki in the 51st minute led to a near-breakaway around midfield for the visitors, only prevented by a blatant jersey tug from Snyder Brunell that landed the midfielder a yellow and gave Chicago a free kick that eventually became a Thomas deflection in net and a corner for the visitors.

Seattle countered with their first substitution of the match, bringing on Cristian Roldan for Brunell and playing with a brief Brothers Roldan midfield between the 57th and 69th minutes. Both sides had runs into the final third as the minutes passed by and both started rotating in their subs; Hassani Dotson filled in for Alex Roldan and Jordan Morris subbed on for Seba in the 69th for Seattle. Despite this, the Fire slowly gained more of the momentum of the game, putting the lead in more and more danger.

Thomas got a high claim in the 79th to nix a flurry of Fire set pieces and Seattle briefly resumed possession. Unlike earlier in the game, when the missed connection up to Rothrock on the left wing would have resulted in an immediate counter, a Cristian Roldan interruption allowed the Sounders to recover. Although Jordan Morris lost the ball on the immediate breakaway chance, Cristian again recovered the ball in the midfield and Jordan once again took off on the right wing, this time with Albert Rusnák wide open in support as two Fire gathered around Morris.

JMo dumped it off to Rusnák, who had a golden opportuntiy for a one-touch strike into the net. Were it Deki, it would have been a glorious Serbian hat trick. But the Slovak took a second to gather the ball and try make a better strike - giving Jack Elliott just enough of a window to slide and deflect the ball.

The cosmos itself - through its representative Robert Lewandowski - punished Rusnák's inaction. Chicago once again rolled up the pitch, connecting the ball across the pitch to the left and then to the right in the corner for Puso Dithejane, who flicked it to Lewandowki on the far post.

The fourth MLS Lewangoalski followed, an upwards header into the top of the net and the game was knotted.

"We could have had a 3-1 lead and finished the game easily," Joveljić said after the game, "And if you miss a chance like that, he's (Lewandowski) going to punish you; if you are concentrated 89 minutes and one minute, you are off, he's going to use that as an advantage."

Were it not for an Andrew Thomas save in the final seconds of the second half, the Sounders would have fallen once more. But with a majestic leap, the Sounders keeper kept Jonathan Bamba off the board and both teams exited with a point.

Dejan Joveljić turned zero points to one in his first Seattle start, but the Sounders have to give him better service.

No Sounder had ever gotten to two goals quicker than Deki did on Saturday. And yet no matter how much one player changes the game (see Lewandowski on the other side), the primary message for Joveljić going into the match was about the singular importance of teamwork.

This teamwork, of course, is something that Deki himself needs in order to thrive. The Sounders created 0.87 expected goals on Saturday, far less than Chicago's 2.02, and they'll need to get the ball into more dangerous spaces in the future for Joveljić and Seattle to make the most of each other. Roughly two dozen minutes of prime quality in the early game was a spell the Sounders hadn't seen in ages, but those kinds of plays needed to be repeated over a full game.

Cristian stressed the need postgame for the collective to rise to the standard that Joveljić showed at the individual level.

"Obviously, he has individual talent, his ability to strike the ball and his ability to get shots off is something that that he's really good at; both goals are examples of that. Two different ways of scoring, but in the end, he was he was at his best when he had guys down the wing and providing that service," Cristian said. "And so, can we emulate some of that? Can we get him the ball early? Can we get some chemistry within our group to to to get him in front of goal?"

There were definitely plenty of guys up in the attacks when the Sounders had the momentum, but all too often, the play broke down before any of Kalani, Paul, Albert, Seba, or J-Mo could bring the ball in for the Serbian.

Midfield giveaways turned three points to one.

Seattle is built around its double pivot formation. When the pivots are on (see Cristian and Obed in 2025), the Sounders utterly dominate the flow of games, commonly with an hour or more of total possession. How good this possession becomes can fluctuate, but striking quality has just taken a big jump - meaning everyone else's weaknesses are more apparent behind the new nine.

The midfield was where the biggest issues appeared. When Alex and Snyder were clinical in the first two dozen minutes, the team looked far and away the better of the two sides on the pitch, but once the duo started missing their connections upfield and giving the ball away, the whole enterprise turned on its head.

Seattle's overloads in the final third often depended on both Kalani and Nouhou roaring upfield, so when the pivots lost it in midfield, Chicago had plenty of green space for their counterattacks.

Cristian talked about the need for game management and awareness in the midfield.

Cristian, of course, was in his first game back from injury, so there was a bit of rustiness in the way he played. Yet he also brought a degree of quality and interrupting ability (especially early in his return) that gave the Sounders a minor but perceptible jolt.

The real test of the 2026 midfield will come when Cristian and Snyder Brunell both play 90 minutes again. The high points of Snyder's potential were clear when he paired with Cristian early in the season, but he has been in a notable rut for much of the summer. Some of this might be the lack of an experienced, top-level six alongside him during Cristian and Dotson's absences, but confidence and quality can be fleeting and fickle. Maybe a leading indicator will come in the form of creativity, where Brunell has shined the most in the past.

Other player notes:

Seba Gomez:

Although he hadn't made many waves since his stellar start against Querétaro, Seba was locked and loaded for action on Saturday. His speed clearly caught the visitors off guard as he carved up the right corner and found quality to everyone he interacted with, whether it was Kalani, Deki, Brunell, or Albert.

The plan before the game (and the one that ended up happening) was clearly to bring Jordan Morris on for Gomez during the middle of the second half. But the 20-year-old's pitch presence made that a real decision instead of a rote one.

Paul Rothrock:

Hindsight is perhaps 20/20 in determining that keeping Seba on the field might have been the better move, if only because Paul Rothrock remained largely off his A-game as he has for much of the 2026 season. The Sounders find themselves in a continued catch-22 with the winger: he needs to figure it out on the field, but letting him fail too often at figuring things out isn't beneficial.

Perhaps the best fix is to make him one of many options as far as chance creation goes. The team did a solid job of this with Seba and Kalani on the right, but Paul's play was much more manageable for the Fire and, like his teammates in the defensive midfield, he was more prone to losing the ball during the attack. With Paul Arriola still out for at least a bit longer and a day still left in the summer transfer window, another versatile winger is a clear avenue of attack for the Sounders front office.

At the very least, the team has to figure out a way to make Rothrock's crosses more accurate. His decision-making on outside runs will ebb and flow with confidence, but an ability to precisely power the ball in to Deki and Albert would give the team a noticeable jump in chance creation.

Jordan Morris:

Morris' game was something of a mixed bag, a contrast of two breakaway moments. The first ended with a moment of mental passivity while the second very nearly became a game-icing goal for Seattle.

"Jordan plays an excellent ball over to Albert. If Albert finishes that, everybody's going to say, 'Oh, what a great sub you made by putting Jordan on the field,'" Schmetzer said. "So coaches' subbing is is always kind of, you either win it or you don't."

Stu Hawkins:

Seba wasn't the only youngster who excelled on the pitch on Saturday. Nineteen-year-old center back Stu Hawkins was thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire with 90 minutes against Chicago, and by and large, he held his own.

Hawkins had 12 defensive contributions all told during Saturday's game, spread out amongst interceptions, tackles, and clearances.

Kim Kee-hee:

Although Yeimar and Jackson Ragen are the two ideal starting center backs for Seattle, with both injured, it meant that Kim would be taking the reins in that role once more.

Kim made a goal-saving slide in the 68th as Zinckernagel found Dithejane in the open space behind Kalani Kossa-Rienzi and Dithejane had an open line on the net.

That was his most standout moment, but the once and present center back was often - alongside Hawkins - one of the only players immediately present whenever Chicago spun the ball upwards to the Sounders' third of the pitch. Kim's 11 defensive contributions were largely clearances, of which he had seven.

"I mean, Kim has been like that since he's been here, even in 2019 when we had him ... he's a good pro," Schmetzer said. "He's a very good pro. Does his job, comes into work, hard hat every day, lunchbox, and in games like this, he makes some plays. Could he have been a little bit more with the ball? Maybe a little bit more effective, maybe helping us out of pressure sometimes because Chicago pressed us higher up the field - but overall a solid performance."

While the team has been missing Yeimar's lockdown play for a while and will be missing Ragen's similar skills (though the latter has higher variance) for a while to come, Kim has been doing well in his role.

Kalani Kossa-Rienzi:

Kalani's defensive performances can sometimes be hard to parse between the (fixable) flaws in his actual play and the (tolerated as part of a trade-off) flaws in the Sounders' attacking structure. Whenever Seattle had the attack, he formed an integral part of their play on the wings, and his connection with guys like Seba (and later Morris) and Albert was clinical.

But during Chicago's many transition moments, Kalani's forward position meant that he wasn't able to rush back in time to form part of the first line of defense, only available once someone made an interruption or the first attempt got blocked. Again, much of it wasn't necessarily on Kalani himself as much as it is a known weakness of the system the Sounders operate; this is one of the things that puts more pressure on the defensive midfielders to be clinical so as to avoid such counterplay.

Kossa-Rienzi did make a couple of defensive contributions, and in the Fire's 52nd minute breakaway, he alertly put himself between Haile-Selassie and Lewandowski to force the former to shoot for a thin window and eventually get blocked by Thomas. Perhaps he could have done more things more often in the backfield, however, and there is still a definite gap between when Alex Roldan plays the position and when Kalani does.

As for the goal that Lewandowski scored on Kalani, it was an incredibly quick, heads-up move from the Polish striker that left Seattle's right wing back largely in the dust. An aerial challenge could have perhaps changed things, but Kalani is little different from the rest of his team in having a definite weakness in the air.

Schmetzer's view was adamantly positive in the postgame, as he viewed the breakdown that led to Lewandowski's goal to be primarily the purview of the midfield:

"He was excellent, and he was excellent defensively," Schmetzer said. "I mean, they had Elliott at the back post a couple of times where he made plays. Lewandowski's a top, top player at some of the biggest clubs in the world, and that ball happens to float to the back post. I mean, that's blocking the cross. Get out and block the cross, go up field after we miss to foul the guy in midfield. That's not on Kalani at all."

The meaning of Deki's first game will be made in his second, third, fourth, fifth, and so on.

Was Saturday a promising beginning for a turnaround that can bring this Sounders team deep into the playoffs? Or was it a stark reminder that despite the clear improvement at nine, there are still massive issues with the way the team is built that will take more than two months to remedy?

The answer lies in the future. We create narratives, as often as not, post facto based on what we think explains what happened. Think about every rest vs. rust narrative that anyone has ever peddled: was it actually one or the other, or did people decide which one it was based on which way the luck fell in a game of inches?

That knife's edge can be clearly seen above in the fans' banner to the front office and ownership: in less metaphorical language, it was a message about knowing something by its fruits.

According to Joveljić, the Sounders are "hungry". It was one of the differences he observed between Seattle and Sporting KC.

Hunger, however, only becomes starvation if it is not applied properly. The Sounders need to look back at what gave them the chances to score twice and look also at what caused them to concede twice, and when the next fixture comes on Saturday against New York Red Bulls, they need to have made improvements on these things.

The good news is that there was clearly something there for the Rave Green to build upon.

"The first 25 minutes? Great," Schmetzer said after the game. "Chance creation, extending our possessions in the attacking half of the field, putting that mental fatigue, mental pressure on our opponent. Those are some of the things, yes, we're going to try and get better at."