Five Losses in a Row

Five games ago, the Seattle Sounders were outside Shield contenders at best and, at worst, they were their typical well-oiled-machine selves. They had issues with scoring, but their defense had held firm enough to keep them in the hunt and they had seen enough contributions from guys up top to paper over the attacking woes most of the time.

They had 24 points in the table through their first 11 games, 7-1-3 in wins, losses, and draws. They have 24 points in the table as of the resolution of their 16th game, 7-5-3 in wins, losses, and draws. It's the longest losing streak in Brian Schmetzer's tenure as Sounders head coach.

After their loss on July 22 in Austin - where they held their hosts to a 1-1 tie until losing control of the game in the final 10 minutes - Albert Rusnák was blunt about his frustrations.

But there is a balancing act here: to focus those frustrations on being clinical. Frustration in general can inhibit a player's creativity, and as the Sounders have seen in their recent opponents, a carefree attitude can open up plenty of lanes for a team to find out new things about themselves.

There are clear tension points after consecutive loss number five. After Sounder at Heart's Jeremiah Oshan asked him about the topic, Schmetzer discussed the nature of his recent discussions with owner Adrian Hanauer, general manager Craig Waibel, and former GM Garth Lagerwey; though he said that he is still roughly on the same page as the front office, he did note that he had been more open about his roster construction concerns recently.

You guys know me well enough. I don't demand from Adrian and Garth and Craig. I mean, they've been good bosses, they've provided me with good players throughout my career. We're certainly having conversations, Jeremiah. There are conversations going on about how to improve the squad. What are we doing? What are the options? What's Plan A? What's Plan B? What's Plan C? Yeah, some of those conversations might be revved up a little bit, but again: I think myself, Adrian, and Craig, I think we've all done this a long time and we haven't hit the panic button yet.

It might come, it might not, but right now we're kind of thinking things through, because look - the worst thing we could do is go out and make a rash signing just for the sake of signing a player, and then that player doesn't work out. We have to be very specific in who we sign and make sure it's the right fit and the right talent.

[Oshan asks Schmetzer about passing up good players in pursuit of the perfect one]

Well, look, I will I will give you my opinion, but the way this has gone since 2016, when I first took over, I let Garth and Adrian and Craig [be], they've been the ones [in that role]; I've stuck to the coaching. I certainly lend my opinion; I am German, I will give them my opinion. But those guys are the ones that have been kind of going and doing things.

And yes, I will give you this little tidbit: I have, in the last couple of weeks, given them some little bit stronger opinion just about what's going on with the team, in my opinion, and how we go about it as a club. [Emphasis mine]

Look, Jeremiah, we're still successful. I understand everybody's calling for more signings, and on I one hand I might say, yeah, we probably should, but on the other hand again if your resources are such, you're not going to go out right now in this window and replace five guys to a group that started off 7-3-3, we're just not going to do that.

-Brian Schmetzer, July 25, 2026

There is still a belief that the guys they have can bring them back into good play; they've certainly done so before. A Leagues Cup repeat may be a good bit harder, and that competition is coming up on short notice.

But it's increasingly obvious that something has to change up top.

Well, a lot of things. Snyder Brunell needs to rediscover his form, as does Albert. Someone - and Schmetzer noted this postgame - needs to take initiative at striker (neither Osaze de Rosario nor Danny Musovski was of much note in their Saturday game against Philadelphia). The defense has to clamp down on goal-inducing mistakes. The team needs to stop letting bad become worse.

That last thing happened on Saturday, as they only lost 1-0, the one Philadelphia Union goal staying that way from the 31st minute onwards. It was a loss, but it was better than losing 5-1 against Portland and 3-1 against Austin.

But they had zero goals, 0.36 expected goals (xG), seven shots, and 15 touches in the opposition box. That's not the recipe for a successful offense, even if Hassani Dotson's 66th minute header or Peter Kingston's 75th minute right-footer or Albert's 84th minute left-footer managed to go in.

Of course, had any of those opportunities borne fruit, the shot in the arm to Seattle's confidence may have ended up opening things for Seattle and, if not blunting some of Philadelphia's late momentum, could have even given Seattle the opportunity for real goal danger.

If maybes and buts were candy and nuts, as they say.

Seattle at least had the consolation, going into the break, that the Galaxy had gone into the season with expectations and that LAFC are actually good.

But at each of their respective points of contact with the Sounders, their last three opponents have had 4-8-2, 3-7-5, and 2-10-4 (7-15-11 combined) records. They've outscored the Sounders 9-2. From an xG perspective, it has been a closer 5.08-2.46 - and they actually out-xGed Austin - but the Sounders have been plenty embarrassed when it comes to goal danger. Touches in the box have been closer over these three games (71-65 against Seattle), but shots have been 45-27 against Seattle and shots on target have been 21-10 against the Sounders.

These stats are uglier when factoring in the full five-game skid, but they are especially stark when it's the likes of the 2026 Timbers, 2026 Austin FC, and 2026 Philly Union doing this. Last I checked it wasn't Philly's MLS team that got LeBron.

They are getting out-SoT'd by a factor of more than 2-to-1 against teams with 0.97 points per game. That is bad.

Ground duels have been roughly even during this stretch (77-75 against Seattle) but the 68-33 aerials figure (against Seattle, go figure) is very rough for the Sounders. Granted, a big part of that is taken up by Portland's 27-4 Desert Storm-level aerial dominance in The Kakisteia, but their aerial issues have severely limited their ability to recover from mistakes and capitalize on the miscues of their opponents.

When it came to Saturday's match, Schmetzer was looking for something, anything to stem the bleeding, with a stated goal to get a clean sheet out of the match. But that goal fell apart when Tino Lopez and Stu Hawkins - the two center backs thanks to Yeimar's injury and Jackson Ragen's suspension - couldn't quite get behind Milan Iloski on a deep through ball from Frankie Westfield (though they were close enough to force an awkward one-touch attempt). Much more crucially, Andrew Thomas left his post in net to charge the ball, allowing the floater Iloski sent off to fall into the net for the only goal of the game.

Seattle nixed Philly's following opportunities, but that was the difference.

"[Thomas] was as culpable as the young kids in front of him," Schmetzer said of the goal. "You got to let your defenders defend, you must let your defenders defend in that situation, or, if you're off your line, you need to be high enough that you can clear the ball. So, again, that's a learning curve for Andrew."

But again, it was the lack of goal danger that turned one opposing goal into zero points.

"I think we need to be a little bit braver in some situations," Dotson said.

It echoes a statement Schmetzer made about Brunell after the team's loss against Austin, that Brunell was shying away from making exceptional moves Schmetzer knows he can make. Dotson actually won five of six aerial duels on Saturday and looked a fair bit better than Brunell did at the pivot position, though Schmetzer is giving the pivots a little leeway due to being a relatively new pair of sixes.

"I thought Hassani was better tonight than he was in Austin. I think Snyder was a little better tonight than he was in Austin. Look, it's a it's a newer pairing, but they've trained enough together," Schmetzer said. "Certainly, we miss Christian (Roldan) and certainly we miss Obed (Vargas), but they're super talented players. Hassani's an MLS veteran, Snyder is a good talent, needs a little bit of fine-tuning, a little bit more experience."

It is clear that Brunell and Roldan is the best pivot pair the Sounders have, though with Roldan injured, it might be prudent to bring Peter Kingston in as a pivot some of the time. Kingston played as the Schmetzer classic right wing back after he subbed on for Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, but he has plenty of experience in the midfield and enough creativity to create problems as a pivot.

Again, it won't do much if the guys up top can't score. They'll receive a big shot in the arm if they get a nine or a 10 in the summer transfer window, but even if they do, their other players will have to step up, from Paul Rothrock to Paul Arriola to Danny Musovski to Jesús Ferreira to, especially, Albert Rusnák.

They'll all need to be at their best for their next fixture, which is against none other than the dreaded Portland Timbers. Portland, who have won one and drawn one after shellacking the Sounders. And it will be in Providence Park.

It may be in the road rivalry match that the course of the Sounders season is decided. Resurgence or continued tumbling? Revival or a cataclysmic missed opportunity?