Rave Green Losing Streak Over

SEATTLE - Better late than never. The Sounders, at long last, have broken their seven-match losing streak, defeating Gallos Blancos de Querétaro 3-0 in the second game of the Leagues Cup group stage. It may ultimately be moot - no MLS team made it to the knockouts last year with a regular time loss - but at the very least it served as a wake-up jolt for a team who had been outscored 17-3 in its previous seven competitions.

That didn't mean there weren't any blemishes. Pedro de la Vega, who was finally available in the late minutes to sub on after his long recovery from an October 2025 broken kneecap, played a grand total of seven minutes before clutching his left quadricep and leaving the game. The Sounders were already up 3-0 and it didn't change the outcome of the match, but it provided for a sour note to an otherwise strong showing.

Brian Schmetzer rotated his lineup for Sunday's game, starting Peter Kingston and Alex Roldan as the double pivots while slotting Tino Lopez in as Jackson Ragen's center back companion and starting Danny Musovski at striker instead of Osaze de Rosario. The pivots wound up with a less notable performance while Lopez was a bit shaky in the back line, but Musovski would prove the man to finally break the run of starting nines not scoring in the calendar year 2026.

Ultimately, however, the Rave Green took the opportunity they had against a subpar team and ran with it. Querétaro, with nearly their entire side rotated, didn't punish Seattle's defensive miscues and allowed connected Sounders to slice their way through the visiting back line for a trio of goals that officially eliminated Querétaro from advancing to the Leagues Cup knockouts.

Sebastian Gomez opened the scoring while the Moosiah doubled up at the end of the first.

Los Gallos Blancos opted for a close press in Seattle's half, but in the first few minutes of play, this allowed the Sounders plenty of space for counterattacks. The first counter the hosts had dissipated after an aerial pass to Paul Rothrock was intercepted, but as Sebastian Gomez got the ball on the right with an open lane in front of him late in the fourth minute, Seattle numbers began soaring up the pitch. Seba sent it to Albert Rusnák in the middle, who in turn flicked it on the ground to Paul Rothrock. The visitors were already stretched thin covering just one lane, but as Rothrock quickly fired it across the mouth back to Seba, who landed his first Sounders goal at the opening of the game.

"When he [Rothrock] put in the cross, it just kinda happened in slo-mo," Gomez said of the play. Four minutes into his first career start for Seattle, he had landed his first Sounders goal. For a team that desperately needed a mental boost, it was a tone-setter.

"Scoring the goal first gave us - gave the team - a little bit more confidence," Schmetzer said. "We talked about a lot of things going into the game, about a belief in winning; we went through the coaching stuff, the details, set pieces, front foot, defend well, clean sheet, all that sorta stuff. But the focus was on them believing that they could win. That was the best way to start if you want to back up a message like that."

Querétaro's close pressing, however, gave them plenty of chances to equalize. Takeaways in the Sounders half led to some immediate runs on net for the energized visitors, and although Jackson Ragen showed some early chops with some takeaways of his own deep in the box, Querétaro still got some shots on net. Kalani ranged along the length of the right touchline - due both to the role his position has in Schmetzer's system and a hole that Querétaro opened opposite Kalani and Seba on the visitors left - and this allowed Waldo Madrid to find an almost point-blank shot on net in the 11th minute. Madrid misfired, however, sending it right to Frei's gloves for the Swiss keeper's first save of the game.

Frei's "he's still got it" performance carried over to Querétaro's next chance in the 15th, a ball that took a deflection in the opposite direction as Frei's dive - but remained out of the goal as Frei kicked it out of danger.

The game got ever more physical as the first half wore on, but emerging chances for Seattle went unfulfilled even as they won two free kicks in as many minutes on the far side of the 20th. Both kicks resulted in the ball going deep in the opposing box, but a man in blue managed to get it out of danger each time. Potential opportunities also went unheeded for Querétaro in the following 20 minutes, though, and Seattle's 1-0 advantage remained ever deeper into the half. As for Seattle, Danny Musovski had a chance on net in the 34th, but as Diego Reyes kept a close press on him, he could only get a weak left-footer that Querétaro keeper José Hernández grabbed before it could go in the net.

Referee Luis Enrique Santander made some rather unusual no-calls as the 40th minute approached, seemingly missing that a Querétaro player was obstructing a Sounders free kick before shrugging his shoulders at another visitor angrily tossing the ball out of play. Seattle was on the back foot briefly, but Peter Kingston flipped the script with an unreal through ball to Paul Rothrock in the 41st. Musovski was once again guarded as Rothrock found him with a cross, but as he tapped the ball into the open net - José Hernández had lurched to his right as Rothrock attacked - the Sounders went up 2-0.

Albert capped off the scoring in the middle of the second half as the Sounders put it away.

Though they were up by two going out of the break, Seattle had been lacking some precision in notable spots all game. The back line had often opened holes, especially where Tino Lopez and Kalani were concerned, and Querétaro looked ready to pounce.

But as in the first half, the visitors missed those chances and Seattle kept their lead. Jesús Arellano had the ball behind the line in the 54nd but seared it across the mouth of the goal, while Peter Kingston briefly relieved some long-building pressure with a 57th minute clearance. And while Stef Frei didn't have to make as many grabs and claims as he did against Toluca, he still axed Querétaro's momentum in the 58th with a snare and the pressure began to fully abate.

Santander continued laying off the whistle in the second half, drawing some deep boos from the crowd at points, but a 60th minute obvious yellow on Querétaro's Santiago Homenchenko drew seemingly surprised whoops from the crowd as the referee was seen to do his job. Put a pin in that.

The spaces that Querétaro was leaving open on their left (Seattle's right) bit the visitors hard in the 68th after the Sounders won the ball on defensive ground. Jackson Ragen found a wide-open Jesús Ferreira (in for Alex) along that touchline, who in turn sent it up into the corner for Musovski. The Macedonian sent it back up for Seba and Albert at the edge of the box, and the former drew defender Carlos Villanueva off the line before dropping it off for a wide-open Rusnák strike. Hernández winced as the ball flew past him for Seattle's third goal, all but ensuring a Sounders victory at long last.

Pedro de la Vega fell down again with injury.

Schmetzer had made one substitutions before the one everyone was waiting for - the aforementioned Ferreira for Roldan swap in the 63rd - but as two green jerseys were seen along the touchline in the 76th minute, the crowd began to roar. One of them was Mark O'Neill, coming in for Seba (and getting his first MLS minutes), but it was the other, wearing number 10, who drew the crowd's eyes.

Pedro de la Vega finally returned to the pitch in the 77th minute, going on for Albert and bringing the diminished but happy crowd to their feet as they chanted the name of their oft-injured DP. Ferreira sent him the ball in the 81st minute as Pepo was wide open on the Sounders left, and though three Querétaro players surrounded him, he sent it back to Ferreira, who delivered the ball to Rothrock on the right edge of the box. Rothrock got it in and Pedro had the ball just a foot away from the goal, but Querétaro found a deflection and such magic was not to be.

The vaunted Pedro return came crashing down as soon as it started. Eight minutes after he came on the pitch, he grabbed his left quad and sat down on the pitch. There was no question about where he was headed: straight to the locker room.

All the energy in the stadium dissipated immediately. The DP curse, it seems, continues, perhaps given greater ferocity once the sole healthy DP (Rusnák) knocked one in the back of the net. Regardless of the physical or mystical causes of Pepo's return to injury purgatory, it was clearly hard on him.

"Yeah, I mean, just not good to see. I just saw him in the locker room and he was crying, he was upset," Musovski said. "And the only thing I told him was to stay positive, and he'll get through this. And I thought, even though he only played five or 10 minutes, I thought he was so good; we really missed him. It really does hurt a little bit extra, because of seeing him for 10 minutes play so well, you know?"

The Draymond piece?

Remember when I noted the lack of control Santander had over the game? Well, his approach to refereeing was laissez-faire enough to make Calvin Coolidge look like a doctrinaire Leninist. For most of the second half, free kicks were merely a theoretical concept, as Santander turned a blind eye when someone (usually un Gallo Blanco) would go right up to an opposing free kick and block it point-blank. That's when a whistle would get called at all; more often, Santander simply let the game play on through obvious but uncalled fouls and cards.

Things boiled over late in the first as a Gallo Blanco crashed into the Sounders sideline, and fisticuffs rather immediately started coming out. Max Anchor, the Rave Green's third-string British Columbian keeper, etched his mark on the team with a fairly central role in the fighting, for which he was given a yellow before he ever saw a minute of play with the Sounders.

Andrew Thomas was also near the center of the scrap, it might be noted. I suppose the keeper room had some frustrations to let out. But that wasn't the only scrap!

Right after the final whistle blew - the score still 3-0 - the pushing and shoving and shouting resumed between the two sides. It ebbed and flowed, but it seemed to nearly get out of hand multiple times. The game was over at this point, mind you.

Seba Gomez roared onto the scene with a bang, showcasing creativity and versatility.

Unless Seattle does something incredible against Chivas on Wednesday, the match isn't likely to matter much in terms of competitions and trophies. Its mental effect on the Sounders appears quite positive, but they were (eventually) going to break the streak.

But in case people around the league were unaware of Sebastian Gomez, Sunday was a bullhorn of an introduction. The 20-year-old midfielder made a goal and an assist in his 77 minutes, won two-thirds of his ground duels, had 57 touches mostly as a winger, and created three chances according to FotMob. He had the ability to be clinically accurate under pressure (as seen in both the buildup to and the execution of his early goal) and, most critically, he took advantage of what los Gallos Blancos gave him. As the right winger, he existed primarily in the hole produced on Querétaro's left when Darío Rodríguez would advance upward - a mirror to Schmetzer's right wing back formation - but there is a big difference between having a hole and punching through it.

All of this in Seba's very first Sounders start. He kept it short when describing his thought process going into the game, though he looked quite level-headed as he took questions.

"First thought was excitement, lot of excitement. Little bit nervous, but I think that's just normal for everyone," Gomez said. "I was just really happy that I got the opportunity."

Gomez scarcely showed that nervousness on the pitch. Whether consciously or not, his ability to slow the game down in his first goal-scoring opportunity isn't something that can be easily taught. His effectiveness continued from then onward to the 77th, both in his starting right winger role and as he shifted back to the pivot upon the Ferreira-Roldan switch.

With Cristian Roldan and Hassani Dotson injured and Snyder Brunell in something of a slump, the six may be where Seba gets a fair few minutes in the games to come. But perhaps Schmetzer isn't going to mess with what's working, at least beyond the requirements of schedule-induced rotation.

The long starting striker scoring wait ended - though the positional hole isn't near its end.

The end of the beginning, quoth Churchill on the heels of El Alamein in late 1942.

Maybe or maybe not (after all, Seattle still doesn't have that outside striker addition they've been looking for, and the Casper Tengstedt connection appears to be fraying somewhat as the gulf remains between Feyenoord and Seattle), but it did mark the end of that ignominious "a Sounders starting striker hasn't scored in 2026" blemish.

The Macedonian Miracle was the man to do it. We're still a ways away from a true "Moosiah" resurrection, but everything starts somewhere.

Make no mistake, Seattle still needs someone more reliable. But as Schmetzer has been talking all season long about someone making that position their own, a move in that direction is a long-awaited change for a team so desperately in need of goals.

Musovski himself doesn't see one goal as changing the dynamic between him and fellow nine Osaze de Rosario, but he did stress the need to iron out the scoring issue.

Goals are a team effort, mind. It doesn't matter who the striker is if they're not getting chances to score, and for much of 2026, their strikers haven't been getting those chances. The need to populate the primary assist zone has been a point of emphasis for Schmetzer in recent weeks, and that was something his team finally accomplished on Sunday afternoon.

The how is just as important as the what. Despite having a definite weakness in the air, the Sounders have too often been trying to connect through it and losing looks in the process. Rothrock - for whom his two assists marked a potential resurgence - had more distribution opportunities on Sunday because his teammates got the ball to him on the ground instead of in the air. The goals came off tiki-taka-esque rapid connections, skipping through balls, and fairly low crosses. When the team did use the air as their medium, they more clinically sent the ball around their opponents rather than on top of them.

The through-line for all of this was greater aggression and confidence in the final third, in all facets of attacking play.

Seattle needs to continue these habits on Wednesday against Chivas and when MLS starts back up against Vancouver, but for now, the three goals at home - one finally by the starting striker - are the beginnings of a bright spot in a heretofore disappointing summer.