Sounders Withstand Trap Game Dynamics, Take Three Points vs. Dallas

SEATTLE - When the Sounders' 2026 schedule was announced, few might have marked it off as a match of extraordinary importance. Dallas had been the platonic ideal of a mid-table team for years, and since the Sounders' priority in the spring was always going to be CONCACAF, the pre-World Cup fixtures seemed perhaps more notable for the grass field than the opponent.

Few may end up especially remembering the Sounders' 2-1 win over FC Dallas on Saturday night, but perhaps they should. It was a game we have seen many a Sounders team leave with just one point in the standings, having blown an early lead with some late goals for the visitors. The kind of game that would give the Sounders early exits out of Supporters' Shield contention. The kind of game that dropped the team from home seeding in the first round in 2025.

The Sounders got two early goals but failed to capitalize on further chances. The visitors knocked one in on a set piece before the half and had heaps of attacking possession late in the second half, but the back line held firm, Andrew Thomas made his saves, and the score held, 2-1.

Head coach Brian Schmetzer observed that it was the type of game they would have drawn in years past, with the team lacking the level of control over the game they would have liked.

And the match was played without two of the Sounders' best players. Cristian Roldan was on concussion protocol for a knock sustained in practice and Albert Rusnák was out as a more precautionary thing with a leg tweak. That meant that Jesús Ferreira swiveled over to the 10 and Hassani Dotson got the start alongside Brunell in the midfield. The front three, meanwhile, had Jordan Morris on the right wing and Danny Musovski as the striker with Paul Rothrock on the left as is his usual spot.

Seattle built up out of the wings in the first half while surviving a fair few Dallas breakaways.

FC Dallas came out swinging in the early minutes of the match, pushing possession well into Seattle's quarter of the pitch, but the home side contained the visitors and, as they would do all game in open play, plugged any back line holes and denied them big chances.

On the other side of the ball, without Cristian Roldan in the midfield, the Sounders switched from their usual strategy of building up possession through him and instead played long on the wings as a method of utilizing possession. When they went their usual way, they ran into issues from Dallas' midfield. While Dotson was clean on the ball, Dallas was still able to prevent him from going too far forward, and there were a few times when Brunell lost it as they tried to bring the ball forward despite his otherwise solid performance.

Seattle made the most of an early opportunity in the 15th minute. Jackson Ragen powered a long ball down the right touchline for Seattle and Morris chased with Musovski and Ferreira both moving up to receive a pass. But although Dallas center back Lalas Abubakar covered Musovski, midfielder Ran Binyamin was way behind Ferreira, and so Morris tapped the ball that way.

Ferreira took one step with the ball before rattling off a shot, and the ball bounced off Abubakar's back foot and over keeper Michael Collodi for the goal.

Although a Musovski header off a ball in from Kalani Kossa-Rienzi ended up getting snared by Collodi a minute later, Seattle found another big opportunity in the 30th minute.

It started as Brunell found a perfect lane to bring the ball up to Kossa-Rienzi, who in turn found a perfect lane of his own to Morris. Although playing on the wing, Morris simply took a couple of steps and then booted it to the right side of the net with his right foot, almost something of a quick tap that easily went past Collodi. Seattle led 2-0.

A sharp challenge from Sebastien Ibeagha as Rothrock brought the ball in the box from the left side prevented a big scoring opportunity for Seattle, and although Rothrock produced a good header while fading away from the ball and it bounced around a bit in the box, Dallas sent it back and the quick turnaround forced the Sounders to concede a corner.

Set piece defense, even with the Sounders' strong run of play as of late, has been one of the weaker points of this team's game. Santiago Moreno sent the inswinger to the box and Nolan Norris headed it past Andrew Thomas to put Dallas on the board.

Dallas nearly knotted the score in stoppage. Abubakar stole the ball away from a drawn-back Musovski around midfield and got it to Santiago Moreno, who sent the ball across the pitch for Patrickson Delgado. As the Sounders began to recover from the breakaway, Delgado gave the ball a strong boot and the ball deflected towards an odd corner of the net. Andrew Thomas leapt up and, by a hair, managed to bat it away.

Missed chances piled up for both sides, though Seattle didn't produce many later on while Dallas struggled to build more than half-chances.

Seattle's first opportunity of the second half was a 50th minute free kick very near the left corner, and although it didn't end up producing much of note, the ensuing run of play led to a Paul Rothrock dribble up the left side, past both Ibeagha and Abubakar. The latter wound up tripping Rothrock during the play, and was shown a yellow as the Sounders had a penalty kick.

Ferreira went up to the spot, 31,785 fans waiting for the strike. But as he went to his right, Collodi correctly guessed his direction and dove right on top of the shot. Seattle didn't get the cushion. Apparently, Ferreira had initially planned to go the other way.

"I'm mad at myself, not so much that I missed, but that I changed my decision last second, and I think that's why it went so low and so soft," Ferreira said about his missed penalty. "... It's [about] getting better with myself and my mental state of, once I pick a side, just stick with it."

Dallas also missed some opportunities, such as in the 58th minute when Herman Johansson stole the ball from Jordan Morris in Sounders territory and roared up the touchline, making Alex Roldan look like a traffic cone as he bested him twice on the ball. But his teammates were not as sharp as he was, and Thomas came down with a high ball to end the threat. Another shot for the visitors came off a 64th minute corner kick, but Ibeagha's header landed right in Thomas' mitts.

The Sounders were the next side to miss a chance, as Morris' pass to Musovski and Rothrock went behind both of them up in the box. Musovski came off for Peter Kingston in the 68th minute and the Sounders placed him on the wing while moving Morris up to the striker position, but as Dallas needed a late push, they began pressing higher on the pitch when the Sounders had the ball. Seattle was still able to produce some action, but the initiative swung to the visitors.

Still, the Sounders kept Dallas from anything meaningful.

Alex Roldan managed to knock the ball out of Simmonds' boot in a budding 75th minute transition to slow down Dallas' possession and a overshot by Valiente gave it back to Seattle.

Seattle had to withstand two more corners as Osaze prepared to come on for Jordan Morris, but a good bat away from Thomas and further clearance work dispersed the pressure for a few minutes until Dallas resumed their attack. This late in the match, the Sounders weren't able to keep enough of a lid on the ball to snuff out the visiting momentum, with semi-desperate clearances and stalling kicks serving to slow down their attacking phases. While in many games past this kind of thing would have bitten Seattle, they kept themselves in the clear on Saturday night.

Thomas racked up touches as the only one able to truly pause play, if even for a moment. But things looked dangerous even for him, with Valiente nearly stealing the ball away in the box, something that would have made for a disastrous ending to the match.

The ball flew out to the openside instead for Nouhou, who thundered up the pitch to equally thunderous applause before passing to Rothrock. But the winger tried to pass it over and Norris intercepted, and a free kick as stoppage began went nowhere.

Stoppage time came to its conclusion despite more half-chances for Dallas, and three points were Seattle's.

Jordan Morris looked strong on the wing, and despite Musovski not having a very notable game, the offense did enough of a job to power the win.

The Sounders' front four of Morris, Musovski, Ferreira, and Rothrock may have missed a couple opportunities in the match, but they still converted enough to put Seattle on top on Saturday.

Morris played over 80 minutes on Saturday evening, playing most of his time on the wing before moving back up to the nine towards the end of his outing. While he had made starts in CONCACAF play, it was the first MLS start of his season, and Schmetzer praised his ability and results.

"I think he got a little tired towards the end, he hasn't played a consistent 90 minutes (recently), but goals matter. Assists matter. I think he could have got another assist ... certainly statistically checked that box," Schmetzer said.

While Morris has spent quite a bit of time in years past trying to forge himself into a starting striker for the Sounders, the chips didn't end up falling that way, and now he is one of three potential nines for Schmetzer's team (all of whom wound up playing that position on Saturday). But at this point in Morris' career, the Sounders' designated player said that he has altered his attitude towards what he wants to do with the team.

While Morris spent much of his time on the right wing, Ferreira - usually in that role during his Sounders minutes - had to fill in for Rusnák as the 10. He said that it wasn't necessarily all that difficult for him to figure out what to do, given the strength of the players around him.

"We all know what they're strong at. Like Paul and Jordan, they're strong at their running. So, for me, playing the 10 today, we know that we can put them in dangerous positions behind the line," Ferreira said. "Especially [against] a team that wants to be aggressive with center backs that want to break the line, knowing that there's a lot of space in behind, that helps us ... it was pretty easy in terms of knowing what to do."

At least on Saturday, his execution was solid enough. Though he didn't have an excess of creativity or that "wow" factor that is often seen in elite 10s, the Sounders don't necessarily need that for the way they're constructed (though it's always a bonus). Ferreira made the passes he needed to and kept the connections going.

And, of course, he rocked the first goal of the game into the net. Schmetzer opined that Ferreira may have been playing with "extra juice" against his former team, and while that wasn't the way Ferreira put it, he also talked about the special environment of playing against his old side.

The back line isn't at full strength, and though set pieces are still an issue, the guys that are there stepped up.

Perhaps the best sign for the Sounders is that, for as shaky as the win was, their back line carried the day even without Yeimar or Kim Kee-hee. To make matters worse, their captain left back during the match wasn't at full strength.

Nouhou was apparently playing "a little dinged up" according to Schmetzer. He didn't have that ability to be everywhere along the left side as he usually does, but he still threw enough friction into Dallas' attacks to prevent their attacking possession from becoming excessively dangerous. He also played the full 90 minutes.

Alex Roldan had some weaker moments, such as the aforementioned Johansson run and some pressure from Norris, but he still managed some big clearances and, like all his fellow linesmen, plugged the gaps seemingly before they formed.

"They had the young kid (Nolan Norris) up front, the big kid, and they were skewing to Alex' side," Schmetzer said about the backfield Roldan. "So he had to fight for some aerial duels, which I thought Alex did very well."

Seattle's gap-plugging ability came in handy when Dallas attacked and attacked in the later minutes of the game, but so did the clearances. From Roldan, Nouhou, and especially Jackson Ragen, they were able to boot the ball out of danger and break up the flow of the attack time and time again.

The Sounders' Achilles' Heel remains: set pieces. Schmetzer playfully treated that term as taboo in the post-match press conference, referring to them as "that thing that you talked about" upon a question from Cascadiasports.net's Mazvita Maraire.

But that bit of jest had an edge provided by the fact that opposing set piece goals have so often looked like shoo-ins as long as the service is solid. Of course, Seattle defended corners well in the second half, but their propensity to allow that kind of goal is what knocked them out of CONCACAF in the quarterfinals.

"We gotta dial that in a bit, get better at that," Morris said about the set piece goal. "I think we let them back in the game a bit."

The powerhouse West is going to make even the best eight-game start in Sounders history only a stepping stone in any Shield campaign.

The Sounders' 6-1-1, 19-point start is the best eight-game opening, points-wise, in the history of the MLS-era Sounders. Even when Seattle won the Supporter's Shield in 2014, they had begun the year 5-2-1 with 16 points, and their 17-point 5-1-2 showing in the first eight matches of 2019 has also been bested.

And this has been with five straight road games between Feb. 28 and April 4. Seattle went 3-1-1 during those fixtures, their only loss being to (of course) Real Salt Lake.

"It's early in the season, and a big goal of ours is to be competing for Supporters' Shield," Morris said. "To start with that many games on the road, and have that start, it's important for these home games to keep paying that start off."

And yet they are fourth in the Western Conference table and fifth in the running for the Shield. The San Jose Earthquakes have won a staggering nine of their first 10 matches and have 27 points, while the Whitecaps have won eight of their first nine and have 24 points. LAFC has 20 points, but like the Quakes, they have played two more games compared to Seattle.

Still, even two more wins would get Seattle to 25 points, less than both San Jose and Vancouver through 10. If a Shield is truly in the cards, the Sounders will need wins against their Cascadia Cup and Heritage Cup rivals. Seattle has shown their chops against Vancouver in CONCACAF, but that doesn't mean the MLS matches will go down smoothly.

For Schmetzer's part, upon learning that they were on their best six-match start in the history of the current iteration, he gave a humorously brief reply.

"Well, I guess we're doing pretty good then."