Sounders glitch in stoppage

The 2025 MLS regular season began for the Sounders on Saturday, February 22. In front of 30,055 fans, Jordan Morris scored a pair of goals – tying Raúl for most goals for a Sounder all-competitions at 86 – but Charlotte found the perfect combination of excellent play from keeper Kristijan Kahlina, a first half tailor-made set piece, and an uncharacteristically awful set of last-minute mistakes from Jackson Ragen and Yéimar – and both teams walked away with a tie.

Seattle listed their Starting XI as a 3-2-3-2, with Georgi up top with Jordan in a three-back double no. 9 setup with Alex Roldan up on the wing. In practice, however, both stayed behind a fair bit, with Georgi as a winger and Morris as something of a false 9, while Alex shifted between the backfield and the midfield.

Sounders get one, lose one in first half

The Sounders spent around the first 25 minutes of Saturday’s game in the offensive side of the pitch. Schmetzer played with his usual formation a bit, utilizing a 3-5-2 (and a fair bit of 2-3-5) when Seattle had the ball, and this combined with the team’s strong composure in the face of pressure, Charlotte got put on the back foot early on.

Seattle had a couple almost-goals in the opening minutes: a sixth minute free kick from just outside the box by Albert found Ragen, who had set up on the right side of the crowd – but Ragen shanked the header. A minute later, Alex Roldan sent Paul Rothrock a good cross, but Rothrock didn’t get his head on the ball (starting a rough game for Seattle’s young winger).

Nineteen minutes into the match, Obed Vargas sent Georgi a quick ball up on the right wing. Georgi then powered forward and crossed it to Jordan Morris up top – and Morris struck it past Kahlina for the opening goal of the match. In the span of a few seconds, the Sounders drew first blood.

ttle had another excellent chance soon after, as a weak foul went the Sounders’ way only a couple yards beyond the 18. Albert’s shot caromed off the top of Charlotte left wing Kerwin Vargas and out of play for a corner. Albert took the corner short and then sent in a secondary cross, well-placed for Yéimar – whose header was saved by a diving Kahlina.

After that point, the Sounders’ play began to deteriorate, with giveaways becoming more common. Charlotte took advantage to drive the ball into the Sounders’ defensive half, and in the 35^th minute, they benefited from a controversial foul call to get a free kick about ten meters outside of the box. Kerwin was the intended recipient of the kick, but Albert knocked it away to force a corner. Pep Biel sent in a good cross and Charlotte center back Adilson punched in a beautiful header. There was nothing Frei could do: Seattle 1, Charlotte 1.

Both teams had one more solid chance to untie the score: Charlotte in the 39^th and 40^th minutes, as Jackson Ragen tripped up after an interception, forcing Seattle to scramble to concede only a corner, which Stef cleared with a punch. In the 43^rd, Alex Roldan got into position for a longshot and took it, but Kahlina laid out an impressive diving catch.

Second half Sounders set up for three points, throw it away at end

Seattle bounced back immediately in the second half with a clean sequence in the 47^th: Albert held his own under pressure, dribbling past a couple close defenders before sending a beautiful through ball to a barely onside Jordan Morris – who struck the ball off Kahlina’s arm and into the net. 2-1 Sounders.

The whole second half, Seattle used several different attacking formations but increasingly slotted in the typical 3-2-5. The team spent most of the second half in the attacking zone, but didn’t create many strong attacking chances – old habits die hard, I suppose. In the 61^st, Arriola came in for Paul Rothrock, and the team moved into a slightly more defensive posture.

There was one sequence where the Sounders twice almost increased their lead to 3-1 – in the 73^rd, Obed Vargas got to the edge of the box and took a shot on goal. The ball deflected off Kahlina’s arm and dribbled slowly towards the left post, with Sounders and Charlotte players alike chasing after it, but it rolled just a foot outside the post. The ensuing corner was headed beautifully by Cristian towards the lower right corner of the goal – only to be denied by a diving Kahlina grab.

But old habits do indeed die hard, and an old, bad habit for this Sounders team is losing leads at home. That’s what they did on Saturday, though the way they did it this time around was new. In the second minute of stoppage time, Jackson Ragen of all people ended up in the dunce’s cap: he muffed the clearance on a downfield goal kick from Kahlina, with his header ending up going back to backup Charlotte forward Idan Gurno. Ragen got another touch on the ball, but sent a pass backwards to no one, essentially doing Gurno’s job for him. Gurno charged forward, with no Sounders defenders in position, and struck a good cross for Kerwin. Yéimar tried to deflect it away but sent it backwards into Seattle’s goal.

Seattle 2, Charlotte 2. And so it stayed until the final whistle.

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Jordan Morris ties Raúl

The big positive story from the game is that Jordan Morris notched two goals and tied Raúl Ruidíaz for 86 goals in all competitions with the Sounders - the club record. He started the game much sharper than against Antigua, as shown by his two solid finishes. Even after he began to show visible tiredness in the second half, he sported a good connection with Rusnák when he dropped back into the midfield. He also built a good connection with Arriola later into the match, though neither teammate managed to get a solid shot on goal.

Paul Rothrock has rough game

Paul Rothrock got the start on Saturday, but his play left a fair bit to be desired. He had several missed aerials in his 61 minutes on the pitch, and worse, gave the ball away multiple times to Charlotte right back Nathan Byrne, who kept a good beat on his man. He began to improve in the second half – managing to get past Byrne and produce a decent cross in the 48^th minute, for example (though he had no available recipient in the box) – but he still didn’t make a whole lot of noise before Arriola came on to replace him.

Georgi flashes ability in start

Georgi Minoungou got a rare start on Saturday, and during the 79 minutes he was on the pitch, he showed flashes of what the Sounders want from him. The most prominent example of this was his cross to Jordan in the 19^th minute: his ability so far has been almost solely in his excellent dribbling skills, so the prospect of him developing a good cross is promising for the Sounders. This is especially true because, with the current roster, Georgi is more of a depth piece – and having more true options is one of the team’s goals this year.

Defensive struggles – is Seattle getting tired?

Theoretically, Seattle’s depth should be something that prevents the team from getting too tired in their busy schedule. However, theory and practice are two different things, and the team hasn’t played as much with their depth pieces on the back line.

While the defense showed a bit of this on Wednesday against Antigua, it was more obvious in the later parts of both halves Saturday – the defense is tired. Alex Roldan played much better on Saturday than he did on Wednesday. But the three slotted in as backs in the lineup card – Nouhou, Ragen, and Yéimar – all struggled to varying degrees. Jon Bell came in for Nouhou in the 87^th minute, marking Schmetzer’s first defensive sub of the year – but it was Ragen and Yéimar, the center backs, who fatally slipped up in the end. Unheard of the two.

This is an eye-test thing, but it was clear by the end of the game that the guys were just gassed out there. It makes sense, given the schedule, but it is still worrying. The good news is that Seattle has depth pieces at center back, but the bad news is that they mostly haven’t seen any minutes with this unit. Jon Bell saw some minutes on Saturday and played well, but that’s been about it for the first two games. Kim Kee-hee is one of the obvious options, given his ability and the fact that he has come through for the Sounders in the past, but the team picked him back up less than a month ago.

Still, it might make sense to give at least some of Saturday’s back three a breather on Wednesday.

Moving forward

Seattle has a quick turnaround next week, with a home match against Antigua GFC on Wednesday. Luckily for Seattle, their 3-1 victory this past Wednesday means that the Sounders have some breathing room – it would take a seriously bad performance to get bounced out of CCC on Wednesday.

As far as MLS goes, Seattle’s next match is on the road against Real Salt Lake on Saturday, March 1 at 1:30 pm.

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