"Moments within moments": Paul Rothrock comes on early, anchors hectic opening three points for Sounders

SEATTLE - Like many matches in the beautiful game's long history, one can look at this one a fair few different ways. The Sounders dominated open play - despite losing the possession battle 57%-43%, the only real opportunities for the Colorado Rapids arrived because both teams were exhausted from playing 16 extra minutes in the first half - and won the game 2-0, beating a team they needed to and cementing a good opening salvo for their 2026 campaign.

And yet, they suffered two bad VAR breaks, almost went up a man and didn't, and found themselves in a physical trap match that produced a few off-moments of weakness. In years past, perhaps, a shock goal and lack of finish might have led to dropped points at home. That's likely in the future for '26, the only question is volume - but the team held their own and weathered a bizarre storm in the beginning of MLS play.

Who else to make the magic happen than Paul Rothrock? With an assist on the front end and a goal in the back half, he was central to all the scoring in Seattle's 2-0 win. Yet when the starting XI was drawn up for this one, Rothrock was out in the cold.

Paulie Primetime honors his fallen Seattleite with the first goal of 2026.

Scarcely had the opening flames flown by the woodwork when Jordan Morris (playing on the wing with Osaze de Rosario as the nine) began showing signs of discomfort. Paul Rothrock quickly began warming up on the sidelines, and when Morris sat down on the turf in the seventh minute, the trainers quickly trotted out to the field and fetched him off the pitch. ECS - soon followed by all of Lumen Field - chanted his name into the night, but the immediate prognosis seemed quite ugly. From the look on Jordan's face, he knew he was out, and apparently it's a quad issue. Other than that, hurry up and wait.

"I had my jersey on, which helped, and I had a feeling I might be a little earlier tonight just because it's the first game of the year," Rothrock said of his quick preparation. "I've done it before, and some of those games have been my best games."

Momentum nearly allowed Seattle to strike immediately, as Cristian found an open Jesús Ferreira on the left edge of the goalie box, but JF took a little too long to get a shot off and his attempt at a short pass to the right side did less than nothing. The Rave Green kept up the pressure in the following minutes, looking for the opening. The attacking spell seemed to dissipate as Ferreira's attempted outwards pass in the 15th minute went far too quickly off his boot and zoomed for the touchline.

Yet his target was none other than Paul Rothrock. The Sounders were lucky to be able to memory-hole the saga of him almost leaving his hometown, and his zooming run in that moment proved why. Like George Russell in the last lap of the 2023 Singapore GP, Rothrock rocketed towards the bounds - but unlike Russell's "moment", this was exactly what Rothrock needed to do. He stopped the ball into an almost supernatural stasis, circled back around, and fired a beautiful cross to Albert Rusnák up top. Albert's header sealed the deal for the opening goal of the season.

Rothrock wasn't even expecting to be able to get to the ball when it caromed towards the edge of play.

"I was surprised when I turned around and the ball was still there," Rothrock said with a lingering sense of amazement.

VAR, withdrawn red, yellows, and scuffles put together a "disjointed" MLS original salad bar of oddness.

I was going to write about how much of a magical moment it was that Hassani Dotson followed up his fellow local guy just four minutes later, taking the desperate rebound from Colorado keeper Zack Steffen and easily netting it for a goal. But as quite a bit of time piled up before the restart whistle blew, the stadium stirred in confusion. Head ref Malik Badawi signaled for VAR, but it wasn't for an offside call or anything like that; it was a check for an offensive foul.

Lumen Field's confusion was visible from the press box. Screens around the city showed a moment a few touches before Dotson's goal, where Osaze de Rosario seemed to inadvertently head-butt a Rapid during an aerial. Osaze didn't get to the ball during the play, but VAR made the call to neutralize the goal anyway for "carelessly jumping". It remained 1-0.

"I congratulated Hassani Dotson on his first Sounder goal," head coach Brian Schmetzer said with a drawn-out pause. "Because it was a goal. I mean, there was never a foul on that, I have no idea why that got called back."

It wasn't long before all hell broke loose. Another aerial, another moment. Rothrock and Rapids center back Noah Cobb both went for a ball, heads collided, and Cobb was shown a straight red right off the bat. ECS was halfway into singing "hey hey goodbye" by the time VAR was once again called to review that red, only for Badawi to emphatically shout "reckless challenge" and ... downgrade the card to a yellow. The mismatch between tone and action wouldn't help any prospective Hollywood career on his part. The word from the Sounders locker room after the game was disjointed.

"I don't think we've quite figured out the role of VAR in MLS yet," Rothrock said with a sigh. "It's getting better than when it first came into the league, but that was hard. I mean, that was one of the longest first halves I've ever played in. I don't know what the record is on that, but as a player and as a team, it's hard to keep momentum in those moments and stay focused."

More boos rained down as minutes and Rapid yellows kept coming. Two more in the half made four before the first whistle for Colorado, yet all the stoppage and scuffling - of which there was plenty, including a hard tackle in the box and a hard yellow midfield - kept eating away at the clock.

AT holds down the fort in net, signaling hope of a smooth transition between GK1s.

The keys to the castle have been handed over. Stefan Frei, after a dozen years as the Sounders' number one keeper, left the top of the goalie depth chart to Andrew Thomas. Given that Frei is turning 40 this season (and that Schmetzer put Thomas in for PKs during Seattle's final game of 2025), this decision was more than a little telegraphed, but it's still a changing of the guard from the keeper who won two MLS Cups, a U.S. Open Cup, and of course, the first CONCAChampions title for any MLS team. The buck now stops at Andrew Thomas. If there's any extra pressure, it hasn't seemed to change AT much.

"Irrespective of whether you're the two or the one, it's about taking your opportunity and staying out on the field," Thomas coolly noted. "Stef's a phenomenal goalkeeper, as Schmetzer said, we've got two number ones in the squad, be it now or in the past, I'm still trying to play the same way."

Thomas' first touch of the night, a sixth minute grab of an attempted high ball from Colorado, elicited cheers from the audience. Colorado held so little forward possession that Thomas' next touch was in the 45th minute - of course, due to all the VAR stoppage and Schroedinger's Red Cards and general scuffles, there were a full 12 more minutes left in the first half. AT's first official save (though this one was rather easy) as keep number one came in the 54th minute ... of the first half. If you want to be reminded (I doubt you do), the first half lasted 61 minutes. A few minutes before the merciful whistle, Hassani Dotson went down after a rough head collision and was taken off the field for Snyder Brunell.

"We took him out because of concussion (protocol), they're still checking him out," Schmetzer said about Dotson's exit. "Whether he goes into the final concussion protocol or not, I'm gonna let the experts do that. He's fine, he's coherent, he feels good. But again, safety is the number one priority."

The second half saw the Sounders' iron lock on possession begin to slip, and real threats began to show from the Rapids. The specter of two dropped points at home at the earliest possible moment surely held some weight in the Brougham End as the real 60th minute came and went, but Thomas was able to scoop up a quick-draw box-edge shot from Colorado striker Rafael Navarro in the 62nd minute. Write that one in the books has his first challenging save of the 2026 season and his first as Sounders prime keeper.

Seattle's incredible exhaustion forced Thomas to keep himself on his toes as the game continued. Colorado was able to bring the ball up during their late spells of possession as the Sounders formed themselves into a low block on defense to try and keep things orderly. A spat of chaos broke out in the 92nd minute of stoppage and it seemed like the Rapids might have a chance to break a window and the shutout, but Thomas put a quick stop to that with an endline grab and the action died down until the final whistle.

Osaze performs well up top and caps his day with a good through ball to start off a second scoring chance (knocked in by none other than Rothrock).

Danny Musovski or Osaze de Rosario? That is the question. Well, we all know how Moosan al-Gaib is lauded here, but a brace from Osaze de Rosario in a 3-0 preseason match against Hammarby probably sealed the deal for him when it comes to opening striker. He played well and hard for his 69 (really 85) minutes on the pitch, with some hustling runs and good connecting play when the team needed it. That, it turns out, was where he shined most on Saturday.

Secondary assists are a little silly in this sport. The twin USA Gold Medal matches in Olympic hockey this year were awesome, but the reason wasn't because they give an assist to the person who passed to the person who passed to the scorer in that sport. Anyway, Osaze got a secondary assist in this game, and while that in and of itself might be a little silly, his play was anything but.

Yeimar whipped the ball away from its Rapid carrier in the 62nd minute and Osaze pounced on the loose ball around midfield, sending a rightwards through ball to a sprinting Ferreira on the right side. Ferreira drew Rapids center back Lucas Herrington off towards the corner and beautifully snuck the ball past him towards the left edge of the box, right where Rothrock was headed. Rothrock booted it to the upper right corner past Steffen's haplessly raised arms.

Schmetzer noted that perhaps Rothrock's stellar outing was something of a prove-it show, as he wasn't on the starting XI.

"Look, that goal was a great finish: he's running away from it, he smacks it high ... his hustle, for lack of a better word, his hustle to keep that ball in play and then his delivery of that cross for Albert's header, he's always ready," Schmetzer said of his quick sub. "That could have been a statement to me, like, 'you know what, coach, I should be there.' And I admire that."

Perhaps his assessment was right. Rothrock talked about how some of the difficulty of preseason was fighting for the starting spot that, in the end, eluded him on opening day by a hair.

"As a player, you're always hoping to be in the XI and in the starting group, starting the season and whatnot," Rothrock said. "And so that (not being there) was a challenge in and of itself, but just staying ready and trying to enjoy the little moments and moments within moments."