"The Standard at Our Club is Games Like This Don't Happen": Sounders Squander Season in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS — You'd think a team that scored seven goals in one half against Cruz Azul could close out an elimination game up both a goal and a man against Minnesota. You'd think, given two opportunities to score a game-winning penalty, either one of Obed Vargas or Osaze de Rosario would be able to find the back of the net.

Funny how things work sometimes.

A few months ago, the Seattle Sounders had a legitimate case at being the best team in North America. Just a few months before that and a few months after that, however, there were and are serious questions. Injuries took up a lot of those questions throughout the year: Paul Arriola's season ended early, Jordan Morris had a long injury stint, Pedro de la Vega struggled to get healthy, and a smattering of other absences forced the Rave Green's next men up to come up big.

That they did. Danny Musovski, who much of the footy-playing world had written off before the season started, knocked in 18 goals across all competitions and proved a more than effective striker to complement Seattle's powerhouse core of wingers. Reed Baker-Whiting, Jon Bell, Kim Kee-hee, and Kalani Kossa-Rienzi filled out a lot of time in the backfield and did their jobs well. Stu Hawkins and Osaze de Rosario didn't see a whole lot of minutes, but they performed when they did see the pitch.

Shakiness in the first few weeks of the season took Seattle out of Supporters' Shield contention, but with the team firing on all cylinders, they came into the playoffs with serious MLS Cup potential despite their relatively low seeding. The loss of Pedro de la Vega on Decision Day took out a playmaker and the Loons forced Game 1 to penalties in Allianz Field, but Seattle shook up their attack, took an early lead, and did the job in Game 2.

To say Seattle had chances to win Game 3 is an understatement. To say the Loons gave them a second-round advancement on a sterling silver platter is probably more accurate. Let's go down the list:

• Seattle scored two goals in the first 10 minutes, and we know from Game 2 that the Loons aren't exactly the best at playing from behind.
• Despite an impressive set piece strike from Joaquin Pereyra, a Joseph Rosales red card sent the Sounders into the sheds with a 2-1 lead and a man advantage.
• The Sounders created a flurry of chances in the early second half, the best of which was a half-open net for a point-blank Albert Rusnák in the 54th minute.

Albert shanked it off the woodwork and Musovski's secondary attempt was just slow enough for Dayne St. Clair to snare it. Minnesota, playing with 10 men on the field, tied the game seven minutes later and took the lead on a 71st minute set piece. St. Clair made save after save as regulation wore down, but Jordan Morris slid downward on a set piece and tapped the ball between the posts for a miraculous equalizer. Somehow, the Sounders had a chance to overcome the Loons' devil magic. Let's continue the list:

• Seattle wasn't able to continue the momentum and score a game-winner in regulation.
• Andrew Thomas, in for Stef, dislocated a finger diving for Minnesota's first shot. It was wide anyway, so the Sounders had an advantage, and the team's medical staff popped his finger back into place.
• He was evidently in fine form to continue, because he saved Anthony Markanich's shot in the seventh round of penalties, giving Obed Vargas a chance to walk it off.
• Thomas saved another shot in the eighth round to give Osaze the same chance.

Vargas successfully deked St. Clair into diving the wrong way, but his shot bounced off the opposite post. Osaze went the same way as Vargas had, and St. Clair was able to predict it for the save. Both sides got it through in the eighth round, but in the keeper-versus-keeper ninth go, the Sounders fell.

The inflection point of the match, according to head coach Brian Schmetzer, was that blizzard of missed opportunity between the 50th and 60th minute.

The start of the second half, when you've got three really clear chances - because the message in the second half was to go out and find a third goal ... that they're down a guy, let's push, and let's try and get the third goal - you've got Albert's miss from the penalty spot that clanks off the left post. You've got Cristian, the guy inside blocks it on the line. You've got a ball out wide to Alex, two guys are sliding in, we've got multiple guys in the box, it goes past it, right, we can't score.

I think, in that moment in time, that's where we lost the game, but as far as my own feelings of when things were unraveling, probably came when, obviously, Markanich scores the third goal. Then, it's like, "Jesus Christ, this might not be our night."

-Brian Schmetzer

The Sounders have taken a few bad losses over the years. First-round exits, losses in the finals, a 2018 loss to Portland in penalties (that one stung), missing the playoffs in 2022, and so on. But the Sounders just simply had so many chances to put this one away. Minnesota had been a rare MLS bugbear all season long, and the Sounders outscored them 7-5 over the course of three matches, but the Loons did what they had to do to win while the Sounders did not.

"In this league, you cannot give up soft goals," Schmetzer said. "We gave two at home and it didn't cost us, and we gave up two here and it did cost us."

Seattle entered 2025 competing for four trophies and the Supporters' Shield. They will come away with one, but with a chance to cement the club and the season as one of the greatest in North American history, they came up short.

"This is the toughest loss that I've experienced at this club." Schmetzer said. "Look, for a lot of teams, they're gonna say, 'oh, we won Leagues Cup,' a lot of teams would look at this season as a success, you won a trophy. But the standard at our club is games like this don't happen."

Questions return with the arrival of the offseason. Is Seattle effectively using its DPs? Will Pedro de la Vega reach his full potential? Perhaps most importantly, will Obed Vargas return - or was his last moment with the Sounders when he missed a would-be game-winning penalty?

"We should have been moving on, and that's on me, that's on us, we have to accept that," Schmetzer said.