Albert Rusnák looking to carry career form into 2025 as biggest challenges in Sounders club history await

After spending the first two seasons with the Seattle Sounders in a more defensive role, Albert Rusnák finally took the reins at the No. 10 position last year. All he did was post career highs in goals (10) and assists (16), the latter of which tied for third in the league.

Rusnák was a huge coup for Seattle ahead of the 2022 season. He was the first bona fide Designated Player Free Agency acquisition in MLS history when he signed from Western Conference rival Real Salt Lake. Rusnák bided his time behind incumbent attacking central midfielder and club captain Nicolás Lodeiro, who after his departure for Orlando City SC after the 2023 season opened the path for Rusnák to play his more natural position.

“When I first came to Seattle, everyone was expecting 10 goals, 10 assists every season,” said Rusnák. “It’s difficult to do that from a more defensive position. If you look all around the world, defensive midfielders do the dirty work that doesn’t always [result in] a goal or an assist or come up on the stat sheet. But they’re key to the team. They’re in the middle of everything, attacking and defending."

“It was a new role for me,” he continued. “Being a DP and playing a holding midfielder is probably something that this league doesn’t see often, and people are not used to it because you’re expecting DPs to be scoring. I’m glad that I got my chance as the No. 10 last year.”

Rusnák's initial contributions from his deeper-lying role were just as important as what he did last year at the No. 10. His talent was the added boost the Sounders needed to become the first team in modern MLS history to win the Concacaf Champions League.

“Not just because we became the first MLS team to win [CCL], but because we played the second game [of the two-leg final] at home in Seattle,” said Rusnák. “That made it a little more special…That was special for the whole city of Seattle, not just for us. It’s one to remember.”

Now in 2025, Rusnák, who just re-signed as a Designated Player, will have even more attacking weapons around him to feed and play off of. The Sounders made huge waves around the league this offseason when they acquired forward Jesús Ferreira and winger Paul Arriola, both from FC Dallas. Ferreira has been one of the elite young players in MLS while Arriola brings a wealth of pace and experience on the outside.

“They’ve been with us for a weeks already and they’ve fit in right away,” Rusnák said of his new teammates. “They’re players who know the league and know us because we played against them so many times. Ferreira is only 24 but already feels like a vet because of how many games he’s played. It’ll be a smooth transition for both of them, and they’ll definitely bring the quality of our attack up.”

Rusnák doesn’t set any numerical values for himself before each season in terms of number of goals and assists. He knows that team successes will lead to his successes, and vice versa, with a trophy, or even trophies, the ultimate objective.

Sounders Head Coach Brian Schmetzer hopes to see last year’s production and potentially even more heading into Rusnák’s fourth season with the club.

“They were [career] highs for him in MLS,” said Schmetzer. “The expectation now is to continue at that level or even surpass it. He just signed a DP contract, and unfortunately in our league that comes with some responsibility. I just need him to continue to do the work that he did last year and just find small little areas where he may be able to help the team even more.”

The Sounders’ reward for their CCL triumph, one in which Rusnák played an integral role, was a trip to the FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco. Now two years later, Seattle is one of only two MLS teams to compete in the newly expanded FIFA Club World Cup, one where the Sounders will host three matches at Lumen Field against global giants in France’s Paris Saint-Germain, Spain’s Atlético Madrid and Brazil’s Botafogo. Rusnák, and the rest of the team, will have an opportunity to go head-to-head with some of the world’s best.

“This is another cool moment for the whole city to host these three games,” said Rusnák. “It’s huge and might never happen again. Hopefully it will, but when you get to host a game, [let alone] three, on that big of a stage against the teams we’re going to play, it’s special. We’re hoping to sell out every game we play and to represent not only the club, but also the league.”