The Seattle Sounders have flexed their attacking muscle over the past month, demonstrating a firepower in the final third that the team hasn’t had consistently in recent years.
Seattle went into Houston on Saturday and defeated the Dynamo 3-1 behind a first-half goal from Danny Musovski and a second-half brace from Albert Rusnák. Musovski’s goal was his fifth in five consecutive matches, joining club legends Fredy Montero and Obafemi Martins as the only players to hit that mark. Rusnák, meanwhile, already has five goals and three assists in just over 760 minutes so far this year.
“It’s nice when the first chance that we created in the last few games goes in,” said Rusnák. “It settles the team down, and everybody is feeling better…Especially on the road, when you get that first chance it’s important to put it away.”
Houston went down to 10 men shortly before halftime with the score level at 1-1, and the Sounders knew they needed to take advantage early. Rusnák wasted no time, scoring just 50 seconds into the second half off a feed from Pedro de la Vega, who had just entered as a halftime substitute.
“We’ve played here before where we were two men up and couldn’t score for 40-plus minutes,” said Rusnák. “They’re a well-organized team and it wasn’t easy, but once we scored the second goal, it killed them in a way and put us on the front foot again.”
Being able to bring a player like de la Vega off the bench is a luxury most teams around the league don’t have. Paul Rothrock got the start on Saturday, according to Head Coach Brian Schmetzer, because the coaching staff wanted a bit more of a defensive presence on Houston’s attacking left side. So when the Sounders needed that attacking boost, de la Vega came on and did his job immediately.
“It’s obviously a good thing from the team perspective that you have a lot of quality on the bench,” said Rusnák. “If you look even outside MLS, if you look at the top, top teams, they all have that in common. This game is not just about the 11 guys that start the game because many times guys off the bench can change the game and influence it in a positive way.”
The 2025 Sounders are arguably the deepest squad in club history with attacking power in spades and the ability to line up in different ways to dissect defenses. Schmetzer went with a 4-2-3-1 on Saturday, knowing he wanted to get his wingers involved, and Ryan Kent and Georgi Minoungou and de la Vega off the bench provided that.
The Sounders have now outscored their opponents 12-3 over the last five matches, a stretch in which they’re unbeaten and won four of five and are hitting the stride that many expected to see from them this year. They even set a club record for Expected Goals last week in their rout of St. Louis CITY SC.
“A lot of times last year, goalscoring was a part of the challenges that we faced,” said Schmetzer. “I don’t think we scored enough goals last year. So, in preseason already, with the addition of Paul Arriola and Jesús Ferreira and now Ryan Kent, we tried to address those issues. You’re seeing some of the work we did in preseason now starting to show up. We’re a better offensive team.”
Seattle will look to build upon this weekend’s win with two challenging away matches looming this week at LAFC on Wednesday before a rivalry road match next Saturday in Portland against the Timbers.
“There’s a momentum that we’ve been building over the past month or so,” said Rusnák, “and it’s our job to keep that going and make the most of it.”
