The Seattle Sounders fate in the 2025 Leagues Cup all comes down to Wednesday night's showdown against Liga MX side Club Tijuana at Lumen Field.
“Up and down [Tijuana’s] squad, they have some experience, they have some youth,” said Head Coach Brian Schmetzer. “It's going to be a good team and a challenging match.”
The Rave Green currently sit in second place (6 points) on the MLS side of the Leagues Cup standings following their 7-0 win over CCC reigning champs Cruz Azul and 2-1 victory vs. Santos Laguna. Seattle is just one point back with a game in hand of current leaders Columbus Crew SC (7 points).
A win in regulation or a draw and win in the ensuing shootout in their final Phase One match would guarantee the team a spot in the Quarterfinals. Anything else puts the team at risk from being eliminated from the competition.
“As always, we're going to play to win, play to entertain our fans,” said Head Coach Brian Schmetzer. “The messaging has to be play up to your ability, first. It always gives us the best chance of winning. And then, making sure we do all the little details help us go through in this competition and hopefully win the game.”
Currently at on three points in the Leagues Cup standings following a loss to LA Galaxy and a win over the Colorado Rapids, the upcoming match is a must-win for Club Tijuana for them to have any chance of making it through to the next round.
With that in mind, along with their “quality” roster, according to midfielder Cristian Roldan, the Sounders are prepared for a pressure-filled contest from the opening whistle.
“They're a team that plays a 4-3-3,” explained Roldan. “Their midfielders move quite a bit to find the ball to their feet. Their link-up play to their strikers is pretty good.”
Schmetzer mentioned Mexico national team midfielder Gilberto Mora, specifically, as a player to be cognizant of. In Tijuana’s first Phase One battle against LA, the 16-year-old scored the team’s only two goals of the night.
Roldan is confident enough in his chemistry with Obed Vargas in the midfield, in addition to his surrounding teammates, to keep Mora at bay.
Leagues Cup 2025
The battle for North America is back and it’s bigger than ever.
This summer, 36 of the best — all 18 clubs from Liga MX and the top 18 qualifying teams from MLS — will clash for regional supremacy, with the top three finishers punching their ticket to the Concacaf Champions Cup.
“Obed and I will be a strong pairing as always. We’ll make things difficult. “[But], it's a group effort. We always talk about it being not just one individual to shut down a player, it's the entire team. We can't be man-oriented. We need to be able to keep the best players limited.”
This, on top of utilizing lessons learned from the last two Phase One matches, will be key as the Sounders have their sights set on advancing to the knockout stage of Leagues Cup.
“That intensity is always important against Mexican sides,” said Roldan. “You're going to have a lot of 1-v-1 situation duels and so going back to a strong mentality, that's always going to be your starting point. And then you have to believe that you can dribble out of pressure, play under pressure, because that's another thing that Mexican teams like to do.”
Ultimately, it will take another strong performance to push the team over the edge and into Leagues Cup contention.
“Playing up to their potential, the standard we set at the Club World Cup, these types of games, kind of continue that momentum, because it's not just a regular league game,” said Schmetzer. “[And] they're always up for the big games, and that'll help us throughout the remainder of the year.”
