The Seattle Sounders are taking the United States’ unique sports dynamic to a whole new level, tanking almost the entire first half of the season for three seasons now, only to surge into contention in time for the playoffs. The Sounders, who rode momentum all the way to the MLS final the last two seasons, are officially back in the playoff hunt this year after defeating the Portland Timbers 1-0 Sunday.
They pulled out smoke and mirrors to conjure an MLS record-tying seventh straight win in Portland without putting a shot on goal, taking the Timbers’ fifth spot in the Western Conference pecking order in the process. They haven’t lost in 10 games. In July, after losing to those same Timbers at home for the first time in club history, Seattle was mired in last place in the conference, with just three victories in 16 games.
“I don’t know why we do this to ourselves,” Sounders defender Chad Marshall told Seattle Times columnist Matt Calkins recently. “No explanation.” The first half swoon and second-half charge has varied each of the last three seasons.
In 2016, coach Sigi Schmid was fired after his talented squad was in a seemingly inescapable rut. Formation tweaks by promoted assistant coach Brian Schmetzer and the signing of electric Uruguayan midfielder Nicolás Lodeiro gave the Sounders a dramatic lift that carried them all the way to Seattle’s first MLS championship.
In 2017 a hangover from the championship season contributed to a slow start. The team just kind of rounded into form in the second half of the season somehow and again stormed into the playoffs. Their dominance of the Western Conference proved illusory though, as their record would have been middle of the road in the Eastern Conference. Toronto FC, in a finals rematch with the Sounders, thumped them soundly 3-0.
Injuries to star performers Jordan Morris, Clint Dempsey and midfielder Osvaldo Alonso, combined with no-shows from Lodeiro, who was hoping to make the Uruguayan national team for the World Cup, made this season’s first-half impotence anything but mysterious. This was a B team trying to find a spark with rookie Alex Roldan.
When Uruguay left Lodeiro off its tourney roster, the straw that stirs the Sounders left his disappointment in South America and immediately changed Seattle’s complexion from sickly green back to rave green. Peruvian striker Raul Ruidiaz, fresh from the World Cup, arrived in the transfer window and suddenly the Sounders were formidable again.
I love how resilient the Sounders have proved to be, the winning spirit they retain, bolstered by savvy player acquisitions by general manager Garth Lagerway. But … it’s still a little troubling that a team can be so bad for months every season and ultimately succeed. Only in America.
