Up to the Pacific Northwest rolls the Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire bus, where we have ourselves a pretty tasty Western Conference clash as the Seattle Sounders host a Minnesota United side that’s continued last year’s winning – if limited – form into this season (6 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+).
How is it limited? Well, consult any MLS database you can find and this year’s Loons will be bottom of the possession charts. Doesn’t matter if you go back five years, 10 years, 15 or 30: Eric Ramsay’s side will be propping up the entire table with just 38.3 percent of the ball.
It’s mostly served them well, as they’re third in the West entering the weekend. But they’ve also got some limitations because of their allergy to knocking it around, which we’ll touch on below.
Seattle are the opposite, as they’re a ball-dominant team who find themselves fighting through a spate of injuries and absences in the run-up to the FIFA Club World Cup. That they’ve managed to climb to fourth in the West anyway is a tribute to their squad depth and head coach Brian Schmetzer’s willingness to use it.
Seattle Sounders
- It’s hard to overstate the importance of veteran d-mid Cristian Roldan, who is Seattle’s on-field tempo-setter, security blanket and brains. He’s everything you’d want from a modern No. 6.
- Next to Roldan will likely be young Obed Vargas, who does a lot of No. 6 work but usually pushes forward into the attack a little bit more as a No. 8, and plays with a maturity beyond his years.
- Seattle added Scottish winger Ryan Kent just before the Primary Transfer Window shut and he’s instantly become one of the best playmakers in the league, and provided a seamless fit into the overall structure.
Minnesota United
- There have been few better stories over the past few years than the rise of center forward Tani Oluwaseyi. The Canadian international went from little-used SuperDraft pick, to USL loanee, to rotation player, to full-time starter. Now he’s getting the nod over DP Kelvin Yeboah.
- It’s come quietly, but DP playmaker Joaquín Pereyra has settled into his role in his first full season in St. Paul. The Argentine is among the league’s assist leaders and has added a bit of calm to the Loons’ midfield.
- Center back Michael Boxall doesn’t get much pub, but the 36-year-old New Zealand international has been a rock since his arrival in 2017, with a club-record 250 (and counting) appearances.
The Sounders have gotten used to competing for trophies since their 2009 arrival in MLS. Since Schmetzer took over as head coach in 2016, they’ve claimed two MLS Cups, as well as the 2022 Concacaf Champions Cup (neé League).
That’s a great haul, but… that’s it. All the while they’ve watched the new kids in Black & Gold win multiple titles of various shapes and sizes, the old foes down in LA take home another MLS Cup last year and now suddenly the previously quiet neighbors across the border are possibly in line for a quadruple? What the hell?
Every game of 2025, from here on out, is a chance for the Sounders to remind everyone who’s actually got the most silverware over the past 15 seasons, and to put themselves in position to add to that haul – be it by closing the Supporters’ Shield gap, or at least securing home field for the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs (to say nothing of their Club World Cup and Leagues Cup ambitions).
The Loons’ first MLS season was 2017. The closest they’ve come to winning a trophy in that time was a runner-up finish in the 2019 US Open Cup. That’s it.
Which is to say Seattle have set up permanent residence in the neighborhood Minnesota are trying to get to. And we saw last year, down the stretch, that this group probably has more talent and cohesiveness than previous Loons sides, and with that talent and cohesiveness come wins.
The issue so far this year, and last year during that stretch run, is few of those wins have been of the signature variety. When they’ve run up against the LAFCs or Vancouvers or Seattles of the world – or the Galaxy in last year’s postseason – it’s all gone sideways. The Loons have looked more like a good team that’s a little out of their depth than contenders on the fringe of breaking through.
Three points at Seattle this weekend? That’d be more than three points: it’d be a massive statement.
Seattle Sounders: All-League Quarterback Cristian Roldan
Games are about moments of opportunity, recognizing patterns and executing when the two overlap. Roldan is about as good as it gets in MLS when opportunity (space and time in midfield) collides with patterns (Sounders runs/availability in space) and it’s time to execute. The all-Sounder everything is as good a progressive passer as there is in MLS.
If you give Roldan “time in the pocket,” well, he is going to punish you. Minnesota may not expose much space behind, but they will give Roldan time to survey what’s in front of him. Will he dink and dunk the Sounders forward? Will he get a chance to uncork some home-run balls?
Keep your eyes locked on Roldan because Minnesota surely know who runs the Sounders’ chance-creation engine from deep-lying positions.
Minnesota United: What happened to 2024 Robin Lod?
Remember last year? Remember when the do-everything Finn was a darkhorse Best XI candidate? Lod had seven goals and 15 assists last season in just under 2,400 minutes. The Loons’ attack, particularly in terms of box entries and through balls, ran through his feet.
This year, in 1,097 minutes, the 32-year-old has one goal and three assists. All his per-90 metrics are way down. Lod is just… way less involved. Shooting, passing, carries… big dips. Obviously, goal-scoring and chance-creation productivity will drop as a result. Forget the numbers. The eye test tells you the same thing.
Some of this is Joaquín Pereyra settling into a bigger role and some is Minnesota’s possession numbers dropping by six percent YoY. There’s just less of the ball to go around. Still, Ramsay has to figure out how to get more from Lod if Minnesota want to reach their potential.
Seattle Sounders
This time last year the Sounders were in hell. Then Schmetzer made two big moves: putting Jordan Morris up top and moving Roldan back from his spot on the wing into central midfield.
Roldan has been fantastic, and alongside Vargas, plus with guys like João Paulo and Danny Leyva in reserve, the Sounders have a lot of talent in deep-central midfield. They don’t lose games there.
They have arguably more talent in the attack. But the struggle this year has been finding the right fit for all the pieces. Schmetzer has toyed with a 3-4-2-1 with flying wingbacks, gone back to the 4-2-3-1 with overlapping fullbacks and has even used a 4-4-2 for a brief minute. It’s been a process.
The common thread throughout all of it is Seattle need a true No. 9 to lead the line. If they have that guy out there, it works. If it’s a false 9 – i.e., if it’s Jesús Ferreira, who was acquired this past winter and is still in the process of settling in – it’s been… less good. It’s been bad.
The problem is that first Morris got hurt, and then his backup Danny Musovski (who spent most of this spring on a goalscoring tear) followed suit, and that’s left the very unproven Osaze De Rosario as the only true 9 available the past week. DeRo the Younger looks the part to me, and he was utterly dominant in MLS NEXT Pro, but it’s nonetheless a jump to the first team.
Still, De Rosario does the basic, fundamental, off-ball No. 9 stuff well. That means finding pockets of space for one-time finishes, yes, but more often it means occupying the center backs so guys like Kent, Ferreira, or DPs Albert Rusnák and Pedro de la Vega can themselves find space without worrying about a stray defender releasing to close them down or to go turnover-hunting in passing lanes.
The other issue the Sounders have encountered this year is in their previously indestructible central defense, where both Jackson Ragen and Yeimar Gómez Andrade have 1) performed below their standards from the past couple of years, and 2) battled through injuries. That’s left reserves like Kim Kee-Hee and Jon Bell to carry more of a burden than maybe they’ve been suited for.
Still, though, the Sounders are the Sounders: they will happily have 55% or more of the ball, their right back will overlap, their left winger will stay wide to try to beat dudes 1v1 and their No. 10 (whether it’s Rusnák or Ferreira) will be more of a pass-before-the-pass guy than a true, primary playmaker.
It’s all aimed towards getting possession on the sides of the box – the primary assist zones – for low crosses across the 6 (to the No. 9) or pullbacks to the spot (for the on-rushing 10, or sometimes even the No. 8).
This is modern, fundamental soccer.
Minnesota United
The Loons love three things:
- Counterattacks.
- Set pieces.
- Long throw-ins.
Ramsay has been all about simplifying the process of scoring goals, and for the Loons, this has been the easiest way.
The “set pieces” part speaks for itself. Minnesota play with three center backs and spent part of the year with two center forwards, giving them five good-sized targets to aim at – most of whom are/were very good in the air. That’s a lot of “win the first ball, fight for the second” moments.
Same with long throw-ins. John Muller wrote about this two years ago for The Athletic, and I’m gonna borrow a graphic of his from that story:
What’s that got to do with Minnesota United? Well, here, from this week’s excellent feature in Backheeled, courtesy of Joe Lowery and Ben Bellman, is an even more relevant and telling graphic:
Lol. Lmao, even.
Is it the beautiful game? No. But it’s essentially four extra set pieces per game for a team that is devastating on restarts, and there’s beauty in that kind of pragmatism.
And for the counterattacking bit, it’s exactly what you think: Minnesota sacrifice both possession and field position for space to run into, and as a result generate fewer chances overall than most teams… but have a very high xG/shot from open play. Quality over quantity.
The one wrinkle is that, at the start of the year, those counters were built around the partnership of Oluwaseyi and Yeboah. But Ramsay made an adjustment when Yeboah picked up an injury, adding another midfielder and turning the 3-4-1-2 into a 3-4-2-1, and allowing the wingbacks (who are attack-minded on both sides) to release a little earlier and play a little higher.
Another upshot is getting an extra body in midfield has meant slightly more possession, which in my opinion is a necessary evolution for this team, because we’ve now got plenty of evidence that says you can’t give away 60% of the ball every week and still find a way to be one of the very best teams in the league. Sit back and counter against strugglers who can't consistently build chances themselves? Sure, do it. Sit back and counter against a good team that knows what they’re doing? Invite them to set up shop in the final third and force your defender to put out one fire after another in the box?
That’s a good way to lose a lot of leads and drop a lot of points. At some point, the Loons have to be better about controlling games with the ball. Ramsay, to his credit, has pointed them in that direction over the past six weeks.
I think it’ll be the standard 4-2-3-1, with few surprises.
No reason to think changes are in store from the usual 3-4-2-1.
