Seattle Sounders Gave Atletico a Challenge at Lumen Field, but fell 3-1 to the Spanish giants
- Niko Antoun
- Jun 21
- 5 min read

The Sounders hosted European giants Atletico Madrid on Thursday afternoon, marking a massive moment for Seattle’s club history. Lumen Field saw over 20,000 more people in attendance than from the Botafogo game, hosting 51,636 total supporters in the stands. The game ended as a 3-1 victory for Atletico Madrid. Diego Simeone sent out a near full-strength lineup featuring players like Julian Alvarez, their captain Koke, and Jan Oblak. Despite being the clear underdogs, Brian Schmetzer sent out a rotated backline against Atletico Madrid, starting Reed Baker-Whiting and Kalani Kossa-Rienzi over Nouhou and Alex Roldan respectively.
“We lost and we were looking to get a result and that didn’t happen, so obviously people are pretty down (in the locker room). Like there were definitely some good moments in there, but obviously we lost … we wanted to get a result,” said Reed Baker-Whiting, after the game, talking about the let down circulating in the locker room after the loss.
“I think the team played good,” said Georgi Minoungou, who went on to talk about the experience of playing such an opponent like Atletico Madrid: “We try to bring all the energy, you know, we know Atletico was a great opponent, one of the biggest opponents in Spain … We try to give everything we have and we try out best, but you know, like the score we try to come back … before the game, we knew that it wouldn’t be easy to play against them, but we know our quality, we have great players that can challenge them too.”
Albert Rusnak was not disappointed with the team’s performance against such a club, but was obviously let down over the result: “I think we created a couple of decent chances before we scored a goal. There are not gonna be clear chances where you’re alone in front of goal … That team has too much quality to let you have a clear chance, but I think even half chances in a game like this are actually big chances.”
From the visiting giants, Atletico Madrid would have expected more than a 3-1 victory in Seattle, but are happy with the victory at a minimum. Connor Gallagher was talking about the Sounders’ performance and the atmosphere of over 50,000 people in Lumen Field, saying “Fair play to the other team, I thought they played really well. It was a really tough game and the fans were great as well, so it was nice to play with a really good atmosphere and yeah we really enjoyed it.

Aimee Worthington / Area Sports Network
Atletico struck first in the 11th minute, sending an unstoppable one-touch shot from the top of Frei’s penalty box by Pablo Barrios, hitting the crossbar and into the goal. The Sounders, already being at a disadvantage on paper, were trailing from early where their Club World Cup lives depended on a positive result. The Sounders almost replied with a close opportunity at the 17th minute, forcing Oblak to a massive save to force a corner after the Sounders broke though the Atletico defense in close quarters.
Atletico Madrid won a penalty at the 36th minute, but after VAR invoked an on-field review, referee Yael Falcon Perez determined there was not enough foul contact for a penalty. The Sounders still had hope of making a bid to make a comeback.
The Sounders finished the first half down 1-0 and had plenty of opportunities to level the score. Though the possession numbers were 65%-35% in Atletico’s favor, Seattle gave the Spanish visitors a reasonable fight given the natural expectations going into the match.
Atletico Madrid doubled their lead straight after the restart, where Axel Witsel replaced Jose Maria Gimenez and struck after an initial shot to Frei hit the crossbar and downwards again, but was crossed back into danger for the finish. Three minutes after Witsel doubled Madrid’s lead, Albert Rusnak struck back to cut the deficit back to one goal and became the second Sounder to score in the FIFA Club World Cup. Rusnak’s goal sent the stadium into an eruption of celebration because the Sounders have now scored a competitive goal against one of Europe’s top teams.

Aimee Worthington / Area Sports Network
Thursday was Axel Witsel’s second time playing in Seattle, where he played in a friendly against the Sounders when he was with Borussia Dortmund in 2019. Witsel was talking about playing again in Seattle and the overall match: “When I was here the first time, it was not easy, today was also the same case. The stadium is amazing, the fans also, so it was a really good vibe and we are all happy that we won the game.”
The team believed that their goal against Atletico would come if they stuck together, explained Jesus Ferreira after the game: “The team knew that the goal would come if we keep playing to our potential, if we stick together. We knew that they would come with energy, then we knew that they were gonna come with a lot of passion, a lot of running so we really had to match that.”
The push for a Seattle equalizer took another major setback as Pablo Barrios reestablished Atletico Madrid’s two-goal lead five minutes after the Sounders found the scoresheet. The pockets of Atletico supporters were able to sit back more comfortably knowing their team were no longer in touching distance. Atletico kept pushing for momentum and maintaining their possession-focused style against the Sounders, hitting Frei’s crossbar again only minutes later.

Aimee Worthington / Area Sports Network
Lumen Field felt a bit deflated after Atletico Madrid’s third goal, where Barrios’ brace rightfully drained most of the excitement from the Sounders supporters. The Sounders were able to capture some opportunities, but Atletico are masters at shutting down attacks.
The Sounders thought they had scored another goal against Atletico Madrid, with substitute Georgi Minoungou finding Jesus Ferreira to beat Oblak, but Ferreira was drifting offside a few seconds too long and the linesman flagged for offside.
“I was that whenever the ball bounced off to Georgi, I thought he was going to play me one-touch because I knew I was in an onside position there. But once he started dribbling I kind of, obviously, I have to drift off and I kind of knew whenever the ball hit the net that I was offside. But yeah, I was hoping to get that one-touch,” said Jesus Ferreira after the game, talking about the offside goal.
The match ended with Atletico Madrid retaining their two-goal lead, and due to Botafogo handing PSG a shock defeat later in the evening, the Seattle Sounders are surprisingly still technically not eliminated yet by a mathematical thread. The only way Seattle can have a chance of placing second is to beat PSG by at least three goals and hope Botafogo can beat Atletico Madrid.
Cover Photo: Aimee Worthington / Area Sports Network