LUMEN FIELD - For the Seattle Sounders, a new month meant renewed intensity; missing Jordan Morris, Jackson Ragen, and the Roldan brothers, they grabbed a 1-0 win against a Houston Dynamo side looking to recover form after seeing a three-match winning streak wiped out last week against Austin FC. A goal from Albert Rusnák was all that would be necessary to secure Seattle’s first home win since defeating New York Red Bulls on May 27, as the Sounders’ defensive unit extended their grip on the league’s shutout lead.
A yellow card against Orlando City meant that Sounders stalwart Jackson Ragen was suspended for the match, and an injury to Xavier Arreaga saw AB Cissoko take his place next to Yeimar. Out of an abundance of caution, Hal Uderitz was signed to a short-term deal from the Tacoma Defiance with no other center backs available to Brian Schmetzer, though he wouldn’t feature. Raúl Ruidíaz made his return to the lineup after missing last weekend’s match to travel to Peru on personal business, and academy product Cody Baker made his tenth appearance for the First Team after initially signing on a short-term deal midway through 2023.
Elisabeth Adams Photography / Area Sports Network
The first half was a difficult one for a Sounders side that struggled to put chances away. The near-first choice attacking four generated nearly half a goal of xG but couldn’t break the deadlock. It’s something that bugged Schmetzer as he mused postmatch whether they should’ve waited that long to find the opener, but the similarity is drawn between two plays on either side of the halftime whistle that both saw Rusnák the beneficiary of a feed from Chú shows that the creativity is there.
A push would come in the form of a quick red card that came from two fouls under a minute apart and saw Houston left back Micael dismissed in the 62nd minute, an event that Rusnák regarded as “...a changing point in the game in terms of the tempo - I felt like they were playing a smart game on the road, trying to waste time whenever they could, and after that red card I feel like they were on the back foot”.
The goal, however, finally came in the 67th minute. It took over 400 minutes of play, but Seattle had their first home goal since May, and it was well-earned. Chú fed Nicolás Lodeiro, who in turn fed the Brazilian for a cutback that, over the past matches, seemed unable to find the runner.
Elisabeth Adams Photography / Area Sports Network
This time, however, Rusnák was there to turn home the only goal that would be necessary to secure the Sounders’ first three-point haul at home in over a month. He told the media, “I didn’t see the ball, to be honest, until the last second - I don’t know if Léo was aiming for me or for somebody else! In the end, it was a great ball, and it was just right there in front of me to hit it.”
Rusnák and Lodeiro were the focus of a second-half tactical experiment that saw the two switching places - Rusnák confirmed that the two had swapped when he put the ball in the back of the net and Schmetzer said, “We toyed with it for certain moments in the second half, Albert and Nico switching positions, and I think that’s something that we’ll continue to try and fine-tune.”.
For Schmetzer, it wasn’t totally satisfactory; he told the media that, “It’s not enough…we need more”. He continued, “It was a relief. I thought that we should’ve scored in the first half - and then (Rusnák and Chú) were able to finally connect, and it was a really good goal.”
Kelyn Rowe exited the match just 11 minutes after entering in the 58th minute with an injury that Sounders staff ruled to be to the Federal Way native’s quad muscle. If it means any significant time on the side, it would be his second serious injury of the season, a significant loss to the squad with national team players still missing potentially through the end of the month. Rowe’s timeline to return is pending an MRI - the results of which will determine whether he’ll be available going, forwards.
Despite losing Rowe midway through the second half, the Sounders were able to secure their 11th clean sheet of the season, a tally that continues to lead Major League Soccer “Everybody tries to do their job, and then when we attack we also want to attack as a team, we ask so much of our fullbacks in terms of attacking as well; it’s a game of 11 men, so everybody has to defend.”
Elisabeth Adams Photography / Area Sports Network
Schmetzer’s assessment of the rotated defensive line was positive; he continued to be satisfied with Cissoko’s performance, saying, “I call AB a kid, although he’s got a lot of experience, a lot of games under his belt - both for Defiance and for (Seattle)...for AB it was a good reminder that he’s a worthwhile player and we should have confidence in him.”
The Sounders remain at home in the midweek ahead of next Saturday’s visit to Cascadia rivals Vancouver Whitecaps. Vanni Sartini’s side, who dropped points in a 3-0 loss in Kansas City on Saturday night, can throw the Sounders into the deep end of the Cascadia Cup table; Brian Schmetzer’s side has claimed just one point against the other two sides this year. The match will stream on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, with kickoff set for 7:30 PM.
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