CHILDREN’S MERCY PARK - Jingle bells were ringing in the away dressing room as the Seattle Sounders’ second away trip of 2023 is halfway finished, with a depleted Sounders side demolishing Peter Vermes’ team away in Kansas City.
The match saw a four-goal outburst from MLS Golden Boot leader Jordan Morris to break Seattle’s two-game winless streak. Leo Chú had his best performance of his Sounders career, notching four assists and setting up Morris’ hat trick.
Tanner Gatlin / Area Sports Network
Matchday Five was the first of the season’s international break conflicts, and Brian Schmetzer was unable to select Raúl Ruidíaz (Peru), Alex Roldan (El Salvador), Nouhou (Cameroon), Xavier Arreaga (Ecuador), Obed Vargas (USA U-20), or Reed Baker-Whiting (USA U-19); the resulting starting XI featured Josh Atencio, Kelyn Rowe, and Leo Chú, as well as Cristian Roldan, shifting to right back.
The win, Seattle’s first away from home, comes as a result of a Sounders side given license to play aggressively away from home. Schmetzer noted that “...we try to play the same as we do at home on the road”, referencing the pressing that opened spaces for Morris, Chú, and Lodeiro. That adjustment was on full display tonight as Seattle overcame an early dearth of possession and a fumbled Stefan Frei save turned into the net to burst away from Kansas City.
Morris spoke on the team’s focus after going behind, saying, “...our mentality was to weather the storm, obviously that didn’t happen.” The Sounders would bounce back from the setback, though, scoring four times unanswered to match the team’s tally against the Colorado Rapids on opening day.
Chú earned his first start of the season and made good on Schmetzer’s faith, feeding Jordan Morris four times, once to equalize, again to complete the Sounders’ comeback, and with a final looping cross to compound the Seattle lead.
His fourth, ruled an assist by Major League Soccer after the match, was a beneficiary of the statistical rule allowing “pass(es) (that) contribute significantly and directly to the scoring of a goal or the creation or development of the scoring sequence” to be counted as an assist, up to two per goal. Chú’s secondary assist for the third goal, Morris’ hat trick, fell under these guidelines as he fed Nicolas Lodeiro into space. Thus, Chú claimed his fourth assist of the match, a Sounders record.
Morris, starting as the center forward, regained his place as the league’s top scorer with a monstrous four-goal performance. The American, not called up to the USMNT by interim manager Anthony Hudson, displayed a level of finishing inside the box that rivaled his best form in a Sounders shirt.
Tanner Gatlin / Area Sports Network
Morris’ explosion, his second hat trick (plus one) since joining Seattle, leaves him as the Golden Boot leader with seven goals through five matches and the MLS-era Sounders record for goals in one match.
He said postmatch, “I think we did a good job not panicking…after that first ten, fifteen minutes we were keeping possession… creating the better chances.” Reflecting on the differences between Seattle’s first away match, the loss in Cincinnati, he mentioned that, “I thought that we established the tempo after we went down…against Cincinnati, we continued to let them dictate the pace of the game.” For the Sounders side that struggled to close out matches on the road last year to rout a team after conceding early, it’s a refreshing memory of their mental strength.
Chú’s hat trick of assists, for many his breakout performance as a Sounder, will leave Schmetzer with a headache amongst the returning internationals. While he hasn’t featured heavily in Schmetzer’s plans thus far, he insisted that he spoke about the Seattle coach’s defensive focus, saying, “When I arrived here it was hard because (Schmetzer) always said, ‘You need to defend!’, but now I think that I am really better…first defense and then attacking.”
Despite conceding early, Seattle’s makeshift defense held a Kansas City attack featuring a returning Johnny Russell to one goal. Amongst the forced changes were deputy fullbacks Cristian Roldan and Kelyn Rowe, both of whom performed to a reasonable level. Kansas City’s goal resulted from Daniel Salloi’s exploitation of Roldan’s defensive deficiencies, but Stefan Frei was rarely asked to make a save as SKC finished with 0.31 xG.
Tanner Gatlin / Area Sports Network
The apparent first-choice pairing of Jackson Ragen and Yeimar Gomez Andrade anchored the back line, leaving Xavier Arreaga out of the picture for the foreseeable future. While the Sounders’ ostensibly third-choice center-back made his season debut last week against LAFC after an injury to Ragen forced his substitution, the crop of young options at the back combined with the starters’ continued success could leave the Ecuadorian short of a future in the Emerald City.
Ragen continued his impressive run of form that has seen him snatch the starting spot from Arreaga against a side that has historically troubled Seattle, knocking the Rave Green out of playoff contention last year and stifling their offense - SKC claimed 9 of the last 16 meetings between the two.
The match saw the season debut of club captain Johnny Russell, who was brought on in the second half as a livewire but was unable to replicate his past influence against Seattle.
The runaway win for Seattle also provided an opportunity for Schmetzer to feature his youthful bench, with Dylan Teves, Danny Leyva, Ethan Dobbelare, and debutant Sota Kitahara all seeing time in the second half. Kitahara, an academy and Tacoma Defiance product, signed in the offseason on a Homegrown contract after stints in the USL, Austrian Regionalliga, and MLS NEXT Pro.
The Sounders continue their road trip with a journey to Carson, California, where they’ll confront Greg Vanney’s LA Galaxy. MLS’ most-decorated club is still without a win in 2023 but boasts La Masia product Riqui Puig and Mexican icon Chicharito, amongst others.
It’s the last test before Seattle returns home to face newcomers and league-leaders St. Louis CITY SC, and getting three points to remain in the form will be of the utmost importance.
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