Tag: Seattle Sounders

USMNT loses highly rated Sounders midfielder Vargas to Mexico

One of the brightest U.S. midfield prospects will play for Mexico from now on

One of the brightest midfielders in the U.S. men’s national team pipeline has left the program in favor of Mexico.

Seattle Sounders midfielder Obed Vargas has filed a one-time change of association request through FIFA, ending his time with the United States and ensuring his international future will be with El Tri.

“We can confirm that a change of association request (from USA to Mexico) for Mr. Obed Vargas was accepted on 21 May 2024,” a FIFA spokesperson confirmed to Pro Soccer Wire. The switch was first reported by American Soccer Now.

Vargas, 18, was born in Alaska and has only represented the U.S. at the youth international level, but has retained eligibility for Mexico through his family heritage.

The midfielder played in all five games for the U.S. at last summer’s U-20 World Cup, starting the team’s quarterfinal defeat against Uruguay.

Vargas had been involved with the U-23 side on its road to the Olympics this summer, but hasn’t been called in since the fall. He recently declined an invitation to a U-19 camp.

“Right now, my focus is the Sounders,” Vargas told reporters in Seattle upon declining the invite. “My aim was the Olympic team but I think that door is kinda closed now. For me to go into a U-19 or U-20 camp, I don’t see the point of missing games with the Sounders where I’m playing a lot.”

Vargas made his debut for the Sounders in 2021 at age 15, becoming the third-youngest player in history to appear in a MLS match.

This season, Vargas has become a regular for the Sounders, starting 13 of the club’s 17 games as he already approaches a career high in MLS minutes.

Vargas was interviewed in 2022 about his international future, saying he was still unsure which country he would represent.

“When I was younger, I always wanted to play for Mexico,” Vargas said. “I always grew up watching Mexico but I’ve joined the MLS academy, they’ve given me an opportunity. I’ve gone to U.S. national team camps and they’ve really been confident in me. It’s kind of leveled out the playing field. I still don’t know. My heart is in two spaces right now.”

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This MLS playoff race is an absolute mess

Put on your boots, because we’re about to wade into a mess

The race for the MLS playoffs is promising that Decision Day will be as bonkers as it ever has been.

The final day of the regular season is less than a month away, with 28 of the league’s 29 teams set for two breathless rounds of simultaneous kickoffs, one for each conference (sorry D.C. United, you’re just going to have to follow along at home).

There’s an old MLS truism that a team just needs to stay in touch until late August or so, and that if said team can start to heat up around Labor Day, you’re looking at a major threat coming from what on paper is a low playoff seed. Plenty of teams with multiple MLS Cups in their trophy case have at least one season where they followed this plan to a tee.

However, in 2023 it’s not so much about getting hot at the right time as simply ending up next to an empty seat during a poorly-played game of musical chairs. Seven teams have clinched their playoff berths already, and two more are simply abysmal.

That leaves 20 teams vying for 11 postseason spots in what is an extraordinarily forgiving set-up. The problem is that almost none of this group seems able to get a solid hold on their invite to the big dance.

Put on your boots, because we’re about to wade into a mess:

Seattle Sounders unveil new logo and brand identity

The club will go back to the future to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2024

The Seattle Sounders have unveiled a new crest and brand identity ahead of the club’s 50th anniversary in 2024.

The new crest includes a simple representation of the iconic Space Needle as well as 1974, the year the Sounders began play in the North American Soccer League.

The Sounders have been using a logo with the Space Needle and the club’s name since its MLS debut in 2009, and will now receive an updated look starting in the 2024 MLS campaign.

The new brand identity is a result of consultation with fans, former players and alumni, current and former staff, local stakeholders, and members of Seattle’s creative community.

In addition to the new crest, the club will also utilize a wave wordmark that is reminiscent of the club’s original look from 1974.

The Sounders will also bring back their much-loved orca logo that was utilized during the club’s time in the APSL and A-League. According to the Sounders, fans ranked the orca second behind only the Space Needle when asked what best represented the club.

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Schmetzer threatens to keep Morris and Roldan off USMNT Gold Cup roster

“If [Roldan and Morris] have a choice, I’m sure they’re going to go. I’m not so sure they have a choice”

Seattle Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer has threatened to not release U.S. national team duo Cristian Roldan and Jordan Morris for the upcoming Gold Cup.

The pair was named to B.J. Callaghan’s 23-man squad for the tournament that kicks off later this month. With MLS opting not to pause for the Gold Cup, Roldan and Morris could miss as many as six Sounders games.

While club coaches are usually happy to see their players recognized with international call-ups, Schmetzer’s issues are twofold: First, both players are coming off injuries and second, Callaghan’s interim status means that neither player is guaranteed a spot under the USMNT’s permanent boss no matter how well they perform.

“It’s because of the injuries, yes, first and foremost,” Schmetzer told the media on Wednesday in quotes published in the Seattle Times. “But it’s a funny time in U.S. Soccer. Who’s really in charge? Maybe the new coach, whoever that may be, maybe they like Cristian, maybe they don’t. Maybe they like Jordan, maybe they don’t. Who are they playing for now?”

“If [Roldan and Morris] have a choice, I’m sure they’re going to go,” Schmetzer added. “I’m not so sure they have a choice.”

Roldan has only recently returned after missing two months due to a concussion, while Morris came back last weekend after missing two games with an adductor strain.

“U.S. Soccer should take into consideration fixture congestion and other factors, but I can’t tell you if that’s really going to make a difference,” Schmetzer said. “They’re aware of Cristian’s concussion and him having to come out of the [Charlotte game Saturday] with cramps. Jordan coming back half injured, we’ve told them that.”

Still, Schmetzer admitted that with the pair eyeing a potential place on the 2026 World Cup roster, he’d likely release them if they are healthy.

“At the end of the day, I still go back to what keeps me grounded is those guys as individuals,” the coach said. “If they’re going to potentially be involved in 2026, then you’ve got to let them go.”

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Seattle Sounders vs. New York Red Bulls: How to watch, channel, time, lineups, live stream MLS

How to watch the MLS weekend match between the #Sounders and #RedBulls:

A battle of two Major League Soccer teams heading in opposite directions will take place at Lumen Field on Saturday.

The New York Red Bulls head out to face the Seattle Sounders on Saturday in MLS action.

New York was bounced from the U.S. Open Cup recently, but the Red Bulls are on the up after replacing manager Gerhard Struber with Troy Lesesne. New York has claimed seven out of a possible nine points in league play since Lesesne’s appointment, including a derby win over NYCFC.

Speaking of, the Red Bulls are tied with their rivals in 10th place in the Eastern Conference following their resurgence.

Meanwhile, Seattle sits on the opposite end of things, both relating to form and the table.

[afflinkbutton text=”Watch Sounders vs Red Bulls” link=”https://apple.co/42p7EaB”]

A hot start to the season in the Pacific Northwest has cooled off. After taking five wins in their opening seven matches, the Sounders have now lost four of their last five across all competitions.

But a win could erase all that. Seattle would reclaim the top spot in the Western Conference table with a win.

Ahead of the pivotal matchup, here is everything you need to know to stream the action:

Seattle Sounders vs. New York Red Bulls:

  • When: Saturday, May 26
  • Time: 7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET
  • Location: Lumen Field
  • Watch: Apple TV

MLS starting lineups

Sounders possible starting lineup:
Frei; A. Roldan, Arreaga, Gomez, Tolo; Rusnak, Paulo; Chu, Lodeiro, Morris; Heber

Red Bulls possible starting lineup:
Coronel; D Nealis, S Nealis, Reyes, Tolkin; Carmona, Casseres, Yearwood; Fernandez; Vanzeir, Morgan

[afflinkbutton text=”Watch Sounders vs Red Bulls” link=”https://apple.co/42p7EaB”]

Major League Soccer odds and betting lines

Premier League odds courtesy of Fanduel. Odds were last updated Friday at 6:30 p.m. 

Seattle Sounders (-105) vs. New York Red Bulls (+280)

Draw: (+220)

[afflinkbutton text=”Watch every MLS game on Apple TV” link=”https://apple.co/3IH3PGu”]

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Seattle Sounders tickets: Where to find seats during the 2023 MLS season

The Sounders have been a hot ticket since day one

Seattle Sounders tickets have been in demand from the moment the team joined MLS.

The Sounders have been among the league’s attendance leaders every year since joining the league in 2009, helping to usher in a new era for MLS and proving that the league can make larger NFL-sized stadiums work.

Seattle sets a home capacity of 37,722 at Lumen Field, with the stadium’s upper level closed off for most games. However, the venue can fit up to 69,000 fans, and the Sounders have opened up ticket sales for high-demand games in the MLS Cup playoffs and CONCACAF Champions League.

Here is a list of the Seattle Sounders’ remaining home games in 2023, along with how to purchase tickets.

Seattle Sounders, San Diego Loyal produce unfathomable nine-goal U.S. Open Cup thriller

#USOpenCupAfterDark produced a stone-cold classic

Look out #MLSAfterDark and #NWSLAfterDark, #USOpenCupAfterDark is here to provide the kind of bonkers soccer that for whatever reason can only happen after 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Plenty of Wednesday night’s U.S. Open Cup games came with tension, but nothing was in the neighborhood of the Seattle Sounders’ 5-4 extra time win over San Diego Loyal. Nothing was even in the same planet, if we’re being honest.

The game, played at the same Starfire Soccer Stadium that once saw Clint Dempsey tear up a referee’s notebook on a night where Seattle finished with seven men, started in such ordinary fashion…at least on paper. Fredy Montero in the 15th minute? Yeah that sounds right when it comes to a MLS team with cup history hosting USL Championship opposition.

But the goal was bizarre in a way that hinted at what was to come: Montero notched his goal after San Diego froze expecting a possible penalty kick call against them.

Seattle made it 2-0 through Ethan Dobbelaere in the 26th minute, and it seemed like the Sounders were readying for a romp. While the Loyal were able to steady themselves and get to halftime, 2-0 away against the Sounders? That’s a loss for just about anyone.

Head coach Nate Miller made four halftime substitutions, and that might have sparked something. Former USMNT midfielder Joe Corona’s 53rd minute penalty got San Diego back in it, but two minutes later Seattle cancelled that goal out, with Paul Rothrock sneaking a shot past Koke Vegas.

Again, it sounded like typical stuff, the big dog squelching any hope for the plucky upstart. That is, until Corona decided to score a wonder goal, burying a 25-yard direct free kick.

More than anything else, this stirred something. Seattle wobbled, and San Diego went looking for a miracle.

Still, it looked like the Sounders were going to escape. With only three minutes of stoppage time given in a half that saw three goals scored, two injury stoppages, a penalty kick given, three bookings, and three substitutions, San Diego just didn’t have enough time to get that one golden look.

But who needs a golden look when you have Kyle Adams apparently readying a cannon to score a stoppage-time equalizer from 27 yards?

Hurled into extra time and possibly into some other dimension by that goal, the Sounders got right back to work. Reed Baker-Whiting, apparently inspired by San Diego’s bangers, decided to offer up one of his own, dribbling in from the right before using his left foot to flash a shot from outside the box into the top corner.

The Loyal had already gone deep into their bag of tricks, but had one more moment of magic to call on. San Diego brought Jackson Simba in as a 115th minute substitute, and with literally his first touch of the ball, the 20-year-old headed home Corona’s near-post free kick.

If that were it, we’d be talking about Open Cup Madness, but somehow the final few minutes promised more. Seattle pumped in one last long ball, and both Simba and Travian Sousa pursued it. The Starfire turf sent the ball bouncing up high, and as the two jostled, Simba ended up turning and tripping Sousa up.

Penalty kick two minutes into stoppage time of extra time? You know it! Eight Loyal players argued against the call. Corona wandered in trying to put Montero off, then left the box, only to return to stall even further under the guise of giving his goalkeeper Vegas a kind word. Even when the box cleared, Vegas’ hopping up to slap the crossbar drew one more stoppage as referee Cristian Campo Hernández told him to stop shaking the goal frame.

Over two and a half minutes after the call was made, Montero just barely squeezed his shot past Vegas, giving Seattle what is almost certainly the wildest win of this year’s U.S. Open Cup.

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A furious Greg Vanney helpfully demonstrates the handball rule

Vanney had some choice words about the referee’s interpretation of a silhouette

Does anybody actually know what the handball rules are?

Sure, the rules exist, and are written down in an official capacity. But there always seems to be debate anyway.

Case in point: Saturday night’s game between the LA Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders.

Seattle took a two-goal lead in the first half, but the Galaxy pulled one back in the second half and were putting on tons of pressure late as they pressed for an equalizer.

As the game entered its final minutes, Mark Delgado received the ball on the side of Seattle’s box and put in a cross. With his arms behind his back but his elbows extended out, Sounders defender Nouhou blocked the cross with his elbow in the box.

The Galaxy furiously protested but no handball was called, and there was no VAR review either.

The game ended in a 2-1 Seattle win.

Vanney was less then enthused at his post-game press conference, standing up to demonstrate Nouhou’s arm positioning while explaining why, in his opinion, the Galaxy were robbed of a penalty.

“This is in the silhouette,” Vanney said with his arms at his side.

“This is not in the silhouette, this is a handball,” he said, arms on his hips as he approximated (and exaggerated) Nouhou’s arm position.

“Three games in a row, these guys don’t know what handball is. It’s getting to be obscene,” Vanney said. “Honestly, it’s ridiculous. And the game is about margins. They have VAR. They’re the only entity in the entire game that gets a ‘redo.’ None of us else get a redo. They get a redo. And it’s three times they can’t get it right. That’s their job. That’s their job.”

The “silhouette” that Vanney referenced is part of a 2019 update to the handball rules from IFAB (International Football Association Board), which stated that a handball would be awarded if “the ball touches a player’s hand/arm which has made their silhouette unnaturally bigger.”

ESPN rules expert Dale Johnson added in a 2020 thread on Twitter:

It’s all about the silhouette, the area of the body. If the arms are not within the silhouette, no matter what movement you are making, they are considered to be making the body “unnaturally bigger”. Your natural shape does not have your arms away from the body.

Did Vanney have a point? That may depend on who you ask. What isn’t up for debate, though, is the Galaxy are near the bottom of the Western Conference table in the early part of 2023, still looking for their first win after five games.

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Seattle: Playoffs Town, USA

The Emerald City could send four teams to the playoffs this year

The Seattle Seahawks may have been bounced from the NFL playoffs early, and while their recent history in the postseason isn’t stellar, there is still plenty for Seattle fans to be excited about when it comes to all their teams. Right now the Emerald City might be in the midst of a true sports renaissance.

For the first time in history, the Seattle Seahawks and Mariners qualified for the postseason in the same year. Earlier in the summer, Seattle’s WNBA team the Storm made yet another routine trip to the playoffs. While the Sounders of the MLS did not make their 14th consecutive appearance, Seattle may still send a fourth team to the the postseason.

In the world of hockey, the Seattle Kraken are among the best teams in the NHL. As it stands, they hold a narrow lead for first place in the Pacific Division over the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Should the Kraken finish strong, they would be the fourth professional Seattle team to qualify for the playoffs this season.

If that’s the case, it will be the most professional teams the City of Seattle has sent to each sport’s respective postseasons since 2018. That year, the Seahawks, Sounders, and Storm all made the playoffs, along with the Seawolves of Major League Rugby and the OL Reign of the National Women’s Soccer League – the last year they were in Seattle.

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Cristian Roldan set to miss USMNT friendlies after sports hernia surgery

Gregg Berhalter will be without a trusted option against Japan and Saudi Arabia

It looks like Cristian Roldan won’t be on Gregg Berhalter’s final pre-World Cup roster.

The Seattle Sounders announced that the U.S. men’s national team midfielder underwent sports hernia surgery Tuesday morning.

“Cristian, after seeing a couple of specialists down in LA, actually underwent a successful groin surgery this morning,” said Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer. “His athletic pubalgia just wasn’t getting any better.”

Roldan is expected to be out for somewhere between four and six weeks. That effectively rules him out for the USMNT’s pair of September friendlies. The USMNT is set to play Japan on September 23 in Düsseldorf, Germany, and Saudi Arabia in Murcia, Spain on September 27. Even if Roldan were to fully recover in just four weeks, the USMNT would likely have already flown to Europe for the friendlies.

How does this impact the USMNT midfield?

Roldan’s hold on a place within the squad has grown more tenuous with time, though some of that process has been out of his control. Yunus Musah’s emergence as a starter, having chosen the USMNT over England, Ghana, and Italy only last year, is one factor, while Brenden Aaronson’s rapid rise (and ability to play both in the midfield and as a wide forward, as Roldan does) is certainly another. Luca de la Torre has also raised his profile within the team, while Kellyn Acosta’s return to the USMNT fold has added to the crowd.

Still, while Roldan has seen his playing time decline, Berhalter still substituted him into five qualifiers, and in a variety of game states. It’s clear that Berhalter still sees a tactically and technically sound Swiss army knife like Roldan as a valuable player he can trust in a range of situations, and it stands to reason that he was in the frame to be called up for the Japan and Saudi Arabia friendlies.

Roldan is not the only USMNT player in doubt for the September window. Tim Weah is looking like a major doubt as well, with Lille saying on Monday that his ankle injury would require three weeks of immobilization before he can even resume training.

With Roldan unavailable, the door may be just the tiniest bit open for players like Gianlucia Busio and Djordje Mihailovic, both of whom were players Pro Soccer Wire‘s last roster projection had just barely missing out.

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