As the Seattle Sounders prepare to close out their three-match homestand this Saturday, they’ll do so on the back of their most important three-game streak of the season.
Over the course of 10 days, the Sounders erased three deficits, including twice coming back from 2-0 down, to rescue seven massive points. Seattle began by clawing back to a 2-2 road draw at the Houston Dynamo on June 19, then scored three late goals in a 3-2 win over FC Dallas on June 22 and finally finished with a 2-1 win over the Chicago Fire on June 29.
“This team doesn’t quit,” said Head Coach Brian Schmetzer “We’ve got quality on this team.”
The result against Chicago pushed Seattle into the ninth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. After a series of frustrating results at home earlier in the season, this is exactly the type of response the Sounders needed as they approach the back half of the MLS season, even if it took a bit of a wake-up call to get there.
“I feel like the whole [starting 11] could have been taken off at halftime,” said midfielder Albert Rusnák after the win over the Fire. “Nobody was playing up to the potential or the standard that we have.”
Rusnák helped flip the script for Seattle in the second half with two clutch penalties, including one in the 93rd minute, to steal all three points. And while the predicaments the Sounders have been putting themselves in lately haven’t been the easiest from which to dig themselves out, the experience knowing they’ve been there before and can do it again has been driving that confidence.
“At halftime, we were a lot calmer than in the previous games because once you do something, you feel a little more comfortable and there’s a little more belief that you can do it again,” said Rusnák. “We didn’t panic at all. We said that we’ve done it before, but we needed to raise our level because the first half wasn’t good enough. We didn’t create much.”
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Seattle will cap its homestand when it welcomes the Eastern Conference’s New England Revolution to Lumen Field on Saturday (7:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, 93.3 KJR FM, El Rey 1360AM | TICKETS) for the first time since 2019. As Schmetzer noted, the Sounders are unbeaten in their last four matches and have lost just twice in the last 14 contests in all competitions.
The Sounders will look to make it three wins from three at home this weekend, and although they’ll take a result any way they can get it, they’ll certainly try and make it a little easier on themselves.
“…The emotions of coming back late in the game and winning two games at the death…I love that for the fans,” said Schmetzer. “We as coaches don’t love that so much, but fans love it.”
