Greetings to my brothers and sisters in Green. MLS cancelled matches in the recent past because of the 9/11 attacks and the COVID-19 global pandemic. The United States attacking its own citizens with militarised “law enforcement” operations is apparently not enough to stop the sprockets of domestic professional football from grinding on. Sooooo, it looks like we’re just going to crack on as if everything were normal. Buckle up. Here we go.
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Sounders’ 2026 season. What’s going to happen? No way to know for sure,
but I’m going to make some educated guesses. Hopefully that’s worth a read.
The Good News
The bulk of last season’s squad will return for 2026. This includes the entire first-choice defence of goalkeeper Stefan Frei and defenders Alex Roldan, Yeimar Gomez Andrade, Jackson Ragen, and Nouhou. In midfield and attack, first-choice options Cristian Roldan, Jordan Morris, Danny Musovski, Albert Rusnak, Paul Rothrock, and Jesus Ferreira are all still with the club.
There is real competition at centre-forward between Danny Musovski (14 goals, 4 assists in the league, 18 goals in all competitions last season), and Jordan Morris (5 goals, 2 assists in the league, 7 goals in all competitions in an injury shortened season).
Joao Paulo has retired from playing but will be a coach with the Sounders FC Reserves. You would imagine that Joao Paulo and newly-minted Sounders FC Reserves Manager Paulo Nagamura will likely improve the side from last year’s 23rd place finish in MLS Next Pro.
New adds Hassani Dotson, Max Anchor, Ryan Sailor, Nikola Petkovic, Sebastian Gomez, and Yu Tsukanome look to improve our squad depth, which is desperately needed. Tsukanome scored 18 goals and added 5 assists for the Sounders FC Reserves last season, scoring 21 goals in all competitions. Seattle native Dotson will provide cover at left-forward now that he’s finally come hame. Sailor gives us an experienced centre-half to add to Ragen, Gomez Andrade, Hawkins, and Kim. I don’t know much about Petkovic except that he’s 22 years-old, has one cap for Serbia, can play in both attacking and holding roles, and is on loan with the Sounders from Charlotte FC. The club thinks so highly of Gomez (5 goals, 6 assists with the Sounders FC Reserves last season) that they signed him to a 5-years guaranteed contract.
Former MetroStars and United States midfielder Ricardo Clark has been added to the Sounders coaching staff. If he’s half as good a coach as he was a player, we’ve done well to sign him. Clark will replace former Sounders FC player and coach Andy Rose, who recently joined the coaching staff at Los Angeles FC. Welcome to The Evergreen, Ricardo.
The Bad News
How much have the Sounders FC spent on transfer fees this offseason? They haven’t spent fucking tuppence. €0. That’s right. No transfer fees paid. The only additions have been by free transfers and signing our own reserve players. Does that improve the side? We’ll soon find out.
The Sounders’ core is getting older, with man-management style unlikely to change under Schmetzer. Stefan Frei (39), Kim Kee-hee (36), Yeimar Gomez Andrade (33), Jordan Morris (31), Albert Rusnak (31), Paul Arriola (31), Danny Musovski (30), and Cristian Roldan (30) are all 30 years or older on a team where the Manager likes to run out the same players 2 ½ times a week. Frei, Morris, Arriola, and Cristian have all been injured several times over the years. Morris done both his knees at different times. Frei and Cristian have a history of concussions. Arriola suffered an ACL tear that finished his debut season with the Sounders. This is a massive vulnerability.
Pedro de la Vega did not appear in, nor was he on the substitute’s bench for, any of the Sounders’ first four pre-season friendlies. Paul Arriola made a 30-minute appearance as a substitute against FC Metalist on 5 February, the first he’s played in a match of any kind since his season-ending ACL injury last season. This seems kind of ominous and it is unclear what the readiness level is for both players. We need them both fit and ready to go. Rather badly.
Obed Vargas, Danny Leyva, and Jon Bell are gone. Ryan Kent was deemed not good enough for the Sounders to pick up his option. This continues a trend where players of great value move on (Dempsey, Martins, Lodeiro, Vargas, Ruidiaz, etc.), but whose quality is never truly replaced. Carlyle Group seems like they’re making us into a club that doesn’t contend for trophies, but instead a club more focused on merchandising and branding. This is what happens when you let private equity get its hooks into your football club.
With Vargas sold to Atleti, who will partner to hold with Cristian in the midfield? Brunell, at 18 years-old, doesn’t really fit the profile for Brian Schmetzer’s “Circle of Trust”. Dotson is more of a winger. Petkovic is 22 and has one cap for Serbia. Gomez isn’t really a holding midfielder.
We’re not playing in US Open Cup. Not even the reserves. See below for more details.
Predictions
CONCACAF Champions Cup
Eliminated in Round of 16
Sounders earned a first-round bye through their Leagues Cup title last season. So our journey begins with a match against the winner of the Cartagines/Vancouver Whitecaps first-round tie. In a stroke of massive stupidity, this home leg of this cup tie will be played in Spokane. Top job, Sounders FC ownership [sarcasm]. Could have played it at Starfire, Memorial Stadium, Husky Stadium, or the Mariners’ baseball ground, but no…no, that makes too much sense [sarcasm]. We could conceivably get past Cartagines or Vancouver, although we’ve not had much luck against Vancouver lately. Assuming we get as far as the Quarter-Finals, we would face the winner of the UANL Tigres/ O&M or FC Cincinatti. If we have to face Tigres, I think that’s the end for us. If we should manage to make it to the Semi-Finals, I don’t think we could defeat Inter Miami, Club America, or Philadelphia. Recent poor form against Vancouver suggests we won’t make it past the Round of 16.
MLS League Championship:
12th place
Generally, and by generally I mean every season we’ve been in MLS since 2009 with the singular exception of 2022, Sounders find a way to finish in the league’s top 10 teams. Minus Leyva, Vargas, and Bell, I don’t know that we’re good enough to manage it this year. It takes a median of about 67 points (22 victories, 1 draw out of 34 matches) to win an MLS league championship. The closest we’ve been to that in the Schmetzer-era is 60 points in 2021, and that was good for 3rd place. The 2021 squad included Raul Ruidiaz (19 goals), Nicolas Lodeiro, and Fredy Montero (8 goals).
US Open Cup:
No participation
This is an easy one, as no club from the Sounders organisation is going to participate. That’s right. MLS, in their near-infinite stupidity, decided that between fixture clutter (although no mention of fixture clutter is made when it comes Leagues Cup time) and the small prize money, that it wasn’t worth it for MLS Clubs to play in it. MLS made a rule that said that if you’d already qualified for, I don’t remember the exact wording — three competitions or some other arbitrary number they cooked up — that you then wouldn’t be permitted to enter the US Open Cup. Compounding MLS’ stupidity with their own, the United States FA has decided that only the highest level clubs within an organisation can contest the US Open Cup. This means no representation of MLS Clubs by their MLS Next Pro affiliates. A sad chapter in an even sadder affair. Only in America could something so simple become so unnecessarily complicated and stupid, completely ratfucking a tradition that’s existed since 1913. Sir Thomas Dewar is rolling in his grave. With no Sounders FC options available, I will be rooting for El Farolito in the competition. Oddly, a Mexican restaurant chain from California has more reverence for American traditions than either MLS or the United States FA.
Leagues Cup:
Eliminated at the Quarter-Final stage
This one is hard to guess at, as the tournament draw isn’t going to happen until much closer to the tournament, which starts in early August. The club rankings for this season’s Leagues Cup show the Sounders at 15th position. With the uncertainties surrounding the squad this season, I can’t see us repeating as champions.
MLS Cup:
Eliminated at the Quarter-Final stage
Again, there’s no way to see into the future to know who we’ll play, or whether we’ll qualify without having to play-in. When you look around the league, a lot of teams spent a fair amount of cash to improve their squads. I just don’t see how we’re going to compete. That said, we were better than Minnesota United in last season’s tournament. We were better at football. The Loons were better at penalty-kicks. Until the MLS Cup format favours skill at football over penalties, we’re going to find it hard going in this tournament.
MLS Next Pro:
12th place
Paulo Nagamura has been appointed the new Manager for the Sounders FC Reserves. Joao Paulo will ably assist Nagamura as coach, having played his last season as a footballer for the Sounders FC last season. After a 23rd place finish last season and a failure to qualify for MLS Next Pro Cup, Brazillians Nagamura and Joao Paulo will find a way to turn the lads around. All that said, it’s difficult to predict, as at last glance, the Sounders FC Reserves only had 10 contracted players on its roster.
MLS Next Pro Cup:
Eliminated at the Quarter-Final stage
The lads will do better than last season and qualify for the tournament. There will be many new faces, though, and it’s going to take some time for the teamwork to knit up. In addition, there will also be the usual revolving door of young senior squad players playing in the Reserves to maintain sharpness, due to Brian Schmetzer’s allergic reaction to giving young footballers a meaningful amount of developmental minutes (Sousa 0 appearances, and Baker 3 appearances/115 minutes, both requested loans last season over a lack of playing time, and Hawkins, despite being a United States youth international, made only 4 appearances as a substitute for a total of 124 minutes, and Brunell had 6 appearances/293 minutes). It’s a matter of trust, you see. Sounders FC Reserves might be good enough to get through the first round, but after that I don’t see how we could get much further.
Conclusion
We are not as good of a squad as we were last season with Vargas, Leyva, and Bell gone. The top players in our squad are ageing. Our Manager insists on running out our players over and over again until they break down. We spent €0 on transfers in the offseason. We seem to be on a collision course with mediocrity, with no one in ownership and management even remotely aware of the scope of the problem. I hope I’m wrong about this, I really do, but I sincerely doubt it. All that’s left is to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Intangibles
Political and social instability and unrest - will the fash lay siege to Seattle next?
Geopolitical instability generated by the laundry list of international incidents that America is provoking may make foreign players not want to play for American clubs in an American league.
Economic instability and volatility may make consumers spend less on things like football tickets and merchandise.
With each summer getting progressively hotter and hotter due to climate crisis, how long will it be before the idea of outdoor sport is untenable?
Will we get our injured players from last season back healthy and playing at a high level of form?
Will our older players succumb to injury through attrition this season?
General notes on personnel
Sounders FC transfers IN:
Sailor (Inter Miami) free
Anchor (Vancouver) free
Petkovic (Charlotte) loan
Tsukanome (Seattle Sounders FC Reserves)
Gomez (Seattle Sounders FC Reserves)
Dotson (Minnesota United) free
Sounders FC transfers OUT:
Kent (option declined)
Joao Paulo (retired)
Castro (option declined)
Burney (option declined)
Sousa (option declined)
Leyva (Necaxa) €1M
Bell (Austin FC) free
Vargas (Atletico Madrid) €3M
Sounders FC Reserves transfers IN:
Phoenix (Auckland FC) free
Gnaulati (Monterey Bay FC) undisclosed
Bronnik (Union Omaha) undisclosed
Lopez - resigned
Alvarez - retained via club option
Gaffney - retained via club option
Kingston - retained via club option
Robles - retained via club option
Sounders FC Reserves transfers OUT:
Baer (option declined)
Diaw (option declined)
Pedder (SC Jacksonville) free
Yamada (Vissel Kobe) end of loan
Khoury (Nejmeh SC) free
Katsaros (option declined)
Tsukanome (Seattle Sounders FC)
Gomez (Seattle Sounders FC)
This Is Your Team
GOALKEEPERS
Stefan Frei, 39
Estimated Transfer Value: €150,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Frei
Andrew Thomas, 27
Estimated Transfer Value: €400,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Thomas_(footballer,_born_1998)
Max Anchor, 21
Estimated Transfer Value: €150,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Anchor
DEFENCE
Nouhou, 28
Estimated Transfer Value: €3.5M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouhou_Tolo
Alex Roldan, 29
Estimated Transfer Value: €3.5M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Rold%C3%A1n
Yeimar Gomez Andrade, 33
Estimated Transfer Value: €1.2M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeimar_G%C3%B3mez
Jackson Ragen, 27
Estimated Transfer Value: €3M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Ragen
Stuart Hawkins, 19
Estimated Transfer Value: €175,000
https://us.soccerway.com/players/stuart-hawkins/731947/
Kim Kee-hee, 36
Estimated Transfer Value: €150,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Kee-hee
Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, 23
Estimated Transfer Value: €800,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalani_Kossa-Rienzi
Reed Baker-Whiting, 20
Estimated Transfer Value: €800,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Baker-Whiting
Cody Baker, 22
Estimated Transfer Value: €275,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cody_Baker
Ryan Sailor, 27
Estimated Transfer Value: €200,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Sailor
MIDFIELD
Cristian Roldan, 30
Estimated Transfer Value: €3.5M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristian_Roldan
Albert Rusnak, 31
Estimated Transfer Value: €3M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Rusn%C3%A1k_(footballer,_born_1994)
Snyder Brunell, 18
Estimated Transfer Value: €400,000
https://us.soccerway.com/players/snyder-brunell/799947/
Sebastian Gomez, 19
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://us.soccerway.com/players/sebastian-gomez/732783/
Nikola Petkovic, 22
Estimated Transfer Value: €1.2M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Petkovi%C4%87_(footballer,_born_2003)
Hassani Dotson, 28
Estimated Transfer Value: €3M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassani_Dotson
FORWARD
Jesus Ferreira, 25
Estimated Transfer Value: €4M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jes%C3%BAs_Ferreira
Paul Arriola, 31
Estimated Transfer Value: €3M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Arriola
Jordan Morris, 31
Estimated Transfer Value: €3M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Morris
Pedro de la Vega, 25
Estimated Transfer Value: €3.5M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_de_la_Vega
Georgi Minoungou, 23
Estimated Transfer Value: €800,000
https://us.soccerway.com/players/georgi-minoungou/825736/
Danny Musovski, 30
Estimated Transfer Value: €2.5M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Musovski
Paul Rothrock, 27
Estimated Transfer Value: €2.8M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Rothrock
Osaze De Rosario, 24
Estimated Transfer Value: €800,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaze_De_Rosario
Yu Tsukanome, 25
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://www.soundersfc.com/tacoma-defiance/2023-roster/yu-tsukanome
This Is Your Reserves Team
GOALKEEPERS
Mohammed Shour, 17
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://us.soccerway.com/players/mohammed-shour/799942/
Noah Newman, 18
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://www.soccerway.com/player/newman-noah/8Or8P2qS/
DEFENCE
Antino Lopez, 23
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://us.soccerway.com/players/antino-lopez/512640/
Gallatin Sandnes, 17
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://us.soccerway.com/players/sandnes-gallatin/879049/
Demian Alvarez, 23
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://www.soccerway.com/player/alvarez-demian/ttgavo4j/
Codey Phoenix, 21
Estimated Transfer Value: €125,000
https://www.soccerway.com/player/phoenix-codey/EuW82eeJ/
MIDFIELD
Kelvin-Luis Brito, 17
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://us.soccerway.com/players/kelvin-luis-brito/799941/
Shaun Andre Brun, 18
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://us.soccerway.com/players/shaun-brun/799956/
Daniel Robles, 24
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Robles
Charles Dodzi, 19
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://www.soccerway.com/player/dodzi-charles/pM7tvO9e/
Mitchell Emert, 17
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://www.soccerway.com/player/emert-mitchell/jLDeBgw3/
Charlie Gaffney, 22
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://www.soccerway.com/player/gaffney-charles/j7K9nHNK/
Peter Kingston, 24
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kingston_(soccer)
Xavi Gnaulati, 21
Estimated Transfer Value: €250,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavi_Gnaulati
Edson Carli, 18
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://www.soccerway.com/player/carli-edson/2eRfPvyo/
FORWARD
Omar Hassan, 16
Estimated Transfer Value: unknown
https://us.soccerway.com/players/omar-hassan/866296/
Etienne Veillard, 18
Estimated Transfer Value: not yet listed
https://us.soccerway.com/players/etienne-veillard/732774/
Mark Bronnik, 19
Estimated Transfer Value: €175,000
https://www.soccerway.com/player/bronnik-mark/tS16XGLC/
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