By Charles Hamaker 

Seattle, WA – A scoreless draw in Frisco, Texas last week against an FC Dallas team that pushed the Rave Green to a winner-take-all match in their three-game playoff series last MLS Audi Cup Playoffs isn’t necessarily the most concerning thing in the world, but considering the poor start that the Seattle Sounders FC have had for the 2024 campaign, the frustration is amplified. That frustration bubbled over into anger with tonight’s shutout loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the first Cascadia Clash that the Sounders have played so far this season. A questionable red card shown to Jackson Ragen upon review for “Serious foul play” put Seattle down to ten men at the 43rd minute, and the match turned from that point on. The Sounders attempted to play defensively, taking Raúl Ruidíaz off for Xavier Arreaga, but two turnovers resulted in two goals for the Whitecaps and frustrated play saw Alex Roldan sent off for a clear red card in the 75th minute.  

Pre-match sights and scenes ahead of the Seattle Sounders FC 2-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps at Lumen Field on Saturday, April 21st, 2024. (Photos by Liz Wolter)

Fiery first half sees Seattle go down to ten men 

Despite how strong the Whitecaps have been dating to last season and to begin this year, it was the Sounders who had the better start on the attacking end in the first half of this match. That’s not to say that Vancouver didn’t have opportunities on Seattle, as goalkeeper Stefan Frei had to make a sprawling save to his left on a shot by Pedro Vite in just the tenth minute, but the Sounders challenged the Whitecaps more throughout the course of that first 45. Seattle was presenting several different issues in different forms for the Vancouver defense, getting looks on corner kicks, crosses into the box, and just standard run of play as the Sounders tried to create havoc for the Whitecaps three defender backline. There were different dangerous possessions in the attacking end and opposing box for Seattle, but the positive momentum from that attack that they had would come to a screeching halt in the 37th minute when play was stopped due to a foul committed by Jackson Ragen on Vancouver’s Ryan Gauld. It was a bad tackle on Gauld, but perhaps not something that should’ve drawn a red, and it didn’t initially as Ragen was shown a yellow. Upon review, it was determined by referee Ramy Touchan that Ragen had committed a “Serious Foul Play” act with that tackle and was shown a red instead of a yellow to put the Sounders down to ten men for the rest of the night. Even despite that red card to bring them down to ten men, the Sounders had another dangerous opportunity right before the halftime whistle off a free kick, but a Jordan Morris header went just wide, and we went into the break scoreless. 

The red card shown to Jackson Ragen in the 43rd minute of the match changed some things for the Seattle Sounders FC. (Photos by Liz Wolter)

Burning out  

The tough break to go down a player late into the first half didn’t seem to have any sort of immediate negative impact on Seattle, as there was that free kick shortly after it and the Sounders had a chance on a corner right into the beginning of the second half. Seattle couldn’t make the opportunity mean anything despite taking two corners back-to-back, and those chances presented the final time in this match that the Sounders got a shot on goal or a shot at all. Ten minutes later, in the 57th minute, Seattle defender Yeimar was trying to find a way to progress the ball up the field from within his own box. The Sounders were placed in a tough position, as three Whitecaps players were applying heavy pressure to three Seattle players, and eventually that pressure made the home side crack. The ball was intercepted by Andres Cubas, passed down to the end line where Sam Adekugbe could line a cross into the center of a box for a streaking Ryan Gauld who was left all alone in on his run to give Vancouver the lead. Seattle did little to nothing on the attacking end to equalize ahead of the second Whitecaps goal of the match, which also came thanks to a bad decision defensively as Xavier Arreaga attempted to get out of his own box by dribbling through two opposing players. Vancouver’s Brian White was able to pick the pocket of Arreaga and beat Stefan Frei one-on-one, and this match was essentially put to bed. 

Despite the Seattle Sounders FC largely looking like the better attacking team in this match, the Vancouver Whitecaps scored twice in the second half and shutout the Rave Green to pickup the victory. (Photos by Liz Wolter)

We’re entering the danger zone 

We’re now eight matches into the 34-game MLS schedule for the Seattle Sounders FC, and it’s a very bleak sample size when you step back and look at how the 2024 campaign has played out so far. Whether it’s looking at the injuries that the club has dealt with and is still dealing with, the struggles on the offensive end, or some of the mental mistakes that we’ve seen play out so far. It looks like an underprepared, undisciplined club that needs some shot in the arm to get them moving forward, but it’s unclear what that could be at this point. With the news of Pedro de La Vega suffering a setback, it won’t be him, at least not in the near future. It can’t be a tactics or lineup change, as Seattle is somewhat handcuffed with what they can do in that regard considering the tough slate ahead of them in the schedule. Would a coaching change really be appropriate at this point in time, considering the lack of a clear-cut candidate for the job and how much of a mess that candidate would be inheriting? It’s one of the worst situations for a struggling team: a total mess that doesn’t have a set and clear solution to fix things in a decently quick manner.  

Seattle doesn’t have the luxury of bringing “reinforcements” in, changing tactics that can be used immediately, or making a coaching change that can get the issues patched up in a timely manner. It’s looking more and more like the Sounders will have to find their way through their own issues by working through them, and that means working through the matches that are coming up on their calendar such as those against D.C. United and Philadelphia to close out the month of April, while there are some valuable contests against Western Conference clubs in the month of May. To bring up a saying once again that some don’t like in the world of sports: the Sounders control their own destiny. There have been crazier turnarounds before in the world of MLS and sports, but it requires an immense amount of cohesion and effort by a team to get things shifted together. There’s plenty of talent and veteran experience on this roster, and when Pedro de La Vega returns, he should be able to add some life into the mix if he’s able to stay healthy for an extended period, so it’s not as though the Sounders are suffering in the talent department. Again, that isn’t their issue, it’s more on their mentality and clinical play to get Seattle out of the deep hole they’ve dug themselves.  

The Seattle Sounders FC had several strong opportunities in this match to be able to score, but a lack of finishing and clinical play in the final third in addition to the struggles due to the two red cards they were shown hindered any sort of positive momentum. (Photos by Liz Wolter)

Quick Sounders notes 

• Today’s winner of the Space Needle elevator race was the Green elevator! 

• 2024 leaderboard, so far 

  • Green elevator: 2 wins 

  • Blue elevator: 2 wins 

  • Aqua elevator: 0 wins 

    • 2024 “Division 2” leaderboard, so far 

      • Gold elevator: 2 wins 

      • Red elevator: 0 wins 

      • Black elevator: 0 wins 

• Today’s attendance at Lumen Field for this Cascadia Clash between the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and our Seattle Sounders FC was 30,550 

• The Sounders didn’t take a shot in this match after the 48th minute.  

• The Whitecaps beat the Sounders at Lumen Field for the first time since 2016.  

• Seattle sits 12th in the Western Conference with six points (1-4-3). This is the first time in club history that Sounders FC has won just once in its first eight games to start a campaign. 

• Sounders FC is now 17-10-9 against Vancouver in MLS regular-season play dating back to 2011, when Whitecaps FC entered the league as an expansion team.  

• Head Coach Brian Schmetzer is now 13-4-6 against Whitecaps FC (including postseason play) since taking over as Sounders FC Head Coach in 2016. 

• Seattle and Vancouver have faced off 152 times dating back to 1974 when both teams played in the North American Soccer League. Seattle leads the all-time series 73-53-26. This season marks both clubs' 50th anniversaries. 

• Saturday marked Seattle’s first Cascadia Cup fixture of the 2024 campaign. Vancouver leads the current Cascadia Cup standings with six points (Whitecaps FC defeated Portland 3-2 on March 30), with Seattle and Portland trailing with zero. 

• The Rave Green finished the match with nine players following red cards to Jackson Ragen and Alex Roldan, the first time the club has been issued two red cards in the same match since April 28, 2019 against LAFC. 

• Dr. Michael Morris, Chief Medical Officer and Team Orthopedic Surgeon, announced his retirement earlier this week and was honored during this evening’s pre-match ceremonies. Dr. Morris has been with the team since its USL days, serving as the team physician for three years prior to its move to MLS. The father of Sounders FC forward Jordan Morris, he is a graduate of the University of Washington Orthopedic residency program and the Kerlan Jobe Sports Medicine Program. Dr. Morris also served as an orthopedic surgeon and Section Head of the Virginia Mason Sports Medicine Department. 

What’s next? 

Following tonight’s ugly and disappointing shutout loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the first Cascadia Clash of the season for Seattle, the Sounders will face a tough test as they’ll have to play two matches over the span of four days when it comes to their next contests. The first of those two matches that the Sounders will have to play comes on Saturday, April 27th as Seattle takes on D.C. United at Audi Field with a kickoff time of 4:30PM PDT while being broadcast on Apple TV – MLS Season Pass. Seattle battles a D.C. club that currently sits eleventh in the Eastern Conference, and then on Tuesday, April 30th they will make up their postponed match against the Philadelphia Union at 4:30PM PDT at Subaru Park. It'll be a rough contest for Seattle, as they’ll be playing a match with a short turnaround time and it’s against a club that currently sits sixth in the Eastern Conference.

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Cover photo and photos in this article by Liz Wolter.