Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting Seattle Sounders 🔎
Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting Seattle Sounders 🔎
FC Dallas looks to get their season back on track with Seattle coming into town.
Well, well, well. We meet again Seattle.
FC Dallas returns home this weekend to battle their old nemesis, the Seattle Sounders, in a playoff rematch from last year. The two sides have gotten off to really slow starts in 2024, with both sides only having a single win after six games. Seattle secured their first win of the year in blowout fashion last weekend at home against Montreal, while FC Dallas picked up a scoreless draw away at St. Louis.
Key Player: Raul Ruidiaz
The veteran forward is still one of the main catalysts of this Sounders squad. Last week, in their blowout win over Montreal, he had a big two-goal, one-assist day, which helped him earn the league’s Playof the Matchday award.
Key Matchup: Cristian Roldan vs Dante Sealy
While a lot of the Sounders’ attack will flow through Jordan Morris and Alan Rusnak to get Ruidiaz open in the penalty area, it is Cristian Roldan who will pull a ton of the strings to set those two up. We saw in last year’s playoff series how valuable of a player Roldan was to the Sounders. Sealy will need to have one of his best defensive performances to help keep the pressure off Sam Junqua and the rest of the backline.
Availability Report1:
Suspended: none
Out: Reed Baker-Whiting - Hamstring, Léo Chú - Knee, Pedro de la Vega - Hamstring, Braudilio Rodrigues - Hamstring
Questionable: João Paulo - Hip
On Loan: none
International duty: none
Quick Notes:
Last year against FC Dallas: The two sides saw plenty of one another in 2023. They had a pair of 1-1 draws in the regular season before squaring off three times in Round One of the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs. Seattle got the best of Dallas in that series with two wins at Lumen Field to FC Dallas’ one win in game two.
Slow start in 2024: The Sounders' slow start this year was nothing new, but many people questioned things before last week’s win over Montreal. Like Dallas, Seattle has one win on the season, to go with three losses and a draw.
Struggles away in 2024: If you’ve wondered where the three losses this season came from, all were on the road. Seattle has lost at both LA clubs and against San Jose. Let’s hope the losses in California translate well to Texas.
Potential Lineup:
We should be pretty familiar with how the Sounders like to lineup on the field. They’re still rocking a 4-2-3-1 type of formation in 2024.
Frei, A. Roldan, Yeimar, Raoen, Nouhou; Vargas, Atencio; C. Roldan, Rusnak, Morris; Ruidiaz
Keys To Three Points over Seattle
Be more aggressive: As I discussed in yesterday's By The Numbers post, FC Dallas is one of the worst MLS teams in tackles and interceptions this year. They need to be more aggressive on the ball and find ways to limit Seattle’s time on the ball.
Find the width: It is no secret that Nico Estevez wants to use the width of the field more in his 3-4-3 formation, but the team hasn’t exactly figured out how to do that so far in 2024. We saw last year against Seattle that you can play wide and create a lot of chances in the penalty area from crosses. Paul Arriola and Dante Sealy need to have their best games of the season in this one to make this point count.
Play with passion: I had this as a point last week in St. Louis, and we saw it a bit there in the scoreless draw. I think coming home this weekend will mean a lot to the club as they look to fully get over this early-season funk. They need a strong performance with the home crowd behind them.
Note: MLS has a new injury report deadline that doesn’t hit until the Friday before each game. I will put last week’s report in these scouting reports and update where I can ahead of Friday's release from the league.