Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting Seattle Sounders 🔎

After a week away from league play for the FIFA international window, FC Dallas is back in action this weekend as they begin a grueling seven games in 21 days, starting with hosting the Seattle Sounders on Saturday night.

Seattle is coming off a fairly disappointing outing in their previous match two weekends ago when they saw a 2-0 lead slip away into a 2-2 draw with the Portland Timbers.

Let’s dive into how FC Dallas can pick up points this weekend against the Sounders.

Key Player: Jordan Morris

While Raúl Ruidíaz is expected to return to Sounders training by Thursday or even when they arrive in Frisco at the end of the week, Morris wasn’t gone on international duty this past week so he will be fresh and likely a focal point in their attack.

Key Matchup: Jesus Ferreira vs Seattle’s CBs

In league play, Seattle hasn’t had a shutout since a 1-0 win over Houston back in early July. If you add in their two Leagues Cup games, that is nine games total without shutting out an opponent. Ferreira is kind of in desperate need of a regular season goal here to get back into the Golden Boot race, so hopefully, this is a weekend he can do it against what is kind of a leaky defense.

Quick Notes:

Cristian Roldan returning: One thing our friends over at Sounder at Heart have been reporting this week is that Cristian Roldan is likely to at least travel with the team to Texas this week. Roldan suffered a concussion back at the end of July and has been slowly working his way back into the Sounders training sessions1.

Recent form: A lot has been made across the web about the Sounder’s recent struggles, including the Leagues Cup, but Seattle has only lost three times in their last ten league matches while winning three and drawing the other four.

Record in Frisco: Seattle has had some success over the years in Frisco, going 4-6-5, with their last victory coming in August 2021, when the Sounders beat FC Dallas 1-0 off a Ruidíaz goal.

Availability Report:

Suspended: Leo Chu
Out: Dylan Teves (left hamstring strain), Kelyn Rowe (right quad strain)
Questionable: Cristian Roldan (concussion protocol)
International duty: none

Potential Lineup:

Chu being out suspended helps a bit for FC Dallas, but Seattle still has some quality names in their attack.

Frei; Nouhou, Ragen, Yeimar, A. Roldan; Baker-Whiting, Joao Paulo; Morris, Rusnak, Loderio, Ruidíaz

Keys To Three Points over Seattle

1. Start with energy - They got an additional week off last weekend for the international break, which could be a blessing after three games in seven days before that. Still, being at home, you have to start strong. FC Dallas showed in the last match that they can do it. They just have to find ways to keep that energy and momentum for 90 minutes.
2. Defend the wings - Even without Chu, Seattle is still very dangerous along the wings. In our previous meeting against them, the lone goal they scored came off some excellent work along the right side with Chu and Nouhou. Dallas has done fairly well at defending the wings in recent weeks, but if Geovane Jesus or Marco Farfan gets caught up on the field too far in the transition play, it could come back to bite Dallas in this one.
3. Finish your chances - In the last game against Atlanta, FC Dallas had a very high xG percentage. The problem was that they weren’t converting those quality chances into goals. Against a conference opponent, they have to make more of what they are given in front of the net. Their finishing has to be better this weekend. That largely means finding ways to get Jesus Ferreira back on the scoresheet in a MLS game for the first time in a couple of months.