By Atif Bhatti
Within the span of 72 hours after closing out their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals series versus Club León in Estadio León, the Seattle Sounders had the task of traveling straight to the capitol of Texas for their third ever MLS match with Austin FC, without the services of Raúl Ruidíaz, Stefan Frei, Jimmy Medranda, and Nicolás Lodeiro. Notwithstanding those key absences and the tired legs of the current corps of players, the Sounders were able to escape Austin with a point, which marks their first draw of the 2022 MLS regular season and gives them their fourth point in four matches to open their 14th season in Major League Soccer. This result also increases Seattle’s undefeated head-to-head record against Austin FC in MLS to three matches.
The first goal-scoring chance of the match went the way of the Sounders in the 26th minute when Albert Rusnák was supplied the ball from the left-hand side by Will Bruin. Unfortunately for Seattle, Rusnák was only able to weakly direct the shot onto Brad Stuver, failing to force the Austin FC goalkeeper to make a more difficult save. Coming back the other way in the 34th minute, Austin FC could also be considered unfortunate to not score the match’s first goal, when forward Moussa Djitté was unable to connect on the volley with a ball just outside of Stefan Cleveland’s six-yard box. The Sounders were finally able to break the deadlock in the 43rd minute, when João Paulo found a wide open Cristian Roldan running down the right-hand side before sending a low cross in front of Austin FC’s goal for Will Bruin to force into the back of the net, giving the visitors a precious 1-0 lead at halftime, and giving himself his 75th career regular season goal in MLS.
Five minutes into the second half, the Sounders had a fantastic opportunity to double the lead when João Paulo’s initial shot was blocked and fell to the feet of Léo Chú in front of Austin FC’s goal, but the Sounders forward lifted the ball above the net, a chance that Chú surely would like to have again. The home side would then go on to have several good goal-scoring opportunities in the following 20 minutes, including a shot off the woodwork from Alex Ring in the 64th minute. However, Austin FC was finally able to cash in and score the equalizer in the 70th minute, when MLS veteran Diego Fagúndez would side-volley the ball from a tight angle in front of Stefan Cleveland after a cross into the 18-yard box from defender Nick Lima was unsuccessfully cleared. The final 20 minutes of the match saw near-goals for both teams, notably a shot from Kelyn Rowe that would hit the crossbar in the 74th minute and another shot from Alex Ring that was denied by Stefan Cleveland in the 76th minute, but the two western conference adversaries would ultimately split the points at the end of the afternoon.
The Sounders have now played eight competitive matches in the 2022 calendar year, four of which have been in MLS regular season play and the other four have been in Champions League play. In those eight matches, Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer has fielded seven unique starting line-ups. Seattle’s goal-scorer, Will Bruin, made his first start of the year on Sunday afternoon in Austin and he explained how he thinks the club has been able to find success in the face of constant changes within the starting line-up. “This is the deepest team I’ve ever been a part of,” Bruin said in the post-match press conference. “The flexibility to be able to do that – Schmetzer is using it perfectly and I think we’re showing that guys are capable of stepping up and doing it.”
One of the guys who stepped up for the Sounders on Sunday afternoon was goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland, who stepped in for Stefan Frei due to a right quad issue. Cleveland is no stranger to being ready to come into the starting line-up, as he did so for 15 matches in the 2021 season while Frei was recovering from a left knee injury and blood clot during that period of time. “I think every day when we go into train, it’s just focusing like you’re the starter,” Cleveland explained after his seven-save performance. “It’s doing all these mental reps of these games and being ready for this environment and taking full concentration into each training so that (when) you know you have to do it for 90 minutes, it’s not the first time you’ve done it.”
The Sounders’ next match will be in Minnesota on Saturday, April 2nd, kicking off a month where the Sounders will play seven matches across all competitions. But to close out the month of March, there will be an international break for continued World Cup Qualifiers, for which five Sounders have been called up by their respective national teams. Coach Brian Schmetzer views this period of time as an opportunity for getting back the missing players that the team has been without for the majority of the season thus far, mainly Nicolás Lodeiro, Raúl Ruidíaz, and Jimmy Medranda. “Basically, it’s just kind of a recovery week and just working on individual things,” Schmetzer said after the game. Sounders fans would surely like to see if one or any combination of these players could be ready to come back into the fold ahead of a packed April for the club, but that remains to be seen.