Leagues Cup presents opportunity for Sounders to ‘get the lineup right’

Aside from having a trophy on the line, Sounders hope to learn lessons they can carry into MLS play.

TUKWILA, Wash. — If there’s been one constant throughout the Seattle Sounders’ MLS existence it’s that they approach every tournament they enter with a similar degree of seriousness. That ethos is exemplified by their four U.S. Open Cup titles, two MLS Cups and one Concacaf Champions League trophy. They are also the only MLS team to advance to a Leagues Cup final — which they narrowly lost to Club Leon in 2021 — and no team can match the 11 cup finals they’ve played in since 2009.

With MLS taking a nearly five-week break for an expanded and reformatted Leagues Cup, the Sounders see this as a chance to add to their already expansive trophy case.

“We have this weird thing where we try to win every trophy,” Sounders GM Craig Waibel said. “Now they’ve invented a new trophy and we don’t have it. It would be nice to put it in the trophy case next to the CCL trophy no one else has.”

When the Sounders play their Leagues Cup opener at Real Salt Lake on Saturday, however, actually winning the trophy will be back of mind. Rather, the Sounders are looking at Leagues Cup more of an opportunity to turn around what has been at best middling form over the last four months.

Since their blazing 5-1-1 start, the Sounders have gone just 5-7-5 and are coming into this match directly on the heels of a pair of disappointing results.

While some teams may see a midseason break as a potential positive, the Sounders are more interested in playing games.

“We want to advance, that’s no secret,” Sounders midfielder Albert Rusnák said. “We want to keep playing games before MLS comes back. It’s important to keep the rhythm of the game. To have a break in the middle of the season, I don’t know if that’s good.”

One thing that is potentially working in the Sounders’ favor is that after months of having to field lineups missing various key players, this might be the first extended period with the team’s top talent all available. That gives Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer his first real opportunity to determine his ideal lineup.

Schmetzer has suggested that he’s still very open-minded about what that lineup might look like, insisting that many of the starting spots are still competitive. Among his big decisions are in how best to deploy Léo Chú, Jordan Morris and Raúl Ruidíaz, suggesting which of those three start could come down to matchups and where the games are played. Schmetzer also said he’s still undecided on the best combination of the three central midfielders, with Albert Rusnák, Nicolás Lodeiro, Obed Vargas and potentially Josh Atencio all in the mix to play alongside and in front of João Paulo.

“We’re going to try to get the team right in Leagues Cup which will bleed into the last 10 games of the year,” Schmetzer said. “We try to win every competition, we’re not going to experiment, we’re going to try to tinker and get the lineup right.”

Leagues Cup notes

• The Sounders are guaranteed one home game. That will be against Liga MX power Monterrey on July 30. Monterrey is 2-0-1 during the current Apertura and topped the 2022-23 combined table with a 23-5-6 record, but lost in the semifinals of both playoff tournaments.
• There are no ties, with all matches decided in a penalty shootout if the score is even at the end of regulation. During the group stage, the shootout loser will get a single point and the shootout winner will get two points.
• The top two teams from the group will advance to the Round of 32 with the group-stage winners hosting. From the Round of 16 onward, however, hosting rights are determined by the 2022 Supporters’ Shield standings. The Sounders finished 21st.