A near two-hour weather delay, an Albert Rusnák free kick golazo, Stefan Frei coming up with one massive save after another, five total goals, and a game-winner in stoppage time. Wednesday night’s interconference showdown between the Seattle Sounders and Orlando City SC had everything, except three points for the visitors, as the boys in rave green lost 3-2 to the Lions after holding a 2-0 lead in the early going of the second half. The result marks the third game in a row where the Sounders have dropped points after getting a lead and the loss marks Seattle’s 15th defeat of the 2022 MLS season, setting a club record for the most losses in a single regular season since the team joined MLS in 2009. But more importantly, after their collapse in Florida last night, the Sounders find themselves six points below the playoff line with only six matches left to be played, so time is one of the biggest enemies for Brian Schmetzer’s squad at the moment. “I won’t divulge what was said in the locker room,” said Schmetzer after the game. “It’s still a determined group. They are emotionally drained, they put a lot of effort into that game. Breaks just aren’t going our way, so you know it’s tough, it’s really tough.”
The first 20-25 minutes of the game were relatively nonchalant, with neither side establishing the upper hand. The deadlock was broken in the 26th minute when Albert Rusnák hit a spectacular rocket off a free-kick opportunity to put the visitors up 1-0. But similar to Seattle’s games at LAFC and Portland this summer, Orlando City SC really cranked up the pressure on the boys in rave green after going down a goal. Stefan Frei bailed his side out twice with big saves in the latter portion of the opening half, including a penalty kick save in the 32nd minute. Thanks to Frei’s heroics, the Sounders were able to make it to the halftime break with a precious one-goal lead, something that the team failed to do against the Timbers a week ago.
The Sounders came out in the second half and got a much-needed second goal when Jordan Morris beat his man to send a low cross into the box where Raúl Ruidíaz had a poacher’s chance and made sure that the ball made its way into the back of the Orlando City net to double Seattle’s lead to 2-0 in the 52nd minute. However, as they say, 2-0 is the most dangerous lead in soccer, and the first five minutes after scoring a goal are the most critical. Facundo Torres had to remind the Sounders of these expressions the hard way after the Uruguayan created some space for himself from just outside the 18-yard box before firing a shot past Stefan Frei to cut Orlando’s deficit in half in the 53rd minute.
But the Lions didn’t stop there. After continuing to pour pressure on the Sounders, the hosts earned yet another penalty kick opportunity when Jordan Morris went up in his own box to clear a cross away but the ball made contact with his hand instead. Despite that Seattle can feel harshly done by, considering the fact that the Sounders had conceded two penalties in each of their last two games as well, Ercan Kara made the most of the opportunity and cashed in on the kick from the spot to bring the game level at two goals a piece in the 68th minute. This tally for Orlando City SC would mark the second two-goal lead that the Sounders have blown this season, with the first being in San Jose this past spring after the Sounders were 3-1 up on their western conference adversaries before collapsing in dramatic fashion to lose the game 4-3 to the Earthquakes.
Despite the fact that the home side continued to push for the game-winner, the visitors continued to do the same, with some solid spells of possession and opportunities in the final 5-10 minutes of the match, including a Nicolás Lodeiro shot from outside the 18-yard box that was saved by Pedro Gallese. Ultimately, however, the Sounders would experience heartbreak yet again. Kyle Smith was on the end of a goal-scoring sequence in stoppage time that was initially whistled offside. But after VAR review, the decision was overturned and the game-winning goal was awarded to the hosts in the 91st minute. With this goal for Orlando City SC, the Sounders have now had only one of eight VAR decisions work in their favor in this regular season campaign. Furthermore, the boys in rave green have now lost two games in which they had a two-goal lead, something Seattle hasn’t done since their inaugural season in MLS back in 2009.
Much has been made of this season for the Sounders. Outside of winning the CONCACAF Champions League this past May, Seattle has struggled to an incredibly uncharacteristic extent in their regular season campaign. While the club’s coaching staff and players alike would likely be candid in acknowledging that the squad hasn’t played up to their potential, particularly in the past two months, it’s hard for the Sounders and their fans to not feel harshly done by some officiating calls in recent weeks. Seattle have conceded seven penalty kick opportunities this season, including five in their last 11 games. “There’s controversial calls in a lot of games. It just seems like they’ve kind of stacked up all of the calls that have gone not our way. Jimmy Gabriel used to say your luck always evens out at the end of the year. It doesn’t seem like that’s happened to us. Maybe we were fortunate earlier in the year, maybe you could say that, but it’s tough when you give away penalties all the time,” said Schmetzer.
But rest assured, the leader of the boys in rave green is not letting the recent run of officiating in his squad’s matches be an excuse. “I could come up with a thousand excuses, but the reality is we’re here right now,” said Schmetzer. “We’re gonna do as much physical recovery as we can and then we will come up with the appropriate formation for a home game against Houston and get back up on the horse and try and win the game at home.” With only half of a dozen games left to be played, the room for error and margin for dropping points is almost non-existent at this point. If the Sounders don’t kick off the month of September on the right foot, they may very well find themselves in an unfamiliar position on October 10th: below the playoff line and watching the postseason from home rather than contending for an MLS Cup for the first time in the club’s 14-year league history.
