Max Aquino / Sounder at Heart
No team has started the season better than the Seattle Sounders, who are on 24 points through 10 undefeated games. No team is in a worse run of form than the Vancouver Whitecaps, who come into this game losers of five straight.
But this being match against a Cascadia rival means that Brian Schmetzer is not about to overlook Saturday’s opponent.
“Games like this are not easy, because Vancouver is a rival,” Schmetzer said on Friday. “They’re a proud team, they’ll come and fight. They don’t have anything to lose. They can play as the underdogs. We must not lose our concentration or become complacent.”
Max Aquino / Sounder at Heart
Coming out of a three-week break, the Seattle Sounders are playing a three-game week. Match No. 2 is against Real Salt Lake on Wednesday, as the Sounders have their sites set on a second nine-point week of the season.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. In order to make that a possibility, the Sounders will need to take care of an RSL team that is playing well but who has also struggled mightily when playing in Seattle. The Sounders have won 10 of their last 11 home matches against RSL, dating back to 2013. RSL have managed to score just two goals in their last five trips to Lumen Field.
Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports
Whenever the Seattle Sounders and Atlanta United meet, it’s a chance for arguably the two biggest clubs in MLS to measure up one another. Right now, the Sounders are on the ascent while Atlanta is trying to recover from a disastrous 2020 in which they fired their coach after just five games and finished outside the playoffs for the first time in their history
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Atlanta United is off to a somewhat promising, if still uneven, start. They’re 2-1-2 and in the thick of the playoff race, coming off an emotional win last week in which they found the game winner in the dying moments to send a crowd of 40,000 into delirium. That may be covering for what has otherwise been an inauspicious start to the Gabriel Heinze era, in which they’ve dominated possession but struggled to score.
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
FULL-TIME: Cristian Roldan scored a goal and Alex Roldan had to serve as an emergency goalkeeper down the stretch even making a couple saves to deliver a 1-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday.
Through their first four matches of the season, the Seattle Sounders faced either a playoff team from last year or a team off to a fast start. That trend continues tonight when the Sounders face the San Jose Earthquakes, a team on nine points through four matches and one point behind them in the standings.
The Earthquakes are riding a three-game winning streak after a season-opening loss to the Houston Dynamo and are tied with the Sounders to lead the league with 10 goals scored. Leading the way is 17-year-old forward Cade Cowell, who has two goals and three assists.