Marked for Stefan Frei
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jordan Morris and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
When it matters, Nouhou plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Danny Musovski asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Álex Roldán has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Dejan Joveljić has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Stefan Frei is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.84, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match17 Oct 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Seattle Sounders are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match17 Oct 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Stefan Frei
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match17 Oct 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. Houston Dynamo had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match17 Oct 2026
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Seattle Sounders are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
When it matters, Nouhou plays
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Player ratings
The afternoon ran through Albert Rusnák
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from Stefan Frei
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Nouhou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
6 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Paul Arriola makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Nothing got past Nouhou
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” James Ferreira was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Seattle Sounders dressing room was either.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Paul Arriola gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Paul Arriola is on it.
Match3 Oct 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sporting Kansas City defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Market5 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dejan Joveljić’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match12 Sep 2026
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. FC Dallas will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad14 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Jackson Ragen: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Seattle Sounders have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Dejan Joveljić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.52. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Paul Arriola commits to Seattle Sounders for another 3 years.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Juan Torres and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” James Ferreira, on a 4‑3 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.