Pointless in Seattle: Seattle Sounders 2, Chicago Fire 1
The Fire traveled to Seattle hoping to complete their set of wins over MLS’s three Cascadian-based teams. Things started well for the Fire, who went up with a 1-0 win in the first half, but ultimately disciplinary issues cost the Fire and they remain winless in Seattle after a 2-1 loss off of two penalties where the Lumen Field’s artificial turf seemed to play a part and where Head Referee Joe Dickerson was active throughout the evening. The match marks the second in a row for the Fire where decisions from the spot have turned the tide against the team, an issue that had been all their bane in the recent years before finding respite – apparently temporary – in 2024.
A win would have completed a set of victories in Cascadia, a place where the team had never won until their victory in Vancouver in 2022. A win over Portland in 2023 left Seattle as the sole city in the region where the Fire had yet to notch a victory.
As a result of the loss, however, the team remains in the basement of the Eastern Conference and the distance between the team and the ninth and final postseason spot has increased to five points – a likely unclimbable mountain for a team that has 18 points in 20 matches, with 14 left in the MLS regular season.
Fire Head Coach Frank Klopas maintained the formation with three center backs, but made several changes: Rafael Czichos returned to the lineup after two games away, taking Mauricio Pineda out of the starting XI. This kept Arnaud Soquet, who had fallen out of favor earlier this year, in the starting XI for the third straight game and fourth time this season. Gastón Giménez made his first start since the Fire’s match against Columbus in mid-May. In explaining the change, Klopas said “Gastón, obviously, is a good player on the team, also, we had three games, we wanted to rotate guys around.”
For his part, Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer kept his team in a 4-2-3-1 but returned Alex Roldan to the starting XI, pushing his brother Cristian up to the midfield, thereby benching Daniel Musovski. He also brought in Reed Baker-Whiting in place of Nouhou, who, along with team-leading scorer Raul Ruidíaz were voluntarily suspended by the Sounders after an alleged incident after the team’s 3-2 win over FC Dallas last week.
From the kickoff, the first half was all Fire. Maren Haile-Selassie had a chance to open the scoring in the fifth minute with a shot from just inside the box, but Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei saved it, keeping the score level. After being denied, the Fire continued to have the lion’s share of the ball and the pressure throughout the first half, but despite pressure, weren’t able to take another shot until the 18th minute when Gastón Giménez’s shot off a free kick sailed above Frei’s net.
In the 29th minute, Fabian Herbers stole the ball away from Seattle’s Reed Baker-Whiting with a quick flick to Maren Haile-Selassie who had a good look on goal but ultimately sent the shot wide. Haile-Selassie wasn’t done. On the ensuing goal kick, Jonathan Dean forced a turnover and got the ball to the Swiss midfielder in a glorious position who had space in front of the goal but sent it just above and to the right of Frei to put the team up 1-0.
Just eight minutes later, however, it was heartbreak for the Fire, as Carlos Terán had to leave the field with an apparent hamstring – the non-contact incident possibly a casualty of the Lumen Field’s artificial pitch, but regardless, the third apparent hamstring injury for the Fire less than halfway through the season. Mauricio Pineda came on in his stead in the 39th minute.
The Fire would continue to press, and continued to knock at the door – including a chance late in first-half stoppage time when Allan Arigoni played the ball into the box to Maren Haile-Selassie, who flicked it off to a waiting Brian Gutiérrez at the top of the penalty arc, but his shot was stopped and the teams left the pitch at the end of the first half with the Fire up 1-0.
It wouldn’t last. The hosts, whose sole shot in the first half – a strike from distance that was blocked – didn’t come until the 20th minute, came out in the 2nd half looking to make up for lost time.The Fire held the edge in possession in the first frame but Seattle controlled the second.
In the 54th minute, Seattle’s Joāo Paulo played the ball into the six yard box as Paul Rothrock, a half-time substitute for Alex Roldan, came into the box. For the second match in a row, a Fire player tried to break up a promising attack from an opponent by hauling a player down by their jersey. And for the second time in as many matches, Fire goalkeeper Chris Brady had to face a penalty shot because of a teammate trying to take down an opponent by grabbing the back of their jersey. This time, it was Jonathan Dean who pulled down Rothrock, but it was Albert Rusnák who took the penalty, and from the spot the Slovakian midfielder leveled the score at 1-1 in the 5th minute.
The hosts smelled blood in the water. Just two minutes later, Seattle’s Léo Chú had the majority of the Fire’s defensive structure beat but the ball was laid off for Paulo whose shot from distance had Brady performing acrobatics but ultimately landed wide.
Less than ten minutes after finding the equalizer, the Sounders thought they had a second penalty shot when Rafael Czichos was called for a handball in the 65th minute. After a VAR review, however, it was determined that if the ball had graced the former Fire captain’s hand, his arm was in a natural position and the penalty was withdrawn. It was the second year in a row where the Czichos’s play triggered a VAR review during an away match in Cascadia. Last year, in Portland with the team nursing a narrow lead late in the match, the referee went to the box suspecting a dirty tackle but then, as in this match, a closer look confirmed it: The German was precise. Last year, he got all ball. This year, he had his arm tucked.
It wouldn’t be the last time of the half that Seattle fans would call for referee Joe Dickerson’s involvement. In the 69th minute, Brady played the ball with a high shot well off his line and made contact with Rothrock, sending both players to the ground momentarily. The play, one of a handful on the night when Brady came well out of the box to play the ball, was whistled dead soon after. Brady made contact with the ball first, but in the air did make contact with Rothrock’s head. The play may have been a foul, but wasn’t carded, and the match continued.
On the restart, the Fire countered, with Allan Arigoni taking a shot – the Fire’s first real chance of the half – in the 71st minute but it was parried by Frei. The Fire held possession briefly after that, but the Sounders, ultimately, smelled the blood in the water and had the Fire on their back feet throughout the rest of the match.
The team thought they could leave Seattle with a point, until the third minute of second half stoppage time, when the Fire’s Mauricio Pineda – a second half substitution for the team – hauled down Jordan Morris in the box. Both landed on the turf field as rain fell down in Seattle, and it appeared that Pineda slipped as much as he intended to make contact with Morris, but after VAR review, a penalty was awarded that Rusnák would again convert to put the hosts up 2-1.
That would be the end of the night’s scoring, as the Sounders unbeaten streak at home now extends to eight matches while the Fire are now winless in their last two.
When asked whether the artificial turf and rainy field conditions may have played a factor post match, Klopas said “both teams were playing on the same surface. It rained. It was drizzling. So obviously then it marks it on the artificial turf, everything is more slippery… I know the players were out there. They had the proper shoes on. I think the field conditions were the same for both teams, and I much prefer the rain, when it rains on artificial turf because then the pitch is faster. When it doesn’t rain, then it dries up and the game becomes really slow and it’s difficult to move the ball. There’s also risk, more risk, of injury that way.”
Despite the coach’s protestrations, several Fire players seemed to stumble or have issues with the playing surface, outside of Pineda’s contact with Morris yielding the Sounders second penalty of the night. In the sixth minute, Hugo Cuypers stopped a promising run because of what looked like a turf issue. A dozen minutes later, Gutiérrez lost the ball because of what looked like another turf issue. In the second half, Giménez appeared to freeze at the top of the Fire’s box with his legs spread, holding his thighs in the 59th minute. In the 73rd, Maren Haile-Selassie also appeared to have difficulties with the playing surface.
The loss – which brings Klopas’s overall coaching record in MLS falls to an even .500, with 53 wins and losses alongside 35 draws – puts the Fire further out of the Eastern Conferences' postseason picture, but results elsewhere keep the dream of a spot in the playoffs alive, if distant. The Fire have little time to lick their wounds: They face the Philadelphia Union, long a mainstay at the top of the Eastern Conference standings but now just two points ahead of the Fire, on Wednesday, July 3 at Soldier Field, the first home game for the team in over a month.
