The Seattle Sounders extended their unbeaten run to four games with a 3-0 win over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday.
Brian Schmetzer’s side have started to pick up steam with their successful Concacaf Champions League campaign now well behind them and are right in the thick of the Playoff race.
It didn’t take long for the Sounders to get going against an SKC team battling at the foot of the Western Conference, with Will Bruin opening the scoring on just eight minutes. The veteran striker doubled his account for the season with a header from Cristian Roldan’s deep cross.
From there, it was mostly one-way traffic but Seattle were kept at bay by Tim Melia in goal. That was until Jordan Morris jumped highest to get his head to a Nouhou Tolo delivery on 71 minutes, with the USMNT forward then turning provider just five minutes later as Roldan grabbed a goal of his own.
Here are the full player ratings from a convincing win for the Sounders:
This Nouhou assist is an absolute delight 🤌 pic.twitter.com/b67sE0SFmM
— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) June 25, 2022
GK: Stefan Frei – 6/10 – Didn’t have much to do but performed his tasks well.
RB: Alex Roldan – 7/10 – Involved in the build-up to the opening goal and was solid at both ends of the field.
CB: Yeimar Gomez – 8/10 – A massive defensive performance that involved eight clearances, three tackles, nine recoveries, and more. Got to almost everything.
CB: Jackson Ragen – 8/10 – Played a brilliant switching pass in the move for Bruin’s goal and came up with a couple of big defensive plays.
LB: Nouhou Tolo – 8/10 – Provided a perfect cross for Morris’ goal that made it 2-0 and kept Seattle’s left flank on lock. Nothing got past him.
CM: Kelyn Rowe – 7/10 – Combined finesse on the ball with combativeness without it. Came down with cramp late on after putting in some seriously hard yards.
CM: Albert Rusnak – 6/10 – Quiet by his own high standards but still did his part in making Seattle dominant in midfield.
RW: Cristian Roldan – 9/10 – Assisted the opening goal and scored the third. Continues to excel out on the right.
CAM: Nico Lodeiro – 5/10 – Was always busy and looking to make things happen but it didn’t quite come off for Lodeiro.
LW: Jordan Morris – 9/10 – Put the game to bed with a leaping header to make it 2-0, then helped add some gloss with an assist for Roldan. Last year’s horrific injury is a thing of the distant past.
ST: Will Bruin – 8/10 – Ran out of steam very quickly in the second half but had done his job before the break, opening the scoring.
SUB: Leo Chu (for Bruin, 74′) – 7/10 – Came on and quickly got involved, driving forward and providing the pre-assist to Roldan’s goal.
SUB: Fredy Montero (for Lodeiro, 80′) – 6/10 – Only on for a short time but looked threatening.
SUB: Jimmy Medranda (for Rowe, 80′) – 6/10 – Neat and tidy in limited minutes.
SUB: Abdoulaye Cissoko (for Yeimar, 80′) – 6/10 – Kept it simple and got the job done.
SUB: Danny Leyva (for Rusnak, 84′) – 5/10 – Didn’t have time to get into the game.
Final from Seattle.#SEAvSKC | @MichelobULTRA pic.twitter.com/eyMt3r1XmV
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) June 25, 2022
GK: Tim Melia – 6/10 – Conceded three goals but it would have been a lot worse for SKC without the efforts of Melia.
RB: Graham Zusi – 5/10 – Put in a couple of dangerous balls but couldn’t turn the tide.
CB: Nicolas Isimat-Mirin – 2 – Lost Bruin for the opening goal and made a number of other errors that went unpunished. A complete liability.
CB: Andreu Fontas – 5/10 – Didn’t fare much better than his center-back partner, though he was less erratic.
LB: Logan Ndenbe – 5/10 – Had to get through a lot of defensive work as the Roldan brothers flooded the SKC left flank. Left isolated too many times.
CM: Remi Walter – 6/10 – Tidy enough on the ball but couldn’t impose SKC onto the game.
CM: Cameron Duke – 6/10 – SKC’s most threatening player, driving the ball forward and trying to get behind the Seattle defense as much as possible.
CM: Felipe Hernandez – 6/10 – Created a couple of decent openings and was better than most in an SKC shirt.
RW: Johnny Russell – 5/10 – Not a vintage performance from Russell, who is usually so dangerous in this fixture.
ST: Khiry Shelton – 4/10 – Battled hard but barely got involved in any meaningful attacks.
LW: Daniel Salloi – 5/10 – Kept trying to run into dangerous positions but no teammate managed to find him.
SUB: Roger Espinoza (for Hernandez, 74′) – 5/10 – Added a little more fight to SKC’s midfield but it was already too late.
SUB: Kayden Pierre (for Zusi, 74′) – 4/10 – Had a tough time up against Morris, Chu, and Co.
SUB: Ben Sweat (for Ndenbe, 86′) – 5/10 – No time to get into the game.
SUB: Marinos Tzionis (for Russell 86′) – 5/10 – Decent attempt at a volley with his first touch. Didn’t have time to do much else.
