Sounder At Heart 1 hour ago
Sounders vs. Minnesota United, live blog: Game time, TV schedule and lineups
Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports FS1 at 6:30PM; watch with us. Season-openers rarely have the number of compelling narratives that Friday’s will have. Not only will the Seattle Sounders be playing the team they dramatically beat in last year’s Western Conference final, but it’s a team with an overlooked local (Federal Way’s Hassani Dotson) and an inspired former club legend (Osvaldo Alonso). Oh yeah, and there will be about 7,000 fans in attendance, marking the first time the Sounders faithful have been allowed to watch their club in person in more than a...
Dave Clark / Sounder At Heart 3 hours ago 
3XIs Depth Chart: MLS is Back 2021
Photo by Jeff Halstead/Icon Sportswire via As the season opens Lagerwey, Waibel, & Co have space to add talents, now and later. With Seattle Sounders FC settling into a 3-5-2 as its primary formation for 2021 most roles in the Depth Chart have been sorted out. Signings of Kelyn Rowe and Fredy Montero filled that empty hole in the middle, but there is reason to doubt the depth. There are also a few questions regarding starters. Matchday 1 will begin to answer those questions. The debates; Three of Arreaga, O’Neill, Nouhou, and Yeimar start. Fredy Montero vs. Will...
Sounder At Heart 6 hours ago
OL Reign v. Houston Dash: Gamethread and Updates
The Reign are looking for redemption after a disappointing loss to Houston last summer. It’s finally here. OL Reign has its first Challenge Cup match and competitive game in 2021. The team will face off against the Houston Dash on Friday (that’s tonight!) at 7 PM PT. The game will stream on Paramount+ for fans in the U.S. and Canada and Twitch for international viewers. (Also, yes, you can join us in lamenting the fact that OL Reign and the Sounders have their opening match on the same day and nearly the same time. For the record, the NWSL schedule came out first.) This is...
Sounder At Heart 10 hours ago
State of the Sounders roster
Charis Wilson / Sounders FC Communications Sounder have several open roster spots heading into the 2021 season. One of the roster-building techniques that Garth Lagerwey has employed during most of his tenure as Seattle Sounders general manager is to give himself plenty of room for maneuverability at the start of the season. This year is no exception and in some ways is taking that to a new level. At first glance, there’s nothing particularly notable about having 25 of 30 roster spots filled. That’s a little low, but well within their standard. But if you dig in a...
Sounder At Heart 11 hours ago
Major Link Soccer: MLS is Back
Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports First games kickoff tonight Seattle After a career in basketball and then as an Alaska Airlines flight attendant, Isom recently debuted Dat Creole Soul, an offshoot of his popular food truck. Former Pro Basketball Star Hampton Isom Opens Restaurant in Des Moines - Eater Seattle MLS/USL After a disastrous first season, David Beckham can leave nothing to chance or risk the one thing he’s spent a career avoiding: public embarrassment. David Beckham's Inter Miami could be a great team. But it has to win first A preview of the Sounders’...
Sounder At Heart Apr 15, 2021
Sounders practice notes: Nicolas Lodeiro likely out
Sounders get in a final — glorious — day of training before season opener. SEATTLE — The Seattle Sounders got their final training before the start of the 2021 season under some unseasonably sunny skies at Lumen Field on Thursday. Even more enticingly, the forecast should provide for more unseasonably warm weather on Friday, making conditions near-perfect for the approximately 7,000 fans that will be in attendance for the first time in well over a year. One player that will be a spectator will be Nicolas Lodeiro, who was all but ruled out by head coach Brian Schmetzer...
Sounder At Heart Apr 15, 2021
2021 Seattle Sounders tactical preview
Photo by Jeff Halstead/Icon Sportswire via The 3-5-2 offers lots be excited about (as well as a few causes for concern). Another Sounders preseason is in the books, but with the team playing no televised matches and having faced only one MLS opponent, this year’s run-up feels shorter than ever. Add a new primary formation — and the loss of four of the top 13 minutes-getters from 2020 — and you get a bevy tactical mysteries heading into this Friday’s opening match against Minnesota United. What we do know is that Brian Schmetzer will roll out a 3-5-2, which will...
Dave Clark / Sounder At Heart Apr 15, 2021 
There is hope
Hay Fe There is hope — hay fe. It’s a phrase that Román Torres taught us during his transfer saga. It is a phrase we embraced. It is a phrase that 2016 forced us to accept as reality. There is always hope. We were champions when we shouldn’t be. There is hope — hay fe. It is a phrase that 2020 made us forget. On the pitch. In the stands — were we even in the stands? Off the field. 2020 will be burned into our memories. For so many it was hopeless. Many lost jobs. Others lost friends. And saddest yet, some faced the greatest losses of all. Seattle Sounders soccer was...
Sounder At Heart Apr 15, 2021
Shandon Hopeau joins San Antonio FC on loan
Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/ Hopeau is headed to Texas in pursuit of playing time and new challenges. Fans of the Shandon Hopeau-Justin Dhillon connection that powered Tacoma Defiance for a time are in for a treat as the two players are reunited in San Antonio. Hopeau, who signed with the Seattle Sounders first team in June of 2020, is headed to San Antonio FC in the USL Championship on loan for the 2021 season. The move should allow Hopeau to get the kind of playing time necessary to continue the 22 year-old’s development and demonstrate his potential. Hopeau...
Sounder At Heart Apr 15, 2021
Preseason Notes: Extensions and vaccinations
Photo by Abbie Parr/ The keeper will remain here for “a decent amount of time”. In another universe, Stefan Frei might have been an excellent reporter. The Seattle Sounders goalkeeper broke a couple of enticing bits of news during his press conference Wednesday, one of which will keep him from pursuing a muckraking career for a couple of years yet. Frei announced that he had come to terms with the Sounders on a contract extension, which will keep him in Seattle for “a decent amount of time,” according to Frei. He originally came to the Sounders via a trade with...
Sounder At Heart Apr 14, 2021
How to watch and listen to Sounders in 2021
Sounders will simulcast regional broadcasts to radio Seattle Sounders broadcasts will look and sound very familiar in 2021. Once again, the main broadcast team will consist of Keith Costigan (play by play), Kasey Keller (color), and Steve Zakuani (analysis). Regional broadcasts will be aired on JOEtv, streamed on Amazon Prime and iHeartMedia carrying the radio call. The most notable difference in 2021 will be the radio call being a simulcast of the regional TV broadcasts, a return to the format from 2009-2015. For the last four years, Matt Johnson had provided a dedicated radio...
Sounder At Heart Apr 14, 2021
Sounders offensive preview: Two forward-set will define offensive ceiling
Max Aquino / Sounder at Heart Three questions about the Sounders offense that will determine their potential. Defense is good and an important part of soccer, maybe the second most important part. Defense can only get you so far, after all. In a sense a team’s defense determines the floor of its potential, while the attack determines the ceiling. In the previous installment we looked at the three major questions that face the Seattle Sounders defense ahead of the 2021 season, so now it’s time to dig into the other side of things. The absence of Jordan Morris...
Sounder At Heart Apr 14, 2021
Notes from the North End: Getting to know Spencer Richey
Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports We’re introducing a new monthly column by introducing readers to a local kid who is coming home. Welcome to the inaugural edition of Notes from the North End, a new monthly look at anything and everything Seattle Sounders. You want player profiles? We’ll do that. You want insider stories about the club? We’ll deliver that too. Stories about players and their dogs? Yes, we will do that. You want hardcore statistical analysis of the various formations and personnel combinations throughout the season? We probably won’t do that, but...
Sounder At Heart Apr 14, 2021
Sounders season preview: Defense faces some big questions
Max Aquino / Sounder at Heart Three big questions about the defense ahead of the home opener. The 2021 Seattle Sounders season is mere days away. With the limitations imposed by the ongoing pandemic, and the decision not to stream the few preseason games the team played, we have a lot of questions about what to expect from the Sounders this year. We know that the team will be without some of the stalwarts of recent history, as Gustav Svensson, Kelvin Leerdam, Joevin Jones, and Roman Torres are all gone (for the second time, in the cases of Jones and Torres). Brian...
Sounder At Heart Apr 13, 2021
Fans left fuming after Sounders ticketing fiasco
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports “That bar was not met today, and that is completely our responsibility,” the Sounders share in a statement. The first Seattle Sounders match played in front of home fans in over a year had promised to be a celebratory affair. By Friday, it likely still will feel that way. But on Tuesday — the day tickets finally went on sale — the emotions surrounding the game are considerably darker as fans encountered frustration after frustration in an attempt to get their hands on the roughly 35,000 tickets that were made available for the first...
