The Heritage Cup is Finally Ours

On a perfect summer day (70 with some sun, but not too much) for some football, the Seattle Sounders hosted Bruce Arena and the San Jose Earthquakes, both teams wearing their stunning third kits.

Despite some smoke from nearby wildfires and the closure of I-5 North, 30,000 fans attended the game to see the Sounders lift the Heritage Cup with a 3-2 win against the San Jose Earthquakes thanks to goals from Danny Musovski and a winner from Pedro de la Vega. This was their first win against San Jose in four years!

The first half started with both teams trading blows, with Cristian Espinoza misplacing a pass right to RBW, who played the ball over the top to an on-running Jordan Morris, who beat the backline and sent his shot right into the side netting. That could have been an entertaining start to the match. Not long after, Jordan poorly laid the ball off to Obed Vargas, which allowed San Jose to turn quickly to counter with Preston Judd beating Jon Bell in a footrace and getting a shot off, but Andrew Thomas had no issues saving the shot. Not long after, Espinoza fires off a low driven cross that finds a diving Preston Judd, who makes Andrew Thomas work to make the save.

Then disaster struck.

In the fifteenth minute, Jordan Morris beat his defender in a foot race, and he and the San Jose goalkeeper Daniel collided, sending Jordan airborne, who landed on his shoulder. The fall and tackle looked absolutely BRUTAL, but there was obviously no malicious intent. Immediately after, Danny Musovski came on for the injured Jordan Morris, who went straight to the locker room. Man, really can’t catch a break.

San Jose opened up the scoring in the 25th minute after some fantastic ball movement from San Jose, Jamar Ricketts blows past KKR and sends a low driven cross to Preston Judd, who gets just in front of Jon Bell to tap it in, giving the Earthquakes the lead. Almost as quickly as they went down, the Seattle Sounders leveled the score thanks to Danny Musovski getting at the end of a cross from Albert Rusnak at the top of the six.

In the 56th minute, it was Danny Musovski again who gave the Sounders the lead! Cristian sends the ball over the San Jose backline, finding an open Pedro de la Vega, who hits a fantastic trivela to a running Moose who heads it home, securing his brace and putting the Sounders back in the driving seat. I am 98% sure one of Pepo or Danny was offside, but I am not going to put a question mark where the creator put a period.

From there on, San Jose put their feet on the gas and got the equalizer after a free-kick from a Cristian Roldan handball in the 63rd minute. Christian Espinoza sends a perfectly placed ball into the box. Preston Judd was first to get a head on it, but Andrew Thomas blocked the ball to the post, but it was Chicho Arango who tapped it in to make it 2-2.

Shortly after that, controversy brewed as San Jose goalkeeper Daniel took out another Sounders player while coming out to make a save. As Daniel came out, he lifted his leg and his studs went right into Pedro de la Vega’s thigh, causing Lumen Field to roar as shouts for a penalty and a red card commenced, but neither the center ref nor VAR wanted anything to do with it. However, moments later, Pedro de la Vega got his revenge as he hit a stunning curler from the top of the 18 after a perfect run and an inch-perfect through ball from Cristian Roldan to send the Sounders into the lead with 22 minutes left! This goal should have won Goal of the Week, but for whatever reason (we damn well know why) Inter Messi and Jordi Alba got the award.

The final 20 minutes were a mixed bag as San Jose came at the Sounders with everything they had, but the Sounders held on strong and had a few decent chances of their own. Neither team could find the finishing blow. The last few minutes of extra time were nail-biting as RBW conceded a free kick in a poor position, which led to San Jose getting a shot that hit the crossbar. Still, after a headed pass back into the box, Josef Martinez almost hit a picturesque scissor volley, but Andy Thomas came up big yet again and palmed it out.

Reed Baker-Whiting is not the answer at LB

Somehow, this could be considered a hot take. I know how good he is going forward, and the build-up feels more fluid when he’s in that spot as opposed to Nouhou, but I would much rather have a defender who can actually defend. We have Alex Roldan and Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, who can attack and defend on the right flank, and are stronger defensively. However, on the left, it’s almost as if Brian Schmetzer has to choose between having one or the other. From the get-go, San Jose focused their attack and their build-up on that left-hand side, knowing RBW’s deficiencies in defending. His defending stats look better than the eye test because of how much he was getting worked on that side. KKR only had to perform eight defensive actions compared to Reed’s 20. The most damning stat was that Reed lost ten duels on the night, and the six that he won did not come from his defensive prowess. He also got himself booked again for a poor tackle near the top of the box because he was beaten and was out of position. While Reed Baker-Whiting remains an excellent prospect with a very high ceiling, the more he gets played at left-back, I fear the more his development is being stunted.

The Moose is Loose

Danny Musovski took a step up in this game as he scored a brace to help the Sounders secure victory. However, the only reason the Moose was let loose in the first place was because of yet another Jordan Morris injury. After the collision with Daniel early in the first half, Jordan Morris came off with what we now know is damage to his AC joint in his shoulder and will require surgery. There’s no confirmed timetable for his return, but it appears to be a minimum of eight weeks or possibly longer. Fingers crossed that it’s less than that. For the time being, with the Noah Ohio negotiations seemingly stalled, it will be up to Danny Musovski to retake the reins and be the leading number nine for the Sounders. I am not overly upset by it, as it felt as though it gave Pedro de la Vega and Jesus Ferreira more freedom to do what they do best. If Musovski can build on this form and go on another heater like he did earlier in the year, then the Sounders will be more than fine without having to dip into the Transfer Market.