The Seattle Sounders have been streaky this season.
The Sounders (9-9-8, 35 points), who are ninth in the Western Conference, hope their current run continues when they host last-place Sporting Kansas City (6-17-3, 21 points) on Thursday night.
After opening the season 7-1-3, the Sounders lost eight in a row while dealing with a rash of injuries. Five straight draws followed, and they’re now riding a two-game winning streak.
“Based on my experience, teams kind of go in waves,” Sounders defender Jackson Ragen said. “We had a really good start to the season and then a bad spell that lasted way too long for this club. Now, we’re getting back into form. We just need to continue. We’re playing well as a team, we’re scoring goals, working hard on defense and need to keep doing what we’re doing.”
The Sounders have scored five goals over their past two games without forward Dejan Joveljic, who is playing with the Serbian national team. Joveljic, acquired in late August from Sporting Kansas City for $6 million, has three goals over his first four games with Seattle.
“Guys are feeling confident, guys are feeling good and it’s the right time of year to start building that momentum,” said Sounders forward Jordan Morris, who is back to full health and scored his first goal since April 25 in a 3-1 victory over visiting Minnesota United on Saturday.
With the goal, Morris became the Sounders’ all-time regular-season goals leader with 73, passing Raul Ruidiaz.
Sporting Kansas City have won two of their past three games, including a 2-0 victory Saturday in Houston in which Andre Luiz had a goal and an assist. Luiz, acquired in August from Greek club Olympiacos FC, and goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland were named to the MLS Team of the Matchday. Cleveland, a former Sounder, made five saves in Kansas City’s first clean sheet of the season.
“I’m very pleased with what I saw and I hope this gives the team confidence,” SKC coach Raphael Wicky said. “I think over the last weeks or even since the break, besides maybe two games, we’ve shown that we’re competitive with most of the teams, so I’m happy with that.”
–Field Level Media
