Foreign Exchange: Three questions with Sounder at Heart's Jeremiah Oshan
Both Austin FC and Seattle Sounders FC are straight up not having a good time this season. We check in with the best source for Sounders news to get a sense of the hosts' current state ahead of Wednesday's match at Lumen Field.
It's been less than a month since we last talked to Sounder at Heart's Jeremiah Oshan about Seattle Sounders FC, but we don't make the schedules, we just follow them. Since we last spoke, the Sounders' dire situation has gotten even worse, as this rolling NPxGD (non-penalty expected goal difference) chart shows.
However, Austin FC's form (minus the three Leagues Cup matches that at least temporarily lifted vibes around the club) has been even more worrying, though the current gulf is not as wide as it is for the Sounders.
Now, the team that's lost nine of its last 10 in all competitions — with a rash of injuries and head coach Brian Schmetzer on an unfamiliar hot seat — hosts the one team in MLS this season without a road win. How this match goes (slated to start at 8:40 pm CT on Wednesday night at Seattle's Lumen Field) is perhaps more up in the air than you'd expect of Austin at Seattle — it's conceivable either team could win or they could (in a perhaps more likely scenario) grind to a desultory draw.
My Opposition Scouting Report contribution – analogous to Verde All Day's Foreign Exchange series — is now up on Sounder at Heart.
We've also updated our 2026 By the Numbers page on the site; Verde are still leaguewide bottom or near-bottom in a number of key categories, and with the points dropped via goals given up after the 68th minute from winning or drawing positions now at 17, your concerns about late-game defending are justified in persisting.
(Verde's also gone eight matches in league play without a clean sheet, though given the state of Seattle's offense — in which a starting No. 9 hasn't scored all season in MLS play, though it did happen in Leagues Cup against Querétaro — that could be attainable Wednesday night.)
When we last spoke, the Sounders were in a bad place, and now they're in a worse one, having lost nine of their last 10 in all competitions. You wrote about how the front office might need to bring in better players – how likely do you think that is?
I think the Sounders are definitely trying to make some moves but with each passing day that they don’t, I become more skeptical they’ll actually get it done. They’ve already gone an unprecedented four straight summers without an external signing and fans here are definitely worried they’ll make it a fifth.
Either way, they’re not going to have anyone new players for the Austin game, so nothing you’ll need to worry about!
On this topic, where might the Sounders need to shore up the squad? On the latest Soccerwise, they made much ado of needing an upgrade at left wing (between Pedro de la Vega's injuries and Paul Rothrock's limitations), and were down on fan favorite (is he still that?) Nouhou ...
The most glaring need is probably a winger, but they’re also looking for a forward. Truth be told, they probably need upgrades at a host of positions, but those are the two they seem most focused on addressing.
What was once a very deep roster suddenly has issues all over, which is a product of two things: they probably got a bit too aggressive in moving the players who were deemed surplus and then this injury crisis has hit much harder than anyone would have reasonably expected. Among their ideal starters, only Nouhou and Rusnák have played in at least 60% of the available minutes.
Given that it's a 14th-in-the-West Austin coming to Seattle, is the general vibe around this match that it's a winnable match and it can set the Sounders right, or is there enough doom and gloom to have fans feeling this will bring more of the same?
I would say the Sounders look at this game as winnable but there’s no way anyone is taking anything for granted.
If the Sounders can’t stop their losing skid against Austin there’s a very real chance that they could challenge the MLS record of 12 straight losses, as no upcoming games are nearly as winnable as this one, on paper at least. That's pretty amazing when you consider this team was openly talking about making a run at the Supporters’ Shield in the final games heading into the World Cup break!
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
Austin FC only retained one of 11 starters from its loss three nights ago against FC Dallas. This match saw Verde fare better against a flagging Sounders team and get its first road win of 2026.
Austin FC is now 1-6-1 in its last eight matches, despite encouraging performances in Leagues Cup matches. Is Davy Arnaud relying too much on certain players ... and not enough on Jayden Nelson?
Austin FC emerged from Leagues Cup play facing its FC Dallas rivals, and got a magical moment from Ervin Torres. But it wasn't enough to stave off another loss, adding to an onoging bad stretch of league play.
With Austin FC's Leagues Cup journey on pause, we look at the next four regular-season matches, starting tonight with a Copa Tejas match Verde hosts against FC Dallas.
It's been less than a month since we last talked to Sounder at Heart's Jeremiah Oshan about Seattle Sounders FC, but we don't make the schedules, we just follow them. Since we last spoke, the Sounders' dire situation has gotten even worse, as this rolling NPxGD (non-penalty expected goal difference) chart shows.
However, Austin FC's form (minus the three Leagues Cup matches that at least temporarily lifted vibes around the club) has been even more worrying, though the current gulf is not as wide as it is for the Sounders.
Now, the team that's lost nine of its last 10 in all competitions — with a rash of injuries and head coach Brian Schmetzer on an unfamiliar hot seat — hosts the one team in MLS this season without a road win. How this match goes (slated to start at 8:40 pm CT on Wednesday night at Seattle's Lumen Field) is perhaps more up in the air than you'd expect of Austin at Seattle — it's conceivable either team could win or they could (in a perhaps more likely scenario) grind to a desultory draw.
My Opposition Scouting Report contribution – analogous to Verde All Day's Foreign Exchange series — is now up on Sounder at Heart.
We've also updated our 2026 By the Numbers page on the site; Verde are still leaguewide bottom or near-bottom in a number of key categories, and with the points dropped via goals given up after the 68th minute from winning or drawing positions now at 17, your concerns about late-game defending are justified in persisting.
(Verde's also gone eight matches in league play without a clean sheet, though given the state of Seattle's offense — in which a starting No. 9 hasn't scored all season in MLS play, though it did happen in Leagues Cup against Querétaro — that could be attainable Wednesday night.)
To the questions!
When we last spoke, the Sounders were in a bad place, and now they're in a worse one, having lost nine of their last 10 in all competitions. You wrote about how the front office might need to bring in better players – how likely do you think that is?
I think the Sounders are definitely trying to make some moves but with each passing day that they don’t, I become more skeptical they’ll actually get it done. They’ve already gone an unprecedented four straight summers without an external signing and fans here are definitely worried they’ll make it a fifth.
Either way, they’re not going to have anyone new players for the Austin game, so nothing you’ll need to worry about!
On this topic, where might the Sounders need to shore up the squad? On the latest Soccerwise, they made much ado of needing an upgrade at left wing (between Pedro de la Vega's injuries and Paul Rothrock's limitations), and were down on fan favorite (is he still that?) Nouhou ...
The most glaring need is probably a winger, but they’re also looking for a forward. Truth be told, they probably need upgrades at a host of positions, but those are the two they seem most focused on addressing.
What was once a very deep roster suddenly has issues all over, which is a product of two things: they probably got a bit too aggressive in moving the players who were deemed surplus and then this injury crisis has hit much harder than anyone would have reasonably expected. Among their ideal starters, only Nouhou and Rusnák have played in at least 60% of the available minutes.
Given that it's a 14th-in-the-West Austin coming to Seattle, is the general vibe around this match that it's a winnable match and it can set the Sounders right, or is there enough doom and gloom to have fans feeling this will bring more of the same?
I would say the Sounders look at this game as winnable but there’s no way anyone is taking anything for granted.
If the Sounders can’t stop their losing skid against Austin there’s a very real chance that they could challenge the MLS record of 12 straight losses, as no upcoming games are nearly as winnable as this one, on paper at least. That's pretty amazing when you consider this team was openly talking about making a run at the Supporters’ Shield in the final games heading into the World Cup break!
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
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