Seattle Sounders FC

Also written as Seattle.

The club

Seattle Sounders FC were announced as a Major League Soccer expansion franchise on 13 November 2007 and unveiled the Sounders name on 7 April 2008, before making their MLS debut on 19 March 2009, a 3-0 win over the New York Red Bulls in front of 32,523. The football feed refers to the club simply as "Seattle".

This is not the same corporate entity as either of the two earlier clubs that carried the Sounders name in the city, though the current club considers itself their successor in spirit. The original Seattle Sounders played in the North American Soccer League from December 1973 until the club folded in September 1983, reaching the Soccer Bowl final in 1977 and 1982 and winning the Pacific Conference in 1977; when that club folded, the rights to the Sounders name were sold on rather than passed to any successor. A second Seattle Sounders then played in the second-tier American Professional Soccer League, A-League and USL First Division from 1994 to 2008, winning four league championships (1995, 1996, 2005, 2007). That USL club folded deliberately at the end of the 2008 season specifically to clear the way for the MLS franchise, which retained the Sounders name in honour of both predecessors but is legally a separate club, founded new in 2007 rather than a continuation of either. Anyone asking about "Seattle Sounders" in a pre-2009 NASL or USL context is asking about a different, defunct organisation, not the current MLS club.

The club plays at Lumen Field in downtown Seattle, known as Qwest Field when it opened in 2002 and as CenturyLink Field from 2011 to 2020 before its current naming-rights deal. Capacity for football is reduced from the full NFL configuration; MLS matches are commonly reported in the high 30,000s to low 40,000s, with the ground able to expand for marquee occasions. The 2025 Leagues Cup final against Inter Miami drew 69,314, and the 2019 MLS Cup final drew 69,274, both figures cited as among the stadium's largest football crowds; the 2010 US Open Cup final at the same venue drew 31,311, a tournament attendance record at the time. The Sounders set a new MLS record for average home attendance in each of their first five seasons in the league, reaching an average of 44,038 by 2013.

Majority owner is Adrian Hanauer, who has held that position since 2015; the original 2007 ownership group also included Joe Roth, the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and Drew Carey, with Paul Allen's estate and roughly a dozen Seattle-area families among the minority owners following his death in October 2018. The club's colours are Sounder Blue, Rave Green and Cascade Shale, drawing on Puget Sound, the region's forests and the Cascade Range; the crest incorporates the Space Needle and was rebranded in September 2023. The head coach is Brian Schmetzer, in his tenth full season in charge; he first took over on an interim basis during the 2016 season. General manager is Craig Waibel.

Recent seasons

Seattle finished 21st overall in MLS in 2022, missing the playoffs, but won the CONCACAF Champions League that year, the club's first continental title. They were seventh in 2023, reaching the Leagues Cup group stage, and seventh again in 2024 with 57 points, reaching the MLS Cup Playoffs semi-finals and the Leagues Cup quarter-finals. In 2025 they finished 10th with 55 points and went out in the first round of the playoffs, but won the Leagues Cup, beating Inter Miami 3-0 in the final. Through 23 August 2026 the Sounders sit 13th in the Western Conference with a 7-9-4 record and 25 points from a 34-match schedule, having lost 5-1 away to Portland Timbers after the World Cup break in July and then ended an eight-match winless run with a 1-1 draw against FC Cincinnati.

Honours and landmarks

MLS Cup winners in 2016 and 2019. Supporters' Shield winners in 2014, the club's first outright championship as the best regular-season team in the league. US Open Cup winners four times, in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2014, the only MLS expansion team to win the competition in its debut season and the first club since 1983 to win it three years running (2009-2011). CONCACAF Champions League winners in 2022, the first MLS club to win the modern edition of that competition and the first non-Mexican winner. Leagues Cup winners in 2025, having also reached the final in 2021, where they lost to Club León. Cascadia Cup winners seven times, in 2006, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2021, with three straight titles from 2018 to 2021; Vancouver Whitecaps lead the overall Cascadia Cup count with nine.

Notable scorelines

Seattle's biggest MLS win is regarded as a 7-1 defeat of the San Jose Earthquakes on 10 September 2020, the largest margin of victory in club history. The 2016 MLS Cup final finished 0-0 after extra time at BMO Field in Toronto, the first MLS Cup final to end scoreless, with goalkeeper Stefan Frei making the decisive save of the shootout period and Roman Torres scoring the winning penalty in a 5-4 shootout win over Toronto FC. The 2019 MLS Cup final was won 3-1 over the same opponent at Lumen Field in front of 69,274. In the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League final, Seattle drew 2-2 away to Pumas UNAM at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City, Nicolás Lodeiro scoring twice from the penalty spot, then won the home leg 3-0 at Lumen Field with two goals from Raúl Ruidíaz and one from Lodeiro, taking the tie 5-2 on aggregate. The four US Open Cup final wins were 2-1 over D.C. United at RFK Stadium in Washington in 2009, 2-1 over the Columbus Crew at Qwest Field in 2010, 2-0 over the Chicago Fire at CenturyLink Field in 2011, and 3-1 after extra time away to the Philadelphia Union at PPL Park in 2014. The 2025 Leagues Cup final was won 3-0 over Inter Miami.

Head-to-head notes

Seattle's principal rivals are the two other Cascadia clubs, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps FC, whose annual series decides the Cascadia Cup; the rivalry predates MLS, running back through the clubs' USL years from 2004, and continued once all three joined MLS together in 2011. The exact all-time head-to-head records against Portland and Vancouver were not established from the sources read here, beyond the overall Cascadia Cup tally above. In the 2026 CONCACAF Champions Cup, Seattle beat Vancouver Whitecaps 5-1 on aggregate in the round of 16, winning 3-0 away and 2-1 at home, before losing 2-0 in the first leg of a quarter-final to Tigres UANL.

Right now (2026/27)

Brian Schmetzer remains head coach. In MLS, Seattle are 13th in the Western Conference through 23 August 2026 on 7-9-4 and 25 points, a season that began with a 2-0 win over the Colorado Rapids but has since included a heavy 5-1 defeat away to Portland Timbers on 16 July, after the mid-season World Cup break, and an eight-match winless run that was ended by a 1-1 draw with FC Cincinnati. Lumen Field has had a grass pitch temporarily installed as part of preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which Seattle is hosting matches for.

In the 2026 Leagues Cup, Seattle were eliminated in the group stage on three points, beating Querétaro 3-0 but losing 3-0 to Toluca and 2-1 to Chivas. In the CONCACAF Champions Cup, entered as 2025 Leagues Cup winners, Seattle advanced past Vancouver Whitecaps 5-1 on aggregate in the round of 16 before losing the first leg of their quarter-final 2-0 to Tigres UANL on 8 April; the outcome of the return leg was not established from the sources read here. Midfielder Obed Vargas left for Atlético Madrid during the year, and striker Dejan Joveljić arrived via trade from Sporting Kansas City on 25 August 2026. The full state of Seattle's US Open Cup 2026 campaign and any further transfer business were not established from the sources read here.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.