AP

The Sounders maxed out their allocation money they can convert from sales this year already. I’d much rather have Georgi than no Georgi and $3 million cash that goes into the black hole of club finances. Spend some of the $9 mil in the bank from the CWC before shipping off a player for cash.

At Sports Reference we have taken great pride in the role FBref has played over the last seven years as an expansive source for soccer fans all over the world. Unfortunately, last week the provider of our advanced soccer data sent us a letter terminating our access to their data feeds and requiring the deletion of their data from the site immediately. As a result, we have removed the provider's data from FBref and Stathead in compliance with their demand. The data provider has asserted that our use of the data violated our agreement. Their demand came unexpectedly despite our long-standing and good-faith operation of FBref and Stathead. We have operated the sites in a consistent manner from their creation (well before the signing of this agreement) through today, and we have always welcomed open and frank discussions about how the sites operate. Any effort to retain access to this advanced data would have been costly and uncertain. Under the circumstances, we have decided to comply with the termination notice. This creates a significant gap in the stats offered on FBref and Stathead. We are heartbroken both for our users who have come to rely upon this product and for our team that has spent thousands of hours bringing these stats to life and supporting our users. We are especially upset by the massive step back this creates in access for women's advanced soccer data. Data Democratization is a core Sports Reference value and the removal of this data is a sad day for all of us. We will take time to assess possible paths forward. FBref will continue to present the deep historic basic data we have for over one hundred competitions, but if we present advanced data in the future it will certainly have a dramatically smaller scale.

Utterly disastrous news for public access to soccer data and statistics.

www.sports-reference.com/blog/2026/01...

Don’t threaten me with a good time.

That would be awesome. The Shield is a trophy too and having a full season of success would build a lot of good will for the folks who pay for tickets every week.

His smoker:

It feels crazy to move on from an 18 goal scorer in Musovski, and if they do move on, I hope they get a bag of GAM for him. But if keeping Musovski means that Morris gets moved back to the wing and De Rosario doesn't see the field, I think you need to sell high on Moose.

For JP and Kim, I'd be OK if they stayed, but it probably makes more sense to transition their minutes to Snyder and Hawkins. Using an outside U22 signing at DM or CB would be a good move. I can't imagine Kent stays. After him, things get tricky.

For 2026, the steady turnover of the roster has to stay on schedule. I think it's time to move Nouhou. I think Thomas needs to have the starting job if they believe he is starting quality. I'm very wary of moving on from Yeimar. That's a real "be careful what you wish for" scenario.

The Cristian-Obed midfield kept this team moving when a lot of teams would have folded from injuries. One big question for the future- can the Sounders keep playing this level of attacking soccer if Obed gets sold?

They gave the fans big moments. Beating Messi at home for a cup was special. The club world cup games were special. Some of the goals this season will be remembered for a very long time. They were a likeable team. Pedro was a joy to watch. New storylines keep emerging with their young players.

My biggest hope for 2025 was that the team would be fun to watch again. They needed to score more goals, score in style, and be a great home team again. They accomplished that. This was the most entertaining Sounders team since 2021 at least, and maybe since 2014/15.

That was an awful way to end the season, but it's hard to ignore that road playoff games are a crap shoot and the Sounders were on the road primarily because they put more into their 3 other competitions than they put into the regular season.

Some reflections on their 2025-

Unless St Clair gets a touch to it, I don’t think it matters.

On the one hand, the season is over. On the other hand, the dumbest game ever is also finally over so we have that going for us.

Club that intentionally broke league roster rules is VERY concerned about MLS being consistent and fair now.

To be fair, I think the watermelon is in line to pitch the 17th.

Control the controllables, as Schmetzer likes to say. Sometimes your best shooters have an off night. The thing you can control is putting your best performers in position to succeed. And if your shooters are inconsistent, goalkeeper success becomes even more important to advance.

The unwritten rules around soccer are so funny. Sub a defender out so Ruidiaz can take a PK in a shootout, and no one would think to say coach is not “showing confidence” in his defender. But do the same obviously beneficial thing for a goalkeeper, and it’s a supposed to be a scandal?

I think having Cristian as one of your main PK takers is probably bad process at this point too. Like Stef, he has so many excellent qualities and for some reason PKs are not among them.

I’m more disappointed with bad process than bad results.

I really wish Schmetzer didn’t have a habit of making me annoyed at Sounders legends in their twilight years by stubbornly playing them when they have no business being on the field.

Obed should be higher IMO

Incredible that after Miami embarrasses the whole league, the only one to receive a significant punishment is Steven Lenhart.

Top image: Woman yelling at cat meme. Bottom image: Suarez angry and yelling and pointing at Vargas, who is smiling.

What an incredible game for Vargas. Also this.

Sounders!

You’ll notice he steps on Gene’s foot so he can’t step away. Again, one of the most despicable and disgusting things I’ve ever seen happen on a soccer pitch.

Georgi winning the PK and Paul bringing the house down at the end is storybook stuff. Two of the easiest guys to root for in the world.

Suarez and Busquets harassing and punching Obed Vargas after the final whistle for pocketing Messi all game is such bush league nonsense. Couldn’t catch up to him all game so they had to get him after.

There was a time that I would have been so excited if Luis Suarez had become a Sounder, and although he would have undoubtedly scored a couple hundred goals here, I’m glad he never joined. He doesn’t belong in a Sounders jersey.