Sounders don’t need to do anything, but what if they wanted to?
Let's get something out of the way before we go any further: the Seattle Sounders do not need retooling, reconstructing or even renovation.
This is a club that played 50 matches in 2025 — the most in a single campaign in franchise history — and came out the other side with a Leagues Cup trophy; a FIFA Club World Cup experience that proved MLS could hang with PSG and Atlético Madrid; and a 23-13-14 record across all competitions. They scored 87 goals, the most in club history across a single season, and set a new mark for goal contributions in league play with 131. Cristian Roldan earned his first career MLS Best XI selection and worked his way back onto the USMNT radar under Mauricio Pochettino. Obed Vargas, the kid from Anchorage who joined the Academy at 14, just completed his dream transfer to Atlético Madrid. Pedro de la Vega won Leagues Cup Player of the Tournament. Danny Musovski — a guy who arrived from free agency with career-highs of five goals and one assist at his previous clubs — banged in 16 regular season goals and 18 in all competitions, finishing one shy of the single-season club record shared by Obafemi Martins and Raúl Ruidíaz.
So no. This roster doesn't need a revolution. But what if the front office wanted to tinker? What if Craig Waibel and Brian Schmetzer, never ones to rest on laurels, decided to cherry-pick a few bargains from around the league to keep the machine humming into what promises to be the biggest year in American soccer history?
The following exercise makes a few assumptions: the Sounders find a way to make the salary cap math work, the prices are reasonable enough to close a deal and the clubs would be at least a little interested in dealing, and the players in question don't actively revolt at the idea of relocating to the Pacific Northwest. With that disclaimer stapled firmly to the wall, let's play general manager.
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## The departures
You can't spend without earning. And the Sounders have a few assets that could generate meaningful capital if the right suitor comes knocking.
### Danny Musovski
I know, I know. The man just posted 16 goals and five assists in 1,708 regular-season minutes — all career highs by a mile. He led the team in scoring. At 0.88 goals per 90, he was fourth in all of MLS and posted the highest single-season rate in Sounders history. The man led the league in both xG and non-penalty xG per 90. By every measure, Musovski was a revelation.
So why move him?
Because context is king. Musovski's brilliance was a function of system and scheme. The Sounders were at their most dangerous in 2025 when they deployed coordinated passing movements in and around the box, creating multiple options and overloading defenders' decision-making. The upside was devastating — Seattle threatened from every angle of the final third. The downside was that the same open, attack-heavy shape made fast-break transition defense more difficult and left the back line exposed.
With Jordan Morris returning for a full, healthy campaign and Osaze De Rosario still very much in the picture, there's depth in the attacking positions. And here's the thing about Musovski: his skill set — operating in tight spaces, poaching chances, making intelligent runs — would thrive elsewhere in MLS.
Austin FC makes a ton of sense here. They've got similar elite wingers who need a frontman capable of operating in space and converting half-chances without sucking the air out of the attacking lanes. Musovski's game is about efficiency, not gravity, and that profile fits beautifully in a system that needs a finisher, not a focal point.
### Kim Kee-hee
This one hurts because the numbers quietly argue in Kim's favor. When the Korean center back was on the field in 2025, the Sounders demonstrably improved in goal differential — roughly a half-goal positive swing per match. That's not nothing. It's actually the kind of stabilizing influence that championship rosters need.
The reason it works is partly tactical — Kim doesn't bomb forward chasing glory, which keeps the shape intact — and partly experiential. The man has seen so much high-level attacking soccer over his career that he reads danger before it materializes. He's a ball closer, not a ball challenger, and ball closing is an underrated art.
Still, at 36, a trade for the right return makes sense for both parties. The New York Red Bulls need someone to balance Noah Elie in the center of defense — someone steady, someone who anchors rather than adventures. Nashville SC could also come sniffing, drawn by Kim's championship pedigree, his ability to mentor a young group of center-backs, and his reliability as spot cover for a squad juggling multiple competitions.
### Alex Roldan
Alex Roldan is a Sounders stalwart in the truest sense of the word.
And precisely because of what he is — a versatile veteran who can play right back, defensive midfield, or wing; a guy whose best ability has always been availability; an elite locker room presence who elevates every team environment he touches — there would be a market.
D.C. United could be tempted into an overpay. They're in a phase where they need reliable pros who can stabilize a rebuilding project, and Roldan's positional flexibility makes him a Swiss Army knife for a roster still finding its identity. San Jose is another fit, particularly as they bed down into their new system under Bruce Arena. A veteran bandaid who can slot into four positions and never poison a culture is worth alot especially to a guy like Bruce.
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## The arrivals
Now for the fun part.
### Brooks Lennon (Free Agent, formerly Atlanta United)
Atlanta declined Lennon's contract option after the 2025 season, making the 28-year-old right back a free agent after six years and 177 league and playoff appearances with the Five Stripes. He's currently on trial at D.C. United, which tells you the market hasn't exactly been beating down his door. There's a reason for that: Lennon dealt with tendon issues that limited him to 25 appearances and just a goal and three assists in a down 2025 campaign, and Atlanta finished 14th in the East.
But here's the thing about Lennon that too many people forget: he was the most prolific assist-producing defender in MLS as recently as 2023, when he racked up 13 regular-season assists — the most by any defender in the league that year. In 2024, he posted career-highs in starts (33) and minutes (2,957), leading the team in assists (8), key passes (74), and successful crosses (83). The issue has never been talent. The issue has been workload.
In Atlanta, Lennon was asked to be the right-sided Marcelo — bombing end-line to end-line, providing attacking width, and then somehow recovering defensively. That's a destroyer of legs, especially for a player who provides clean, precise service rather than raw explosive pace.
In Seattle, the math changes entirely. Ahead of Lennon in the Sounders' system would be Pedro de la Vega & Rothrock, Morris & De Rosario, Georgi Minoungou & Ferreira in the wide areas, and Rusnák through the center — a collection of speed demons who can receive a diagonal ball, get onto a through ball in stride, or simply terrorize defenders with pace over the top. Lennon wouldn't need to make lung-busting 100-yard sprints. His ending position in possession would shift back 20-to-35 yards, allowing him to operate primarily from the defensive and middle thirds of the field. His job would be key passes and secondary assists on transitions. Think of the actual nightmares he would give Phil Neville as he would have to defend Lennon higher up the field, ceding space and opportunity to Albert and Georgie. Or defend him closer to goal, letting him ping diagonal passes to Paul Rothrock or crosses that Jordan Morris has a history of burying.
A one-year prove-it deal would be low-risk, high-reward. And the patented Schmetzer philosophy — work your ass off and we'll back you to the gates of hell — has a history of extracting the best from veterans with something to prove. Factor in Kalani Kossa-Rienzi's need for a strong rotation of minutes at right back, and you've got a scenario where Lennon's upsides are harvested while his downsides are carefully managed.
### Petar Musa (FC Dallas)
Admittedly, this is a reach. Rumblings have it Musa is sick of losing, and ready for a change, and many people online have let me know Morris is growing too long in the tooth for their liking. Musa is a DP and the Sounders would have to drop one of their DPs to make this work, but Musa will only get more expensive post world cup. Let me dream.
The pitch to Musa is simple: "Come have fun and win things."
The pitch to FC Dallas is considerably simpler "take this giant monopoly bag of money." Musa just completed back-to-back monster seasons in Frisco — 16 goals in 2024, 19 across all competitions in 2025, tying Jason Kreis for the most goals by an FC Dallas player in a single season. He's scored 35 goals over two years, the most in club history during that span. He's earned a call-up to Croatia's national team ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
This is a Godfather offer or it's not getting off the ground. The kind of deal that makes or breaks front-office careers. But the on-field logic is irresistible. Musa thrives in a service-heavy system, and the Sounders have an embarrassment of creative players in the front and middle lines who could get him the ball in advantageous positions with metronomic regularity. Linking up with Jesús Ferreira, again — who assisted 10 goals across all competitions in 2025 and has the creative instincts to make a true No. 9 shine — would be a partnership built in heaven, again. And with Obed Vargas now at Atlético Madrid, the Sounders' platform has never had more visibility as a legitimate launching pad for top club European ambitions. But in case this is too much of a stretch ...
### Duncan McGuire (Orlando City SC)
The broad strokes are tantalizing. A 24-year-old American striker, 6-foot-1, who was the sixth overall pick in the 2023 SuperDraft and immediately locked down Orlando's starting striker job as a rookie. He scored 15 goals in all competitions his first year and finished second in MLS Young Player of the Year voting. Blackburn Rovers came calling with a permanent transfer in January 2024, only for the deal to collapse in bizarre fashion — McGuire was literally on the flight to England when the paperwork fell through. He stayed, put up 10 goals and three assists in 2024, earned a new contract, and looked like a player whose trajectory pointed straight toward Europe.
Then came the shoulders.
McGuire needed surgery to repair his right labrum and rotator cuff after the 2024 playoffs, pushing his 2025 start back to March. He returned early, made cameos off the bench, scored in the Open Cup, and looked sharp. Then in June, his left shoulder gave out. Another arthroscopic repair. Another four months on the shelf. He didn't play again until late August, and by then Luis Muriel had claimed the starting spot. McGuire finished 2025 with just 18 appearances, 726 minutes, and three goals in a season that was functionally a write-off.
The fit in Seattle is compelling. McGuire is the kind of big, physical target forward who thrives on service. He wouldn't need to be the system — he'd need to finish what the system creates, and his 2023 rookie season proved he can do exactly that at a high level. Pair him with Rothrock's creative passing and Georgi's dribble-and-cut game, and you've got a striker who could feast.
The risk is obvious: two shoulder surgeries in a calendar year is genuinely eyebrow-raising. But shoulder injuries aren't knee injuries. They don't typically rob strikers of the explosiveness and movement patterns that make them dangerous. If McGuire's shoulders hold up — and he's had months to fully recover — then the Sounders would be acquiring a proven MLS goalscorer at a fraction of Musa's price, with years of upside still ahead of him. At 24, taking a year to get healthy knowing that the Sounders will rotate him into sensible minutes and offer competition for a starting role in '27 could unlock the early pop of talent we saw in 2023.
### Chris Durkin (St. Louis City SC)
This isn't a flashy signing. That's the point.
Durkin is 25, stands 6-foot and had what he himself called "the hardest season" of his career in 2025. Knee injuries plagued him — he missed preseason and the opener recovering from a late-2024 injury, came back for five matches, hurt his knee again, returned for three more, overextended it taking a shot from distance, missed another seven games, and then caught a straight red card ten minutes into his first appearance back. He played just 18 matches and 1,129 minutes for a St. Louis team that went 8-8-18 and finished 25th in MLS.
None of that should scare the Sounders off. St Louis picked up his option, and he has had a clean bill of health through preseason this year. When healthy — and he logged 26 full 90-minute shifts in 2024, finishing second among St. Louis field players in minutes — Durkin is one of the better possession distributors in MLS on a per-90 basis. He's dominant in the air. He has the frame to bully all but the biggest of center forwards.
He also solves a subtle roster puzzle. Cristian Roldan is almost certainly going to miss time during the 2026 World Cup — three straight USMNT call-ups, a starring two-assist performance against Australia, and glowing reviews from Pochettino suggest he’s booking that plane ticket early. With Vargas now in Madrid, the Sounders need defensive coverage that doesn’t represent a dramatic drop-off.
Durkin won’t replicate Roldan’s elite engine or attacking output (1,849 completed passes at 89% accuracy in 2025 tells you just how absurd that standard is), but he provides something almost as valuable: positional stability. Durkin provides immediate two-position coverage. He can start as a No. 6 when needed, slide into CB during matches, or outright play as a right-sided center back in a pinch.
He has the frame, mobility, and positional discipline to drop into the back line, especially in a system that asks center backs to defend space and initiate build-up. In possession, he naturally already operates in a back-three shape, giving Seattle an extra outlet, cleaner rest defense, and better spacing against high presses. Think of how João Paulo used to slide between the center backs, or how Yeimar occasionally steps into midfield — Durkin gives you both ideas rolled into one.
This is admittedly a longer term play. Eventually Cristian Roldan will be gone, and with Durkin, I see a lot of similar patterns and qualities that should translate into Rave green.
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## The bottom line
None of this needs to happen. The Sounders are heading into 2026 with a Leagues Cup to defend, a World Cup arriving in their backyard, and a core that already proved it can compete with the best clubs on the planet. Schmetzer and Waibel have earned the right to stand pat and let the existing group run it back.
But the beauty of the Sounders' position is that they don't need to make a big move to make a smart one. A veteran right-back on a prove-it deal. A goal-scoring difference-maker if the money works. A high-floor midfielder to fill the Vargas-shaped hole in the engine room. None of these moves require tearing up the blueprint. Nor do any of these guys have to get off the plane and preform out of the gate, one of the many luxuries the Sounders have, is that they can allow players to take a month or two, even up to half a season to settle into rhythm with the team.
And as 69,314 people who watched the Leagues Cup Final can attest, the rhythm is pretty damn good.
