The Seattle Sounders head into the 2026 Major League Soccer season with high expectations and their sights set on another trophy after lifting last year’s Leagues Cup. Fresh off a successful preseason in Spain, Seattle will welcome the Colorado Rapids to Lumen Field on Sunday (6:15 p.m. PT; FS1, Apple TV | **TICKETS**) looking to build some early season momentum.
“Collectively, I think we’re in a really good spot,” said midfielder Paul Arriola, who returns after suffering a season-ending ACL injury in Concacaf Champions Cup play last year. “A lot of guys are playing really well already…We have every reason to believe that we can be one of the best teams in the league this year.”
The Sounders entered 2025 hellbent on scoring and creating and finishing more chances, but their defensive fortitude suffered as a result. A major focus this past month in friendlies against the likes of Denmark’s IF Brøndby, Ukraine’s Metalist FC and Sweden’s Hammarby IF was shoring up their back line, something with which they were pleased.
“We let in a lot of goals, too many goals for our liking,” midfielder Cristian Roldan said of last year’s results. “So we felt like we did well defensively during preseason.
“We’re excited for the year. I think it’s going to be big year in many different ways and for many different reasons…The focus here at the club is to win trophies, so that’s always the goal.”
This past offseason featured some key departures for the Sounders as they said goodbye to Homegrowns Obed Vargas (Atlético Madrid), Danny Leyva (Club Necaxa) and Reed Baker-Whiting (Nashville SC), while stalwart central midfielder João Paulo retired. But the club added a few formidable additions with the likes of former Minnesota United midfielder and Federal Way, Wash., native Hassani Dotson, former Inter Miami defender and Washington Husky Ryan Sailor and Serbian defensive midfielder Nikola Petković on loan from Charlotte FC.
“The strength of this group has always been the core: guys returning, playing really good football, being able to add additions,” said Arriola. “When you have such a good team, you have high prospects, you have really good players, so there’s always going to be people coming and going. But it’s the reputation of the club, it’s the reputation of championships and the success that this club has that continues to bring the right players in. They continually get it right year after year.”
Their first test this weekend will come against a Rapids side under new Head Coach Matt Wells, a former assistant at Tottenham in the English Premier League. Colorado sold two of its most influential playmakers over the past six months with Djordje Mihailovic going to Toronto FC last summer before moving Cole Bassett to the Portland Timbers this offseason. But in their stead is Paxten Aaronson, the former Philadelphia Union Homegrown who joined from Eintracht Frankfurt late last year on a major deal.
Bring the Noise
Enjoy the Rave Pack —a six-match offering filled with high-energy, high-stakes matches at Lumen Field. Open the 2026 home slate vs. Colorado, feel the heat of our biggest rivalry against Portland in the first MLS match after the FIFA World Cup break, and finish with a Saturday-night showdown vs. Eastern Conference foe CF Montrêal.
“They’re a young team, a team full of energy, a team that wants to play out of the back, wants to press really hard,” said Roldan. “They’re a team that has a lot of confidence in the way they play in the short amount of time they’ve been working on things.
“It’s about us too. We’re at home. How can we impose our will, our style of play, what makes us good, rather than changing everything for a team like Colorado?”
Sunday’s match will also be the last time the Sounders will play in Seattle until April 12 against Real Salt Lake as Lumen Field undergoes upgrades ahead of the FIFA World Cup this summer.
“[Our focus is on] everything we’ve worked on in preseason, making sure the guys come out with energy, feed off the crowd,” said Sounders Head Coach Brian Schmetzer. “We want to start off on the right foot. It’s hard to win on the road in MLS. This one’s an important game.”
