When Albert Rusnák found the back of the net in the 90th minute on Wednesday in the Seattle Sounders’ 2-1 win at Austin FC, no one in the stadium was more relieved than him. The go-ahead and ultimately match-winning goal was the Slovakian international’s third on the year, but it meant more after what had happened 20 minutes earlier.
After the Sounders took a 1-0 lead just after halftime, Austin equalized in the 72nd minute when Sebastián Driussi scored at the back post on a flick header from Gyasi Zardes on a corner kick. Driussi was Rusnák’s responsibility.
“For me personally, it felt good because it was my fault on their goal,” said Rusnák. “I was marking Driussi and I fell asleep on the back post. I felt even more relief when I scored to make it 2-1, not just because of the three points but because I had to make up for that mistake.”
The Sounders earned their first victory in eight matches in all competitions. It was a massive three points in a tightly contested Western Conference, with just eight points separating LAFC in second and Austin FC in 10th place.
For the Sounders, it also means that they head back to Seattle after collecting four points in four days from two road matches at Minnesota United and Austin.
“Sometimes it’s not pretty,” said goalkeeper Stefan Frei. “It’s a grind, it’s got to be earned.”
Frei put in arguably his best performance of the season on Wednesday, recording five saves, including several in spectacular fashion, and reminded everyone why he’s still one of the premier goalkeepers in MLS.
“We’ve gone through it, we’ve stuck with it, we’ve kept fighting, we’ve kept training really hard,” said Frei. “It’s difficult when you try and try and try and never get rewarded, it’s demoralizing at times, but you’ve got to keep going. That’s why I think today is such a good result because it’s one of those games where it wasn’t an easy 3-0 victory, it was a hard-fought battle, which is what we’ve been doing throughout the year.
“We’ve been fighting and fighting and fighting, so for us to finally be able to reward ourselves today is really, really good,” he continued. “It feels really good for the confidence, really good for the team. Now we have to build on it.”
Despite the recent struggles, this Seattle team is still its trademark resilient self under Head Coach Brian Schmetzer. The Sounders have had a bit of a rough go of it lately, but it’s efforts like Wednesday that can help alter the trajectory of a campaign.
“Even with a bad spell of results, you have to understand that this team doesn’t quit,” said Schmetzer. “It’s just not in the Sounders’ DNA."
“It was a just result for the people who don’t believe that this team is still capable of winning games,” he added. “I believe that the team can win, the players in the locker room believe that they can win and games like this will help us for the remainder of the season.”
Seattle will have a massive opportunity to cap what could be a season-defining seven days when it welcomes the rival Portland Timbers to Lumen Field on Saturday (7:30 p.m. PT; Watch on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV | TICKETS). Three points this weekend would have the Sounders bursting with confidence heading into the final six matches of the regular season, while also earning a little breathing room from the rest of the pack.
“There were many great performances today individually, and more and more great individual performances lead to a great team performance,” said Rusnák. “Now it’s time to start winning games at Lumen Field at home and there’s no better game to be honest than the one that’s coming Saturday.”
