The Seattle Sounders are breaking out of their mid-season slump and finally looking like real playoff contenders, and to us Emerald City faithful, it absolutely feels like this happens every single year. We know the drill: the club hits a rough patch, things look bleak, and then, somehow, they fix it. Maybe it’s a key signing, guys getting healthy, or maybe Brian Schmetzer just realizes the calendar says October. Whatever it is, that feeling of an annual turnaround is back!
Your Gut Was Right: The Sounders *Always* Slump
We all talk about it, don’t we? That mid-season dip where the Sounders just kinda… fall off. Fingers get pointed, frustrations boil over, and everyone wonders what the heck is going on. Well, forget “feels” for a second, because the numbers are here, and they back us up. Our own Sounder Data analysis confirms it: the Sounders almost always hit an annual rough patch. We dove deep into every Sounders regular season result since 2009. We even cooked up an algorithm to pinpoint these rough patches: a “slump” means five games or longer where their points per game over the past five matches dipped below their season median, and at least 0.5 PPG below that median. It’s all about them underperforming their *own* standard. And guess what? This club, dependable as the Seattle rain, still almost always hits that rough patch.
The Comeback Is Also an Annual Tradition
But here’s the beautiful flip side, the part that keeps us coming back: they turn it around almost every season! We’ve seen it time and time again. Think back to 2016, man. Things were grim. Not only did we suffer through a deep, long summer slump, but the year kicked off with a bad start too. Sigi Schmid got fired by August, our legend Brian Schmetzer stepped in, and a guy named Nicolas Lodeiro started his first of many amazing seasons with us. What happened? The team roared back, finished 4th in the Western Conference, and snagged their first MLS Cup. What a ride, right? That 2016 season also highlights something else: the “slow start”. When you eyeball the past, there are two distinct kinds of slumpy seasons: “Slow starts” and “Summer slumps”. By one count, seven seasons fall into the “slow start” category, including 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and even 2024. Though, let’s be real, 2010 and 2014 weren’t even *that* bad. Remember, we won our only Supporters’ Shield in 2014! On the other hand, 2018 wa…
So, what does this data mean for Cristian Roldan, Jordan Morris, and the rest of the squad as they make this late-season push? It means we’ve been here before. It means we know what this team is capable of when they hit their stride in October. The pattern is clear: a slump is almost always followed by a comeback. Get ready, Seattle, because the Sounders are writing another chapter in their annual turnaround story, and it’s looking like a good one.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Sounder at Heart.
Leave a Reply