Albert Rusnák

probably precautionary measure somewhat with three games in eight or so days but it's gonna be Gomez we'll add in something a little bit different on that left hand side you expect Jordan to maybe slide back to that right he played a little bit on that left hand side and the right hand side in that second half but Steve what do you make of that first half really quick but more importantly what's Brian Schmetzer said to his team what do we expect in the second half how the Sounders get going and try to get three points

I think it was acceptable and you can say maybe just good enough but not great I think for the second off a bit more dynamic in the final third can you play through Albert can you give service to your village he hasn't had anything to feed off he's not a kind of plays on a come deep create for himself all the time he kind of needs to be on the end of stuff and to do that you've got to get play in the wide areas for the wide play really diminished as the half went on with Jordan and Jesus switching so maybe said Gomez adds a bit more dynamism and if he's running Jordan and Colony on this right hand side can they find a nice balance as well but really I think Albert Rusnak is the key here can you find balls not deep as a lot of touches but they were in front of the midfield line can you get behind that midfield line in between the lines and then be the link to your village

whistle goes sound attacking the goal to our right in that evergreen kit green shirts light blue shorts and socks not a great start by jackson as he stuffed his toe into the ground as

a manager you spend 15 minutes saying how you've got to start the second half and that's your first clip and then you send

What's maybe just as intriguing is what the Sounders do farther up the pitch, because I think there's a general belief, at least on this show, we've sort of coalesced around the idea that the ideal, the best four attacking players are.

Dion Yovalich, Albert Rusnak, Jordan Morris, and Jesus Ferreira.

We have not really seen them playing together almost at all.

Brian today sort of alluded to acknowledging that we need to see that group together, but I don't know that we're really that close to him settling on an attacking quartet.

Yeah.

So on the Sounders, you know, you have...

You've probably covered as much of Albert Rusnak's career as anybody.

This is a player who, every year, he seems to just put up numbers and somehow...

Total of the 11 players on the field, four goals, 12 assists.

Albert Rusnak has more than that by himself this year.

So all that together, and putting all the pieces together, we went in saying, this is a must win.

Absolutely grab three points against Montreal.

He scores the goal.

And one of the big debates we had that I want to now bring to Sounders Weekly is who should be starting on the right wing.

If Jordan Morris is your left winger, Deke, you know, Dejan Jovovich is your forward, Albert Rusnak's between them, who starts on the right wing? Even if Jesus Ferreira is able to start and, say, go 60 minutes against San Diego on Saturday, would you start Jesus Ferreira if he's 60 minutes good to go, or would you start Seba Gomez?

Well, and I think Paul Areola is another guy who's in the mix for these minutes at the position as well.

Yeah.

And I think the biggest one was sort of highlighted in this game, and that's like, what do you do about the Jesús Ferreira, Albert Rusnák thing? Because best we can tell, Jordan Morris looks like he's most comfortable on the right.

Albert Rusnák still looks like he's a pretty capable number 10, although he did not...

He, he may have had his worst game against Montreal, quite frustratingly.

Yeah.

He s- you know, he, he's involved in a couple other decent chances.

And I think that is maybe gonna be the biggest area the Sounder...

the biggest thing the Sounders are gonna have to figure out is who's your number 10? Is it, are you sticking with Albert Rusnák, who I'm inclined to, to keep giving time because he's, he's [laughs] still putting up numbers.

It's the beauty of the game.

So when you're a team that likes to press very high, but have a guy like Keaton Klatt that hasn't really been part of that, you have a guy like Albert Rusnák that that's not his necessary forte.

And although he's part of the starting 11, when he has a different co-stellar group around him, the system works a little bit better.

When in transition moments, you don't have the guys to play the ball quickly, when you don't have the guys progressing the ball the way it needs to progress, then everything kind of falls apart.

And I'm just going to read.

Albert had his play in that as well.

Certainly.

I put that on both of them.

And that, among some other things, and it's very tonally, you'll be able to hear Christian Roldan and read through it, but the words outclassed, not only outplayed, which I think he also mentioned outperformed, but saying we were outclassed by a last place team, who, by the way, were starting none of their normal guys out.

At the start of that game, Ari, the total goals and assists on the field in their starting lineup were four goals and 12 assists.

Albert Rusnak has all of that more by himself.

So when Christian Roldan says they were outclassed and when Christian Roldan says we were mentally still in Dallas, it's really, really bad.

Uh, you know, the...

Maybe the most frustrating miss of the night, though, was the free kick that Albert Rusnák sent into the box.

Jackson Reagan is essentially alone in front of goal.

He gets a slight touch on it.

Get your players at the right roles at the right moments.

So to me, I would start Jesús on the right, Jordan Morris on the left.

Obviously Ra- uh, Albert Rusnák at 10, who, who was very good in that game, by the way.

Yeah, yeah.