It took all of three minutes into the first competitive match of the year for the Sounders’ new additions to show what could be in store for the upcoming season.
It took nearly 60 more minutes for the Sounders to finally take control against Guatemalan side Antigua in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup on Wednesday night.
The Sounders opened the 2025 season with a 3-1 win over Antigua thanks to two goals from players Seattle needs to be major contributors this season to reach its potential.
Newly acquired Paul Arriola opened his Sounders account less than three minutes into the start of the season and Pedro de la Vega, who suffered through an injury-filled and disappointing first season a year ago, provided the winner in the 61st minute. Both goals came via fortunate deflections of Antigua players, but the Sounders won’t care how the shots found the back of the net, just that they’ll return to Lumen Field for the second leg next week with the lead.
Albert Rusnák , who came off the bench in the 67th minute, added the capper deep in second-half stoppage time.
The teams will meet again next Wednesday with the winner of the series advancing to face Mexican side Cruz Azul in the next round of the tournament.
“It was a good performance by us and we’re obviously pleased,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said.
The Sounders are competing in the Champions Cup — formerly the CONCACAF Champions League — for the first time since 2022 when they became the first MLS team to win the continental championship under its expanded format.
And they unveiled nearly a first-choice lineup for the opening match. Only Rusnák was out of the expected starting 11 for the Sounders, and he still ended up playing the final 20-plus minutes of the match.
The match was at times chippy and probably more physical and loosely officiated than Schmetzer would have liked to see for the first competitive match of the season.
But the Sounders eighth appearance in the CCC started with a victory and a rare one at that. The last time the Sounders won a Champions Cup match outside the United States was Sept. 19, 2012 when they beat Honduran club Marathon 3-2 in San Pedro Sula.
“What I appreciated is that Antigua fought throughout the game. They fought until the end. That’s what I expect back in Seattle,” Schmetzer said.
Arriola’s goal came less than 180 seconds into the start of the season. Obed Vargas, the rumor of a significant move at some point in the next year to a club in Europe, played a terrific pass through the Antigua defense to Jesús Ferreira. Rather than playing the cross forward to Jordan Morris closer to the goal, Ferreira cut the pass back across the top of the penalty area to Arriola. The strike wasn’t the cleanest and took a slight deflection off an Antigua defender but was still able to loop over the top of goalkeeper Luis Moran and into the net.
Antigua pulled even in the 24th minute as a defensive breakdown and smart pass from Romário da Silva left Óscar Santis with enough space in the penalty area to beat Stefan Frei and draw even at 1-1.
The score stayed that way for more than a half-hour with at times Antigua having the better looks at goal before another fortunate bounce went Seattle’s way.
De la Vega’s shot from outside the penalty area appeared headed for the edge of the goal, but took a deflection off the shoulder of Antigua defender Kevin Grijalva and over the outstretched arm of Moran.
“He struggled in the first half a little bit. It was his first game back, first competitive game back. The field was a little heavy for a dribbler, Pedro is a good dribbler. But he made up for it with his goal. So I was very pleased,” Schmetzer said of de la Vega’s performance.
Rusnák added the capper deep in stoppage time when a bad turnover by Antigua led to a quick counter from Vargas to Georgi Minounogu and a cross to Rusnák ,who finished for a two-goal advantage.
Schmetzer said the third goal was crucial because it gives the Sounders a cushion that could allow the opportunity to rest some players for the second-leg next week. The Sounders will shift back to the start of the MLS season with the opener on Saturday against Charlotte before next week’s second-leg against Antigua.
“We’ll see who starts against Antigua and who starts against Charlotte,” Schmetzer said.