Jordan Morris injured, but Paul Rothrock enters and leads Sounders past Colorado
SEATTLE – For a chunk of the MLS offseason, it seemed Paul Rothrock was bound to leave his hometown Sounders, where he developed from a young prospect into “Paulie Primetime.” The pull of free agency led Rothrock to flirt with others and come very close to departing before deciding to re-sign with Seattle.
The value of that transaction was apparent on the opening night of the 2026 season.
Called upon to sub for an injured Jordan Morris in the opening minutes of the match, Rothrock assisted on Albert Rusnák’s opening goal, then scored his first of the new season in the 62nd minute as the Sounders started the campaign with a 2-0 win over the Colorado Rapids on Sunday night before 31,606 at Lumen Field.
The Sounders earned at least a point against the Rapids for the 10th time in their last 11 regular season meetings, but it took an emotional and physical toll almost from the start.
Morris subbed off in the seventh minute of the match after suffering a thigh injury that left the winger disgusted sitting in the final seat on the bench after he walked off with yet another injury already impacting his season.
But Seattle had Rothrock on the bench and his impact was immediate. The opening goal of the season was the result of Rothrock’s hustle as he kept a loose ball from going over the sideline then picked out Rusnák unmarked in front of goal where the midfielder scored on a rare header.
And when Seattle needed a goal to finally put away the overmatched Rapids, it was Rothrock that provided the strike midway through the second half off a cross from Jesus Ferreira and beat Colorado goalkeeper Zach Steffen.
Rothrock had four goals and seven assists in 33 MLS regular season matches last season and picked up one of each to start 2026.
But as much as Rothrock was a story, so was the ragged nature of the first half.
When the fourth official held up the reader board with a ‘12’ on it to announce the amount of stoppage time in the first half there was a collective groan, followed by a chuckle at just how much happened to cause that much time to be added.
The haphazard first 45 minutes ended up seeing 61 minutes on the clock by the time the first half whistle was finally blown. It was poorly officiated and sloppily played, featured several stoppages for injuries, two video reviews, one rescinded red card and one disallowed goal.
Referee Malik Badawi became a major part of the first-half story with his decisions that mostly drew the ire of the home crowd. He called back the feel-good, welcome-home story of Hassani Dotson by disallowing his goal just moments after Rusnák gave Seattle the lead. Badawi determined on video review that Osaze De Rosario committed a foul while attempting a header in the buildup to Dotson’s goal.
That was just the beginning. Badawi later gave a straight red card to Colorado’s Noah Cobb, only to change that to a yellow card on video review. Colorado was issued four yellow cards in a first half that became progressively more ragged and eventually saw additional injuries. Rothrock was down for a moment on the field. Former Sounder Josh Attencio caught an inadvertent boot across the face from De Rosario late in the half. While Morris’ injury was the most notable, the Sounders also lost Dotson to a head injury during the lengthy first-half stoppage time after he was hit in the side of the head by Paxten Aaronson and was immediately subbed off for Synder Brunell after being checked on the field for a head injury.