Seattle Sounders hope to eliminate Vancouver Whitecaps in Spokane: ‘Nothing is good enough except winning’

For the first time as an MLS club, the Seattle Sounders will play in Spokane at ONE Spokane Stadium on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

They are facing Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup Round of 16.

Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said this week’s matchup “is different in a couple of different ways.”

Lumen seats 68,740. ONE Spokane Stadium can fit up to 5,000 for soccer matches.

Still, Schmetzer said that the smaller venue doesn’t minimize how much the game means to the club.

“It is a high-stakes match. So, the way we prepare, what we think about, all of those things are going to be the same. Because it is a competitive match.”

For the first time since 2022, when they became the first MLS team to win the Cup, the Sounders have a chance to advance to the quarterfinals after jumping to a 3-0 advantage on the aggregate against Vancouver in the first leg at BC Place on Thursday.

While Sounders keeper Stefan Frei said “it would be pretty sweet if” they could be the first MLS club to win the tournament two times, Schmetzer and the players know that is easier said than will be done against the hottest scoring team in the league.

To advance, they will have to slow down a team that has amassed 14 goals in four matches, including a six-goal win over Minnesota United on Sunday.

“Still work to be done, for sure. Vancouver’s a good squad, and I know they feel a little snakebit with some of the goals,” Schmetzer said, referring to the first leg of the CCC Round of 16.

Frei echoed his coach and remarked, “We know that the job is not done.”

“We scored three in that game … obviously they can score three in this game too. We saw what they were able to do over the weekend.”

Vancouver will likely look to its leading scorer Brian White, who has five goals in league play and is one game removed from a brace, as it hopes to claw back and return to the CCC championship where it suffered a 5-0 defeat to Liga MX’s Cruz Azul last season.

While he didn’t start in the first leg, White will surely be fired up with confidence if he plays in the second. Vancouver’s offense will also likely turn to the MLS’s assist leader, Sebastian Berhalter, for its spark.

But the Whitecaps front line will need to find a way to break through one of the league’s best defensive units. Seattle owns a league-high 56 clearances and have only allowed two goals in MLS play. Seattle’s back line is led by Jackson Ragan, who has 13 clearances overall. In the Round of 16’s first leg, 23-year-old defender Kalani Kossa-Rienzi and Ragen notched nine clearances apiece and will need to do something similar if they hope to prevent any sort of comeback from the Vancouver side.

Frei said the back line’s recent success is partially because everyone, including the strikers, is bought into the defensive side of the ball.

“Defense starts from the very top. You have to have everybody buy in, and sometimes strikers feel like tuning out and not being part of defense, but they’re really, really important … I’ve seen that unity so far in 2026. It’s been really impressive and a good start with that.”

Last week, Vancouver outshot Seattle 17 to 10 and dominated possession at a 64% rate. But the Sounders amassed 45 clearances to the Whitecaps’ 17 and allowed just three shots on target.

Seattle’s attack also enters the second leg of the CCC with its own rejuvenated conviction. After stumbling at the beginning of the year, they are riding a three-game winning streak across all competition thanks to Seattle native Paul Rothrock and winger Paul Arriola.

Eleven months after tearing his ACL in the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup’s Round of 16, Arriola achieved a brace in his first start since the injury and propelled the Sounders to their triumph over the Whitecaps.

“It was special,” Arriola said of his performance on Thursday. “I didn’t think too much of it. I just try and go out there and … focus on helping my team … some things fell my way. I was really happy with the performance, not only for me, but for the team as well.

“Three to 0 away is huge. Now we have another opportunity here to take it home.”

Rothrock, the team’s scoring leader, added a goal against Vancouver and notched one in the Sounders’ win over San Jose on Sunday. Schmetzer earned Team of the Matchday honors for the victory against the Earthquakes.

Right winger Jesus Ferreira, tied with Berhalter in assists (four), will also look to add another to his stat line after connecting with Arriola in the first leg.

While the Whitecaps rank near the middle in clearances (29), their defense should not be overlooked. Center midfielder Ralph Priso-Mbongue, who came off the bench in the first leg, leads his team with nine clearances. He has also completed 94% of his 293 attempted passes. Center back Tristan Blackmon added five clearances and one block for the Whitecaps against the Sounders last week. Their keeper, Yohei Takaoka has 10 saves, five interceptions and surrendered just one goal in MLS this season.

The winner of the Cascadia matchup Wednesday will face either FC Cincinnati or Tigres UNAL (Liga MX). That match will be played on Thursday at 6 p.m.

Arriola said that he felt confident. As an experienced group the Sounders have “the right pieces, the right mentality going into this game.”

He explained they understand “what a goal could mean for both sides early on.”

Schmetzer emphasized they “want to make sure we try and score … an early goal” in the match. “It would certainly help us,” he said.

“Any time there’s an international tournament where it’s not just the U.S., it means a lot more. There’s a lot more weight to it. And this is such a special tournament. One that comes at the end with a ticket to the Club World Cup … for us nothing is good enough except winning the tournament,” Arriola said.