Seattle progressed to the Leagues Cup semi-finals after beating Puebla 4-3 on penalties following a goalless 90 minutes, despite Danny Musovski's 76th-minute red card. Fixture congestion and mental fatigue have emerged as concerns, prompting planned squad changes ahead of upcoming MLS and Leagues Cup fixtures. The Sounders host Sporting Kansas City this weekend and will face LA Galaxy in the Leagues Cup semi-finals next Thursday while sitting fourth in the Western Conference with eight games remaining. Sporting Kansas City have gone five league games without a win and recently lost 3-1 to Orlando City, denting playoff hopes. The team will prioritise mental recovery before the congested schedule.
"We're going to have to make some changes because there is some fixture congestion," Schmetzer said. "Look, the Minnesota game that we lost was due to the travel we did. "We had the ball for the majority of the time, so the total sprinting distance was less, but in midweek, you will get the data that the players did not run as much, but at the end of the day it is the mental fatigue that was the most important. "The game in midweek was a hard game mentally. We are going to try and recover mentally, and look to move on in our season and end in the best way possible."
NOT DONE YET We're headed to the @LeaguesCup semifinals! pic.twitter.com/I44DxEruyp - Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) August 21, 2025
"I think that Seattle have always had a great organisation," Zavagnin said. &qu
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