Los Angeles FC v Seattle Sounders: Rusnak out to maintain momentum
Los Angeles FC and the Seattle Sounders face off on Wednesday, with the visitors in excellent form.
The Seattle Sounders are aiming to keep up the momentum when they take on Los Angeles FC on Wednesday.
Seattle have won four of their last five MLS games and have surged up the Western Conference as a result.
Ahead of a trip to LAFC, the Sounders sit fifth in the West, a point and a place above Steve Cherundolo's team.
Albert Rusnak scored twice in a 3-1 win over the Houston Dynamo last time out.
And he now set the target of keeping the wave of momentum going.
"There’s a momentum that we’ve been building over the past month or so," said Rusnak.
"And it’s our job to keep that going and make the most of it."
Seattle found goals hard to come by last season, but have managed 20 goals in 12 games this season.
Indeed, over the last five games, they have outscored their opponents by 12-3.
"A lot of times last year, goalscoring was a part of the challenges that we faced," said coach Brian Schmetzer.
"I don’t think we scored enough goals last year. So, in preseason already, with the addition of Paul Arriola and Jesus Ferreira and now Ryan Kent, we tried to address those issues.
"You’re seeing some of the work we did in preseason now starting to show up. We’re a better offensive team."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
LAFC - Denis Bouanga
Bouanga has not quite had as strong a season this year as he did last, but he is still LAFC's leading scorer in MLS this term with five goals, and will be able to cause Seattle plenty of problems.
Seattle Sounders - Danny Musovski
Musovski has scored in five consecutive regular-season MLS matches, equalling the longest single-season streak in Sounders history.
The only player with a longer streak spanning seasons was Raul Ruidiaz from September 2018 to March 2019 (six straight).
MATCH PREDICTION: LAFC WIN
The Sounders have won four of their last five matches (D1), including the last two in a row. They had recorded just four wins in their previous 16 matches in all competitions dating back to the end of last season.
LAFC, though, have won 12 of their last 15 home matches in all competitions (D1 L2) dating back to the US Open Cup Final last September.
One of those two defeats came at the hands of the Sounders in last season’s conference semi-finals.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
LAFC - 47.1%
Seattle Sounders - 26.6%
Draw - 26.3%