Brian Schmetzer knows the Seattle Sounders have plenty of work to do following what he described as their worst-ever loss against the Portland Timbers.

Seattle's return to MLS action after the World Cup break saw them thumped 5-1 on home soil by their fiercest rivals last Thursday, with four of Portland's goals coming after half-time.

It was only the third instance of the Sounders ever conceding five goals in an MLS game, and the first time they have ever done so at Lumen Field.

The Sounders remain sixth in the Western Conference standings despite that result, though they now face a tough road stretch prior to the Leagues Cup break. 

They go to Austin FC on Wednesday, with a trip to the Philadelphia Union and the reverse fixture against Portland also in their diary between now and August 1.

"It was not even close to the standard that we set at this club. There were zero excuses for that performance; it just was not good enough," Schmetzer said after Thursday's defeat.

"And that goes for me too; I've got to own that. That's the worst loss we've faced, the worst loss to the Timbers ever. I'm the head coach, so it's on me too.

"I didn't see it coming, not in a million years. I thought we had a good week of training; I thought the guys were fired up.

"We'll dissect the tape, and we'll make sure to go over all the areas that we were deficient in and try to correct them.

"We have a tough road trip to Austin and Philly. I have to watch the tape, and I could pick one or two, but it might be four or five things that we need to do better."

Austin have not played since the World Cup hiatus and sit 14th in the Western Conference, with only Sporting Kansas City below them.

This will be just their second game since firing head coach Nico Estevez and placing Davy Arnaud in interim charge – his first match at the helm was a 3-0 loss to St. Louis City SC on May 22. 

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Austin FC – Facundo Torres

Torres has created 37 chances in his first campaign with Austin, which is the fifth most by any player in MLS this year. 

Those 37 chances created are also 25 more than any other Austin player this year (Jon Gallagher – 12), with Torres the only Austin player ranking in the top 100 league-wide.

Seattle Sounders – Albert Rusnak 

Rusnak's assist against Portland took him to 149 career goal contributions in MLS regular-season matches (73 goals, 76 assists), so he will be eyeing the 150 mark here.

Since the beginning of 2017 (Rusnak's debut season), the only three MLS players with more goal contributions are Lucho Acosta (161), Hany Mukhtar (152) and Josef Martinez (152).

MATCH PREDICTION – SEATTLE SOUNDERS WIN

Austin's 2-1 win over Seattle at Q2 Stadium last September was just their second victory in 10 all-time meetings between the teams (D3 L5). 

The Sounders had been unbeaten on their first four visits to Austin, recording three wins and a draw before last year's defeat.

Austin lost their final three matches before the break by an aggregate score of 10-1. Wednesday's hosts have lost 14 of their last 23 matches in all competitions (W4 D5) after losing just five of the previous 23.

So, even with the Sounders coming off a 5-1 defeat to Portland, the Opta supercomputer is still backing the visitors to take three points.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Austin FC – 29.1%

Seattle Sounders – 46.2%

Draw – 24.7%