For a significant amount of time, stretching back to at least the beginning of the 2016 season, the Sounders have hardly had to spare a second thought for the defense.
While the attack thrashed in the dark for consistency over the first half of the season, the back four essentially picked itself. Allowing for a few injuries and form issues, Joevin Jones, Chad Marshall, Brad Evans and Tyrone Mears have been more or less unquestioned as the first-choice defensive front. It wasn’t perfect, maybe, but then again the Sounders’ defense was never really the issue pulsing at the core of Seattle’s struggles.