SEATTLE, Wash. – For a few brief moments, Geno Smith looked ready to slay his demons against the San Francisco 49ers, opening a promising first drive for the Seattle Seahawks by connecting with DK Metcalf on a crossing route for a 30-yard completion down to the opposing 30-yard line.
But only a few plays later, with standout rusher Nick Bosa blasting him as he threw, Smith’s third down pass to Tyler Lockett on a corner route sailed over the receiver’s head and into the hands of rookie safety Malik Mustapha at the one-yard line, abruptly ending the drive without any points. Up until the final minute of the first half, the Seahawks wouldn’t even make it back into 49ers territory, punting three times and losing a possession thanks to a special teams fumble by Laviska Shenault.
Going into the locker room trailing 16-3, Seattle’s offense failed to produce more than seven points in the first two quarters for the third consecutive game, including Smith underthrowing on a deep ball to Metcalf that easily could have resulted in six points. Despite a valiant comeback effort, those struggles and missed chances put the team too far behind the eight ball in an eventual 36-24 defeat on Thursday Night Football, dropping the team to 3-3 after winning their first three games under coach Mike Macdonald.
Brusque with reporters after Thursday’s loss, a frustrated Smith pointed to poor execution for Seattle’s chronic slow starts, as the team has been hurt by a mostly ineffective run game, drive-killing penalties, and far too many turnovers.
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“Not starting fast. Not executing. That’s the main thing, not executing. Lack of execution. This is a game of inches as they say,” Smith said. “The margins are small, especially up here at the big boy league. You got to do all the right things all the time. We failed to do that today.”
Starting at a snail’s pace has become an unfortunate theme for Smith and the Seahawks, who have been outscored 47-20 in the first half during their three-game skid. Making the numbers look even worse, seven of those points came on a 102-yard fumble return by safety Rayshawn Jenkins, meaning the offense has contributed a mere 13 total points against the Lions, Giants, and 49ers.
As has been the case for the better part of a month, the Seahawks eventually found traction in the second half against the 49ers as Smith led a 13-play, 94-yard drive that culminated in a Ken Walker III touchdown run to cut the deficit to 23-17 late in the third quarter. The quarterback also threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Lockett late in the fourth quarter, but that came after a critical interception targeting Metcalf on the previous drive, leading to a quick San Francisco touchdown with short field.
For a third straight game, turnovers led to Seattle’s undoing more than anything. Metcalf lost fumbles against Detroit and New York that led to opposing scoring drives and on Thursday, Smith’s two picks resulted in 10 points for San Francisco and Shenault’s special teams fumble tacked on another three points. Losing by 12 on the scoreboard, erasing those miscues could have led to a dramatically different outcome, but self-inflicted wounds continue to derail Macdonald’s squad.
“Obviously we’re not emphasizing it enough,” Macdonald said of Seattle’s turnover problems. “That’s the starting point. The guys know that. I mean, add that to the list of things we have to attack. But we can’t be giving the ball to the other team. We have to be playing more precise.”
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Unfortunately, Macdonald and his staff don’t have to get back to the drawing board on offense and special teams only. Heading into a mini bye before a Week 7 road clash with the Falcons, with Jenkins’ fumble return being the lone exception, the Seahawks’ defense hasn’t been much better starting games as of late either.
Playing without Byron Murphy II, Leonard Williams, Boye Mafe, and others during the course of their three-game losing streak, injuries have been part of the equation. But just like on offense, execution-related issues have been the biggest problem, starting with second level run fit issues that have cropped up far too often and led to big runs for the opposition.
One week earlier, sixth-round pick Tyrone Tracy rushed for 48 yards on just six carries in the first half on his way to his first career 100-yard performance for the Giants, capitalizing on several plays where the Seahawks left a gap wide open enough for a semi truck to drive through. This ugly trend continued into Thursday night as Jordan Mason exploded through the B-gap with linebacker Tyrel Dodson consumed by a block at the second level and ripping off a 37-yard run on the 49ers opening possession to set up a Matthew Wright field goal.
San Francisco ended up rushing for 105 yards in the first half and also scored a 76-yard touchdown when safety Julian Love couldn’t make a play on an underthrown ball from Brock Purdy to Deebo Samuel, allowing the receiver to take off for nearly 50 yards after the catch on a blown coverage. It marked the third straight game Macdonald’s defense allowed at least 225 yards of total offense in the first half, and things didn’t improve out of the halftime break in any of those games either, as Seattle allowed four touchdowns and a field goal in the third quarter of those contests.
“These drives get strung out together because we just aren’t disciplined enough, consistently,” Love remarked. “We have the players, we have the scheme, we have the right mindset. It’s just cleaning it up. We have to attack this week. It’s a long season ahead of us.”
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Asked about the issues giving up long drives to open both halves, Macdonald doesn’t think the poor results have happened because the Seahawks haven’t been ready to play. Instead, he pointed to himself and the coaching staff, admitting they need to do a better job of preparing their players and putting them in a position to execute at a higher level out of the gate.
“I don’t think we’re flat,” Macdonald responded. “Teams have openers and you have to stop those openers. That’s just what it is. That’s a combination of understanding how teams are attacking you, how that’s evolving, and keep putting them in better position to make plays and our guys have got to go make the plays. Our guys are ready to play.”
For the Seahawks to turn their season around, players and coaches will have to do some soul searching during a three-day break before kicking off preparations for the Falcons next week. From going back to the drawing board with ball security drills to revisiting how they are attacking game planning during the week, they will need to find tangible solutions quickly to avoid the slow starts that ultimately have doomed them over the past three weeks.
As far as Lockett is concerned, all options should be on the table, even if Seattle needs to open games thinking they already are behind on the scoreboard as a means to coax better first half performance out of the offense. With plenty of football left to play ahead of them, regardless of what measures it takes to get the unit playing at its best early in games, he’s confident the team will be able to figure things out and help get them back on the winning track.
“We just got to be able to figure out what is it going to take for us to be able to play in the first half the way that we do in the second half, and if that means we got to play catch up, then hey, let’s get that mentality where at the beginning of the game we’re already losing if that’s what it takes for us to be able to play at the high level. I don’t know. I think for us, it’s just going back to the drawing board and being able to look at what happens in order for us to be able to play it our best. Are we overthinking it? Are we over-energized? What is it? Because sometimes, when you’re down, you don’t overthink, right? You’re not over-energized. Sometimes, you just have to breathe.”
SEATTLE — From my first visit as an adult, I was absolutely smitten with this city with snow-capped mountains and glistening bodies of water visible on all sides.
The decision to move here when my wife was accepted to Seattle University was probably one of the easiest and most fortuitous choices I’ve ever made. I loved the city’s topography, how people went outside no matter the weather and even the weather itself. I would often feel as if I was living someplace I would have chosen to vacation.
But it was soccer that made me feel like part of the city myself, like I had found my new home. I’ve often talked about how watching the Sounders win their first U.S. Open Cup at the George & Dragon was my first real introduction to the team. A few months later, I started working at Sounder at Heart. That summer, I experienced my first World Cup in Seattle. We showed up to a bar at 6 AM to get a spot for the USA-England match, and barely even got in. Bars all over town were packed, even when the USA wasn’t playing.
It was then that I started imagining what it would be like for the World Cup to actually come here.
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Although the United States’ 4–1 loss to Belgium on Monday wasn’t exactly the way I wanted it to end, I can safely say the Seattle World Cup experience exceeded even my lofty dreams.
Picking one highlight from the six games is almost impossible as every game surprised me in different ways. In the immediate buildup to this tournament, the shine had seemingly started to wear off. Actually getting the World Cup was feeling like a pyrrhic victory, one of those “careful what you wish for” achievements. All anyone could talk about was ticket prices and corruption. Empty seats and unsold hotel rooms felt inevitable. I believed the mood and narratives would change once the soccer actually started being played, but my expectations had been massively re-set.
Once the games began, I immediately realized just how powerful the World Cup can be, especially in a setting like this. The crowd for Egypt-Belgium – Seattle’s first-ever World Cup match – was a near sellout, and it was then that I appreciated the power of the diaspora. I saw Egypt fans with tears in their eyes as they saw their compatriots gathered by the Great Wheel. Their march to the match was pure joy, filled with chants, giant flags and pharoah costumes. The match, itself, was a bit underwhelming – a 1–1 tie – but everyone seemed so happy. That set a standard that was probably exceeded in each game.
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The Bosnia & Herzegovina fan march was genuinely awe-inspiring, as it seemed to go on forever. I swear there were 40,000 people wearing BiH’s blue, yellow and white and they were all singing ‘Ljiljani’ once it was over. The atmosphere for Iran-Egypt was absolutely electric, and I honestly felt like the stadium might explode when Iran scored what seemed to be a late game-winner only for VAR to overturn it.
My favorite memories from this tournament, though, will likely be tied to the way Seattle really came alive for the two USA matches. To see an American downtown flooded with soccer fans is not something I ever thought I’d see, and for it to happen twice in my hometown only made it more special.
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For the Australia match, I came into downtown from my home in Wallingford on a rental bike, traveling along the newly refurbished waterfront before 8 AM. There were already massive crowds gathered.
For this match, I chose to arrive on the Link Light Rail. It was the first time I used it to get to one of the World Cup games, but I wanted to experience what it was like to emerge from Pioneer Square station with hundreds of thousands of others.
Three hours before kickoff, Occidental Square was already packed as thousands of people watched the final moments of Spain-Portugal on the Brick Park big screen. Virtually every bar was already at capacity, with lines snaking out the doors. Inside the stadium, the north pavilion was already teaming with activity and lines to get into the various pro shops snaking through the concourse.
A short while later, I caught up to the USA march to the match. Led by horse-riding Civil War re-enactors, the march took 20 minutes to pass through the intersection of 1st and Main. As it passed, sections of fans broke out into impromptu “U-S-A” chants, sang other American Outlaw standards, played instruments and held a wide variety of signs. My favorite was probably Captain America punching out a Smurf (which were created in Belgium). There were others with Clint Dempsey, Grant Wahl, Weston McKennie and John Denver. They wore eagle costumes, dressed as Founding Fathers, and flag-inspired soccer shirts … so many stripes. I swear I didn’t see a single frown.
Joe Towner / PNWMF
Given the size of the crowd inside, I have to assume that the vast majority of those in the march weren’t planning to attend the game in person. They just wanted to be part of this intoxicating energy, equal parts hope, anticipation and FOMO. City officials said 25,000 fans participated in the march, 10,000 more than took part in the one before USA-Australia. Some estimates have suggested there were as many people downtown as there were for the Seahawks’ Super Bowl prade that pushed into seven digits. Hard as that is to believe – that a soccer match could attract a crowd like that – my eyes told me it was at least possible.
The Overlook Walk’s Salish Steps were packed, just as they were many other times during these magical few weeks. Otherwise vacant storefronts were suddenly impromptu soccer bars. The Historic Triangle Pub was revived, featuring a massive screen and overflowing beer garden just around the corner from the stadium. In the Chinatown/International District — which is one of the downtown neighborhoods that hasn’t benefited as much from the World Cup crowds — hundreds crowded into Hing Hay Park to watch the game. The demand for viewing spots was seemingly insatiable.
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The good vibes flowed seamlessly into the stadium. The buzz was overwhelmingly positive, talk of a serious run was on lips all over the park. “Why not US?” wasn’t just an empty platitude spoken by Argentinian head coach Mauricio Pochettino, it was a mantra that turned otherwise uninterested Americans into believers.
Photos by Max Aquino / Sounder at Heart
Seattle, long overlooked on U.S. Soccer’s list of preferred sites, has been dubbed “The Cathedral of Cascadia” by none other than the USMNT’s Twitter account and fans did everything possible to live up to that lofty praise. I’m not one to get emotional about the National Anthem, but when 67,000 people are collectively singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” it’s hard not to get lost in the moment. Somehow, I didn’t even notice the four fighter jets that buzzed the stadium to punctuate the song. At Minute 1, fans broke out the classic “Boom-Boom-Clap”-style “U-S-A.” You’d have thought the USMNT players would have been ready to run through walls.
Instead, they were utterly incapable of channeling that into their play against Belgium. After four matches in which they played with energy and spirit, they came out utterly flat against their most talented opponents to date. At no point did they have control of the match. They were down 1–0 before the match was even 10 minutes old, and were a bit lucky not to be down 3–0 by that time.
The one moment the USMNT had a chance – following Malik Tillman’s wonderful free kick that brought the match level – was almost immediately spoiled when they allowed Belgium to re-take the lead immediately off the ensuing kickoff.
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Still, there was hope coming out of halftime. It didn’t take long for that to be spoiled, either. In the 57th minute, goalkeeper Matt Freese came way out of his box and badly misplayed a seemingly innocuous ball over the top, allowing Hans Vanaken to loft an uncontested shot from 35 yards into a virtually undefended net.
There were more “U-S-A” chants and Eddie Vedder even tried to inspire the Yanks by chugging a beer while on the jumbotron during a hydration break.
If there was a shred of belief left in the building, it was slowly and achingly asphyxiated until Romelu Lukaku struck the final blow with a powerful strike off another sloppy turnover in stoppage time. Fittingly, he and the Belgium bench celebrated with a mocking “Trump dance,” acknowledging the role the president insisted on playing after potentially getting FIFA to declare Folarin Balogun eligible for the match despite getting a red card against Bosnia & Herzegovina.
The mood in the streets after was obviously a far cry from how the day started. Players spoke about letting themselves and the fans down. There’s an undeniable sense that an opportunity has been missed, that a confluence of events quite like this may never arrive again. That may be true for the USMNT and the greater American soccer scene.
But I’m not sure it’s true for Seattle. Our status as “Best Soccer City in America” is not new, even if it’s not a moniker we’ve tried to trademark. We reguarly brought 30,000 to Lumen Field when most of the MLS was lucky to draw half of that. Although the buzz around the Sounders has diminished a bit over the years, the World Cup crowds were actually smaller than the club’s most popular games.
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Updated Seattle/PNW attendance records show World Cup matches occupying slots 6-10 (66,925 for each of final 5). Sounders own top 5. Among those bumped out of top 10: Sounders-Barcelona, DC United-Real Madrid, Man United-Celtic.
— Frank MacDonald (@frankmsounders.bsky.social) July 7, 2026 at 1:12 PM
It’s not that our city has discovered a love for soccer, but maybe this was the catalyst for its reawakening. Sounders leadership has a chance to embrace this moment and make sure it has legs long after the FIFA circus leaves town.
Our local leaders have a similar responsibility. We’ve always known that Seattle is a world-class city and now the world does, too. Our public transit is very good by American standards, but it can be world-class if we will it into existence. We showed how much energy can be harnessed when public space is given back to the people, and not handed to cars. Local businesses showed what they can do when unnecessary and burdensome paperwork doesn’t get in their way.
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The World Cup was an event that I think exceeded all expectations, but the aftermath can be even better.
Thanks to Susan for the photo. She called to tell us about a dog stuck on the rocks off Beach Drive near Harbor West (the condos on pilings), and a crowd gathering to figure out how to rescue it from the rising tide. We were away from the desk at the time but after returning a little while later, we heard the situation mentioned on police radio, with word the dog had been rescued, so we didn’t head that way. Then late tonight Susan sent photos, explaining that the dog apparently is known to swim to those rocks and back, but for some reason got stuck this time, “until a paddle boarder and kayaker paddled out to it to coax it off the rocks and back to the shore.”
