What's Behind Danny Musovski's Breakout Campaign For Sounders?
This past offseason, the Seattle Sounders knew they needed to bolster their attacking options in an effort to score more goals in 2025. General manager Craig Waibel even said so himself at the tail end of last season when asked what he needed to do to help the offense moving forward.
“Pick up attacking playing players, there’s no mystery in that,” Waibel said at the time. “We got to go find a way to do it and fit it in the cap, and make sure they’re effective.”
That was clearly the objective as Seattle would work a trade for 24-year old USMNT international Jesus Ferreira. He joined the team with loads of expectations given his proven track record in MLS, plus his national team pedigree to add to the Sounders attacking options.
It goes without saying that Ferreira has struggled to integrate himself into the Sounders squad and the answer to why exactly can also be combined with another players resurgence in the form of 29-year old Danny Musovski.
With the arrival of Ferreira, Jordan Morris coming off one of his best seasons as a pro, and the impending formation change instituted by coach Brian Schmetzer, the last player many Sounders fans might have expected to be a key player and one of the top scorers was Musovski. But he tied a Sounders record when he scored in his fifth straight game on May 10 in Houston, putting his name next to Sounders greats like Fredy Montero, Obefemi Martins, and Fredy Montero…not a terrible list of players to be associated with by any stretch of the imagination.
The biggest question that has to be answered is why it is working for a player like Musovski and not for a player like Ferrieira.
Player Profiles
One of the biggest reasons why Musovski has been a better fit in the Sounders system this season has been his profile as a player. He represents more of a traditional striker who makes runs into the box, stretches the defense with runs in behind, and isn’t expected to get as involved in the build-up play.
Ferreira, on the other hand, represents a much more modern view of a complete attacking player with the versatility to play anywhere on the front line. He can be a part of the creativity, he can take players on 1-on-1, but also has shown a history of goal scoring prowess, especially during his time in Dallas.
The issue with this type of player is while it’s important to have the versatility to contribute in many facets of the game, there is a difficulty in finding the best position or role to best succeed in, and that could be said about Ferreira, especially as he continues to acclimate himself to a new team, new environment, and new players.
This isn’t an issue unique to Seattle.
It has been a recent development across world football in the past few years, and an issue many top European teams are dealing with as well: the lack of true strikers that you can rely on to consistently put the ball in the back of the net. The emphasis across the world more recently has been to employ a team-wide goals scoring approach where coaches expect domination of possession with quality players on the ball, across the midfield, and on the front line. Without a true striker, it’s more of a “whoever is there, finishes off the move”.
The prevailing thought behind this reasoning is that it’s more important to have every player be able to contribute to creating as many chances as possible because of a domination of possession and having as many creative players on the field at one time, not just in the midfield but across the front line, and even in defense. Players like the traditional winger, who would just dribble down the line and put a cross in, as well as a traditional striker who maybe didn’t have the skill to contribute in the build up play or chance creation, were viewed as less valuable. However, the result of this line of thinking is the lack of depth across world football in true No. 9s who excel at scoring goals, but may not provide much other value than that.
So Which Type of Player Do the Sounders Need?
The Sounders, in many ways, were actually somewhat ahead of the curve when it came to this concept. If you think of the first MLS Cup winning team in 2016, yes, they had Clint Dempsey, but he was on the downward trend in his career. They had Jordan Morris in his rookie year, but he was utilized as more of a winger than up front at that time. The biggest addition to that team, and what took them over the top, was bringing in Nicolas Lodeiro. That changed slightly with the addition of Raul Ruidiaz in 2018, but now with his departure ahead of the 2025 season, the Rave Green is in a similar situation to a lot of teams across the world.
Seattle has, for many years, possessed some of the better creative players in the entire league during Schmetzer’s tenure and 2025 is no outlier. With players like Albert Rusnak, Pedro de la Vega, Obed Vargas, Cristian Roldan, and now Ferreira into that mix, there is no lack of creativity with this Seattle squad. But especially now with the absence of Morris, there has been a lack of depth in the more direct type of player that Seattle needs in order to maximize the chances they are creating. Yes, they still have Paul Rothrock and Georgi Minoungu, who represent more direct wingers, but the striker position has been a concern since Ruidiaz’s departure.
Musovski definitely is more of a throwback striker. If you look at the goals that he has scored this season, all of them come inside the 18-yard box and even most of those have come in or around the six-yard box.
Right place at the right time ✅
Danny Musovski gives us the early lead! 🫎 pic.twitter.com/6lziUghclD— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) April 13, 2025
These are goals that only a player of his profile tend to score: getting in the dirty areas, fighting for loose balls, and getting on the end of crosses are still skills that are valuable in the modern game, and especially with a team that has a lot of creativity in it. Sometimes, teams need someone to just make the run, stretch the field, and be an option in the box when you get in a good area. Even if he may not provide the same level of quality on the ball as someone like Ferreira, Musovski has proven to be the exact type of player Seattle needs, and it’s not a coincidence that his goals have come in concurrence with a resurgent offense since he has started this most recent run of games.
