Sounders FC, Cruz Azul scoreless in Round of 16 first leg | OneFootball

SEATTLE – Seattle Sounders FC and Cruz Azul played to a nil-nil draw in the first leg of their Round of 16 series as the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup continued on Wednesday at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington, USA.

The match was tightly contested, with neither team able to muster many scoring chances.

Jordan Morris had an opportunity for the Sounders in the 43’ but his header sailed just a bit too high.

Seattle opened the second half in similar fashion, when Nouhou Tolo smashed a header off the crossbar three minutes after the halftime break.

Morris had another chance for the Sounders in the 70’ when he outran a pair of defenders and ripped a low shot, but it blasted off the post.

Sounders FC goalkeeper Stefan Frei ended the night with two saves. Frei’s clean sheet allowed Seattle to defend its home field without giving up an away goal.

Cruz Azul weathered the storm on the road and has yet to concede a goal in three matches. Kevin Mier recorded one save and earned his first clean sheet of the 2025 edition.

The second leg of this series will be played next Tuesday at Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City.

Post-Match data Seattle Sounders v Cruz Azul

Cruz Azul kept a clean sheet in an away match against an MLS

opponent in the Concacaf Champions Cup for the first time since a 2-0

win at Columbus Crew in September 2009. They had allowed a goal in

each of their previous five matches at MLS opponents in the competition.

● Seattle Sounders are unbeaten in their last 12 home matches in the

Concacaf Champions Cup (W9 D3), the longest home unbeaten run by an

MLS team in the modern era of the competition (since 2008), surpassing

Columbus Crew’s 11 straight unbeaten at home from 2010-24.

● This is the seventh clean sheet for Stefan Frei in the Concacaf

Champions Cup dating back to 2016-17. The Seattle Sounders goalkeeper

is tied with Luis Robles for third most in that time, behind only Rodolfo

Cota (12) and Nahuel Guzmán (15).

● Gabriel Fernández contested 25 duels (winning 11) against Seattle

tonight, the most by a player in a match in the current edition of the

Concacaf Champions Cup. It was the most duels contested by a Cruz

Azul player in a match in the Concacaf Champions Cup since 2016-17.

● Seattle Sounders hit the woodwork twice tonight against Cruz Azul,

becoming just the fourth team in the Concacaf Champions Cup since

2016-17, and first since Santos de Guápiles against New York City FC in

2022 to hit the frame multiple times in a match in which they didn’t score a goal.