{"id":226829,"date":"2026-03-19T11:40:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226829\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T11:40:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:40:27","slug":"antino-lopez-shines-in-first-mls-start-seizes-his-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226829\/","title":{"rendered":"Antino Lopez shines in first MLS start, seizes his opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heading into Sunday\u2019s match in San Jose against the Earthquakes, one wouldn\u2019t find Jackson Ragen<\/a>\u2019s partner at center back on the Seattle Sounders roster. Antino Lopez<\/a> was a member of Seattle\u2019s MLS NEXT Pro affiliate Tacoma Defiance and called up on a short-term loan while the Sounders deal with defensive injuries.<\/p>\n

But after the game? One can find him on the team sheet now.<\/p>\n

Head Coach Brian Schmetzer announced that General Manager & Chief Soccer Officer Craig Waibel was drawing up a contract to make Lopez\u2019s move to the First Team a permanent one after an impressive shutout in a gritty 1-0 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kid deserved it,\u201d Schmetzer said of Lopez. \u201cI\u2019m also going to petition to sign [fellow Tacoma Defiance loanee] Peter Kingston because that kid has done enough\u2026The team is in a good way. You\u2019ve got a happy, tired bunch of guys. They\u2019re gassed in there. They\u2019re tired, but that\u2019s a happy crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sounders rotated heavily after Thursday\u2019s Concacaf Champions Cup win over the Vancouver Whitecaps, giving Lopez and Kingston their first career MLS starts while Homegrown Cody Baker earned only his second start since 2024. And it was only fitting that former reserve team journeyman and now legitimate MLS winger Paul Rothrock<\/a> scored the game\u2019s only goal.\u200b<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to shout out our two Defiance players because I used to be one of those guys,\u201d said Rothrock. \u201cAntino Lopez, Peter Kingston\u2014they had monster games, both of them\u2026I don\u2019t think people realize quite how hard it is to stay patient in the Second Team system. It beats you down, and this guy\u2019s been doing it for three years. I can\u2019t say enough good things, I\u2019m so proud of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a bright future, and he might have earned a deal tonight,\u201d added Rothrock postgame, foreshadowing the pending move. \u201cCongrats to him.”<\/p>\n

Lopez is in his third year with Defiance after the Sounders selected him with the 52nd overall pick in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft out of Duke. The 23-year-old Las Vegas native was previously a member of the Sounders Academy and signed to Defiance alongside fellow 2024 draft pick-turned-First Teamer Kalani Kossa-Rienzi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lopez got his shot on Sunday as the Sounders cope with injuries to center backs Yeimar<\/a> (hamstring), Ryan Sailor<\/a> (knee), Kim Kee-hee<\/a> (calf) and Stuart Hawkins<\/a> (quad). Even spot starter Alex Roldan<\/a> began the evening on the bench after starting at center back in Seattle\u2019s win over the Whitecaps a few days ago, which opened the door for Lopez to get the nod.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a first start, I was nervous,\u201d Lopez said candidly. \u201cThe butterflies were going, maybe sometimes a little in my own head.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n

If he was, in fact, nervous on Sunday, Lopez didn\u2019t play like it. He helped keep the Sounders\u2019 third consecutive clean sheet in all competitions over the past nine days, including making a heroic, goal-line clearance in the 74th minute to deny a certain equalizer after Sounders goalkeeper Andrew Thomas<\/a> had partially blocked a shot from Preston Judd that was trickling toward goal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just me that saved the team,\u201d said Lopez. \u201cWe all worked together, and that\u2019s what wins the game in my opinion\u2026It was a big game for us, and to be able to do something like that to help this team was all I wanted to do the whole game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sounders now shift their attention back to CCC for a crucial second leg of their Round of 16 series with the \u2018Caps on Wednesday (8 p.m. PT; FS2, TUDN). They they take a commanding 3-0 lead to ONE Spokane Stadium in Spokane, Wash., before returning to MLS action next Sunday at Minnesota United (1:30 p.m. PT; Apple TV<\/a>).<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m here to help the team,\u201d said Lopez, \u201cand prove that I can play with them and help to push them win more games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading into Sunday\u2019s match in San Jose against the Earthquakes, one wouldn\u2019t find Jackson Ragen\u2019s partner at center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2975,101237,3056,87799,100,21840,88,90,89,12816,98583],"class_list":["post-226829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-2975","tag-antino-lopez","tag-features","tag-mls-regular-season","tag-news","tag-player-features","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-seattle-sounders-fc","tag-sjvssea-03-15-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}