The 2012 Seattle Sounders FC season was the club's fourth season in Major League Soccer, the United States' top-tier of professional soccer. For the Sounders FC organization, it was their fourth year of existence, and including all previous clubs, it was the 32nd season of a soccer team bearing the Sounders name.

On November 23, 2011, James Riley was drafted away from Seattle by the Montreal Impact as part of the 2011 MLS Expansion Draft. He was immediately traded to Chivas USA with allocation money for Justin Braun and Gerson Mayen. The Sounders also traded Tyson Wahl to the Impact for allocation money. Other off-season transactions included the transfer of Erik Friberg to Malmö FF, the retirements of Kasey Keller, Terry Boss, and Taylor Graham, the release of Nate Jaqua and Pat Noonan, the acquisition of Marc Burch from D.C. United via the 2011 MLS Re-Entry Draft, and the signings of out of contract players Michael Gspurning and Adam Johansson.

In the 2012 MLS SuperDraft, the Sounders took Creighton University defender Andrew Duran in the first round and University of Alabama-Birmingham forward Babayele Sodade. A week later, in the 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft the Sounders took University of California-Santa Barbara defender Tim Pontius and former Leicester City F.C. forward Jason Banton in the second round, University of Washington forward Abdul Aman in the third round, and Cal Poly defender Wes Feighner in the fourth round. On the same day as the Supplemental Draft, the Sounders traded the rights to defender Leone Cruz, whom the Sounders acquired in the second round of the 2011 MLS SuperDraft but did not sign to a contract, to Real Salt Lake for UCLA defender Andy Rose, whom Real Salt Lake had drafted in the first round of the Supplemental Draft.

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