Seattle Sounders coach Sigi Schmid ruled out Eddie Johnson for Wednesday's Community Shield match against Jaguares. Johnson has been nursing a hamstring injury ever since he came out early from his preseason debut on Feb. 22. On Monday, he did not fully participate in practice and trained off to the side.

Although Johnson insisted on Sunday that he could play if pressed, his absence from the final preseason match has cast into doubt his ability to contribute when the Sounders open their competitive schedule on March 7 in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals against Santos Laguna.

"It’s still going to take a little bit of time because, obviously, when Eddie joined us, in the one game we didn’t play Eddie together with Fredy [Montero]," Schmid said on Sunday. "Then he had the slight injury, so we’re trying to bring him along carefully right now, and slowly. We really haven’t had a chance to play the two of them together in a game yet. We’ve seen them together at practice and we had them play together in practice when we did 5 v 5 or 6 v 6. They’re both good players and good players develop an understanding quite quickly."