Movement between Sounders and S2 expected to be fluid

Cristian Roldan has been practicing with Seattle Sounders FC this week. Meanwhile, fellow rookie Darwin Jones has moved over to train with S2. But don't read too much into that.

"That's really going to be a thing that changes, at times from day-to-day," Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid said on Tuesday. "For example, [Andres] Correa got injured today and if he's not able to go tomorrow we're going to go to Ezra [Hendrickson] and say we need this player to go 10v10. We're always going to train with numbers between 18 and 22 in terms of field players. Sometimes it will depend on the day."

While that may not be especially telling about where Jones and Roldan fall in terms of the depth chart, it does speak to how the arrangement between Sounders and S2 will work. Based on Schmid's comments, we can assume there will be relatively easy movement, meaning that as long as a player is on a MLS contract he can shuttle between the teams at the club's whim.

That makes sense, especially considering MLS has effectively chosen to the replace the Reserve League with participation in the USL. Sounders who don't appear in MLS games will need to get minutes somewhere and that's most likely to be S2.

While that may work just fine for the Sounders, it does make S2's life a bit more hectic and speaks to the challenges they'll have in terms of creating a cohesive roster. Not only will that roster be bolstered by players on some kind of longer term loan, but they'll also be getting players who are on the fringes of the first team rotation.

In other words, while someone like Roldan may be training with the Sounders, he's still likely going to see playing time with S2.