Sounders will be extremely short-handed for rescheduled Rapids game

As many as 10 Seattle Sounders have been called into their respective national teams for the current FIFA window, which could leave them with as few as 11 healthy outfield players for Saturday’s match against the Colorado Rapids. If that’s the case, MLS “extreme hardship” rules would allow the Sounders to sign up to three players from Tacoma Defiance in order to bring them to 14 outfield players.

The Sounders had originally scheduled this weekend as a bye, but were forced to move the Rapids game to Saturday after the originally scheduled match on April 23 was cancelled due to a snowstorm. The Sounders did not find out that match had been cancelled until landing in Colorado.

In total 10 players have been officially confirmed as being called into their national teams. Gonzalo Pineda has also been named to the United States U23 coaching staff.

Full list of internationals:

• Cristian Roldan (United States vs. Mexico on Sept. 6 and vs. Uruguay on Sept. 10)
• Jordan Morris (USA)
• Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez (USA U17s vs. Mexico on Sept. 5 and vs. Netherlands on Sept. 7)
• Gustav Svensson (Sweden vs. Faroe Islands on Sept. 5 and vs. Norway on Sept. 8)
• Raúl Ruidíaz (Peru vs. Ecuador on Sept. 5 and vs. Brazil on Sept. 10)
• Brad Smith (Australia vs. Kuwait on Sept. 10)
• Joevin Jones (Trinidad & Tobago vs. Martinique on Sept. 6 and Sept. 9)
• Xavier Arreaga (Ecuador vs. Peru on Sept. 5 and vs. Bolivia on Sept. 10)
• Nouhou (Cameroon U23s vs. Cameroon on Sept. 6 and Tunisia on Sept. 10)
• Jordy Delem (Martinique)

In addition to those 10 players, Roman Torres (suspension) and Will Bruin (ACL) are confirmed out, while the injury status of Victor Rodriguez (knee) and Alex Roldan (ankle) is currently unknown after they missed Sunday’s game.

That would leave the Sounders with Nicolas Lodeiro, Saad Abdul-Salaam, Handwalla Bwana, Jonathan Campbell, Emanuel Cecchini, Justin Dhillon, Kim Kee-hee, Kelvin Leerdam, Danny Leyva, Harry Shipp and Luis Silva as the only available outfield players. The Defiance player most likely to receive a call-up based on nothing but performance is probably Shandon Hopeau. Nick Hinds, who has been their regular starter at left back, could receive a call-up in big part due to need at the position. Josh Atencio and Sam Rogers are both reasonably good candidates as well, and were among the Defiance players called into the first team for the Dortmund friendly in July.