Sounders International roundup: Three starters

Xavier Arreaga, Raúl Ruidíaz, and Gustav Svensson — the three Seattle Sounders players called in to their national teams for the current FIFA international window — had their first action on Thursday. All three started for their respective national teams, as Arreaga and Ruidíaz participated in CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying and Svensson and Sweden played a friendly with Russia.

Svensson was deployed in the center of midfield in Sweden’s 4-4-2, and played the full 90 minutes of what ended up being the best result of the bunch, with Sweden coming away with a 2-1 win. Svensson’s return to the starting XI after a red card in his last national team game was a good sign, although his lone contribution to the game was marking Russia’s goalscorer on a corner in stoppage time. Sweden are back in action with Nations League games against Croatia on Sunday, followed by a game against Portugal on Wednesday. They are currently in third in Group A with two losses through two Nations League games.

In Ecuador’s qualifier against Argentina, Arreaga also went the distance in his team’s 1-0 loss. Argentina’s goal came from a first half penalty, and while Arreaga didn’t commit the penalty his overzealous challenge did take him out of the play and put his teammates in a bad position. This was the first game of qualifying, but the result puts Ecuador in last place (for now, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela play Friday) with their next game coming on Tuesday against first-place Uruguay.

Ruidíaz and Peru faced off against Paraguay, and the two sides played to a 2-2 draw. He was the only Sounder to not play the full 90, subbing off for midfielder Christofer Gonzales in the 74th minute. Peru’s next game is on Tuesday as well, with Brazil likely offering a bigger challenge than Paraguay.

All three are expected to be unavailable to the Sounders until at least Oct. 27 as they’ll need to serve 10-day quarantines once they return to Seattle.