The Seattle Sounders will start a stretch of three consecutive games against the Top 3 teams in the Western Conference when they host second-place San Diego FC today at 5:30 PM Pacific.

Here’s what you need to know:

Injury news

Sounders

OUT: Paul Arriola - Knee; Yeimar Gómez Andrade - Hamstring; Jordan Morris - Hamstring

San Diego

OUT: Emmanuel Boateng- Lower Body; Hamady Diop – Lower Body; Marcus Ingvartsen– Lower Body; Willy Kumado– Lower Body; Andrés Reyes – Lower Body

Opposition players to watch

Anders Dreyer: The Danish midfielder has been everything San Diego could have hoped for when they made him a Designated Player this offseason. Dreyer has six goals and six assists, which is the second-most goal contributions of anyone in MLS. All but one of those is from open play, as well.

Chucky Lozano: The other San Diego DP has been nearly as good as Dreyer, with four goals and seven assists in less than 900 minutes. He’ll play on the left and likes to cut in and isn’t shy about crashing the box, as he did on the game-winner against the Galaxy.

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Stats to look smart

5: San Diego are tied for the league lead in fast-break goals, with five. At the same time, they’ve only allowed one fast-break goal. This is a very good team when it comes to transition.
9: While the Sounders’ overall defense hasn’t been quite as elite as it was last year, their open-play defending remains quite good, where they’ve allowed just nine goals (which includes three on fast breaks). That’s the second fewest in MLS.

Tactics to impress

When San Diego set up their team in the offseason, they promised to do two things: possess the ball and press opponents. They’ve followed through. Only the Columbus Crew have more possession, they have the fifth-most attacking-third tackles and have the fourth-highest line of confrontation. There’s no reason to expect them to change for this game.
Interestingly, the Sounders will try to do the same thing. They actually did an OK job of that in the first meeting with San Diego, but were burned on an early set-piece and then got gashed repeatedly on transition opportunities. They’ll need to be much more aware than they were in the first game.