It's not a must-win game by any stretch, but the Seattle Sounders will get a good measuring stick when they visit Minnesota United on Saturday. To help provide some insight, we reached out to John Marthaler, an independent journalist who covers Minnesota United for the Star Tribune.
Notable injuries
Only injured player is little-used Loïc Mesanvi. Darius Randell & Kipp Keller will probably get minutes for MNUFC2 on Friday night and be on the bench Saturday.
Recent form
Lost two consecutive games (Leagues Cup vs Atlético San Luis, MLS vs Colorado) for the first time all season.
Key players
Joaquín Pereyra is the team's most creative player (and if Robin Lod's off his game, sometimes the team's only creative player), and so - especially at home - he bears watching.
One things fans should know
The narrative all season about the Loons has been "don't like the ball, don't want the ball, frightened of the ball," but lately that's transformed into "when teams give them the ball, can they use it properly?" More and more teams are letting them control the game and hitting them on the counter, as Colorado did to beat them, last weekend. Obviously that has never, ever been the M.O. of a Sounders-Loons game, so it'll be fascinating to see if Schmetzer decides he wants to force the Loons out of their preferred defend-first game... which would also probably take the Sounders out of their own preferred game plan as well.
Projected formation
5-3-2: St. Clair; Rosales, Romero, Boxall. Harvey, Gressel; Trapp, Lod, Pereyra; Yeboah, Oluwaseyi
