RENTON – As the Seattle Sounders prepared for their trip to face St. Louis City SC, the team’s injury outlook took a positive turn from where things stood earlier in the week. Already somewhat shorthanded coming into the season with injuries to Pedro de la Vega, Kim Kee-hee and Ryan Sailor, Jordan Morris came off the field early in the season opener with a muscle injury that will keep him out for another couple of weeks.
Things seemed to be getting worse this week. Kim had been getting closer to a return, but suffered a setback during training this week. Initially during an appearance on KJR head coach Brian Schmetzer had suggested a significant setback, but he clarified following training on Friday.
“I thought it was something worse,” Schmetzer explained. “Maybe that was my emotion coming through, but he’s gong to be out this week but he’ll be back in training next week.”
There were more positive updates following the news that Georgi Minoungou has been dealing with a small fracture in his foot and Paul Rothrock has been unable to participate in training due to an ankle injury suffered against Real Salt Lake, too. After being limited in training on Wednesday, Minoungou was a full participant and looked sharp on Friday.
“Georgi is fine,” Schmetzer stated before addressing Rothrock’s situation. “Paul, he’s a tough id. He should be fine, but he’s going to be listed as questionable just because his foot’s still bothering him.” Rothrock’s participation in Saturday’s match is unclear, but the team will try to address inflammation around the injury and see how he does after that.
One player who has been kept off of the field throughout preseason and the first weeks of MLS play has been Ryan Sailor, who joined the Sounders as a free agent after playing for Inter Miami. Sailor became a major topic of conversation after participating in Inter Miami’s trip to the White House to be recognized for winning MLS Cup last year. Asked about Sailor attending the event, where he and Miami stood in the background as Donald Trump pontificated about the attacks on Iran, the possibility of the United States attacking Cuba, and some questionable comments about how Miami celebrated their championship, Schmetzer clarified that Sailor had asked for permission to go and insisted that it wouldn’t be a distraction to the team.
The event did provide an opportunity for Schmetzer to clarify Sailor’s injury, which has been something of a mystery up until now.
“He had some knee pain as he left Miami,” Schmetzer explained. “They didn’t know exactly what it was. He came into camp, tried to train a couple of days, and the knee pain was such that,” the team determined they needed to look more closely. “When we did a deeper dive, he’s got some degenerative knee issues, and we’re working through that.” Schmetzer indicated that he’s confident Sailor can return to the field, despite the issue. “He can recover, but it’s just unfortunate that he started off the year on the wrong foot. ... If he were here, he’d still not be training."
League’s Cup title defense
With the League’s Cup schedule out now, Schmetzer was asked about his thoughts on a difficult road that will start with a match at Liga MX champions Toluca for the Sounders to defend their title. “Super tough. That first game, man, that’s going to be tough. And the games are condensed.” Schmetzer noted that as the reigning champions they’ll likely get teams’ best shot on top of having difficult teams in their path. “That’ll be a tough game in Mexico City against a very good team.” A road game in Mexico to start the tournament off is a real challenge, but Schmetzer made it clear that the team’s experience last season gives them confidence. “Last year we started against Cruz Azul and they had just beaten us pretty soundly and we were able to put on a good performance and start our run,” he explained. “So if we can get any sort of result in that first match then who knows what happens."
