RENTON, Wash. – Things can change so quickly. It wasn’t long ago that the Seattle Sounders seemed to be enduring any number of injury crises. The team has been regularly making do with two players in a given match day squad who you would list primarily as center backs, and usually only one of them in the starting lineup. Last weekend the Sounders were without all of Paul Arriola, Cristian Roldan and Albert Rusnák, on top of that ongoing CB shortage. As the team heads on the road to face Sporting Kansas City, those troubles seem to be largely behind them.
Head coach Brian Schmetzer confirmed that all three of Arriola, Roldan and Rusnák were “available, ready to go” against SKC. To add to the improving fortunes on the injury front, Kim Kee-hee was once again a full participant in training and could be available off the bench, as could Stuart Hawkins who put in a solid 45 minutes with Tacoma Defiance in his first game action of the season as Defiance bested LAFC 2 4–1 last weekend. Even Yeimar was involved throughout today’s relatively light training session, although he’s still seemingly some ways away from a return to the match day squad.
With players returning from injury, Schmetzer and his staff will have plenty of choices to make. The squad on Saturday will involve some healthy scratches and tough conversations, as well as some decisions to be made about who plays and where they line up.
“Throughout the squad my decisions are: what are the best pairs, who’s playing at a high level,” Schmetzer explained to the gathered media. “Winning games is the responsibility of the coaching staff. So those decisions are always geared toward winning."
It’s not necessarily as simple as choosing to play Jordan Morris, Danny Musovski or Osaze De Rosario up top, or which of Kalani Kossa-Rienzi and Alex Roldan to start at right back. It’s about finding an optimal arrangement in a puzzle with numerous possible solutions. The choice of Alex Roldan or Kossa-Rienzi, for instance, also involves a discussion about Antino Lopez (or Kim Kee-hee, Hawkins, and Yeimar when he’s back). It also has knock-on effects as you move up the field towards the opposing goal, which can either shape or be colored by who plays in central midfield, the band of three and up top. The flexibility of a player like Morris to play in several attacking positions might make landing on an “ideal XI” a little more complex, but it also provides the coaching staff with multiple opportunities to ride the hot hand and compile information that will be useful when the time comes to formulate that ideal XI.
No trap game
One message Schmetzer has been preaching all week is the need to avoid the potential of a "trap game" against Sporting KC, who is currently mired in a six-game losing streak and is statistically the worst team in the league.
"The messaging we gave to our players is we’re not flying all the way there to have a stinker, go there and not be prepared, and not make sure they understand the job that they need to do," Schmetzer said. "Desperate teams are dangerous."
Early kickoff
Saturday's game will kick off at 11:30 AM Seattle time, about eight hours earlier than players are accustomed to. To help guard against that, Schmetzer is urging his players to get to bed early, stay off their phones and not play cards.
"We’re making sure they understand the importance that it’s a game, it’s not just training," he said.
