Steve Clare is the Editor of Prost Amerika Soccer and an Executive Committee Member of
the North American Soccer Reporters. In addition to these duties, Clare is also in charge of the Radio Sounders Show
podcast, which will feature The Salt Lake Tribune’s Michael C. Lewis on next
week’s edition. The Pacific Northwest native took some time away from those endeavors to break down Saturday's RSL-Sounders FC tilt for RealSaltLake.com ...
Real Salt Lake and Seattle Sounders enter this weekend’s encounter with superficially little, and then again a great deal, in common.
They both lie on 17 points in the Western Conference, they both faced FC Dallas in their last match, and both coaches will select their sides bemoaning the unavailability of some of their finest talent.
Starting with the most obvious “dissimilar similarity,” RSL have taken just eight games to amass their 17 points, Seattle have used up 13.
Salt Lake’s sole defeat came in Seattle’s back yard at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland, as they coped with the mental and physical hangover of their near miss in the CONCACAF Champions League Final.
Seattle have lost four matches – thankfully none to Portland. Three of those losses – LA Galaxy, FC Dallas and New York – came against opponents deemed to be among the league’s better sides. Only a lackluster defeat to a hungrier D.C. United in the Capital really rankles as the win that got away.
Salt Lake have won five matches, Seattle just one less, but Toronto, Sporting Kansas and Chicago Fire occupy three of the bottom four slots in the MLS Table, and the fourth was against a Colorado side that played 87 minutes a man down. There isn’t really a great result to boast about from the first 13 fixtures. The fans still await their result, and their performance, of the season.
Despite their equality on 17 points, RSL have had a season to remember so far, Sounders one they would mostly rather forget.
Just as their shared perch of 17 points masks differences, so does the absenteeism issue.
Jason Kreis is losing players to international squads because they have been successful for him. Álvaro Saborío and Arturo Alvarez have left on Gold Cup duty for Costa Rica and El Salvador respectively. Will Johnson will hang around long enough to play on Saturday before joining his Canadian teammates.
Alvarez and Johnson will meet up with Cascadia-based players, but they won’t be from Seattle. Terry Dunfield (Vancouver) will join Johnson in the Canadian squad and Steve Purdy (Portland) will team up with Alvarez, but Saborío will not be joined by the Sounders’ Costa Rican, Leo Gonzales, or any other Sounders player. None have been selected for any Gold Cup squad.
That is a relief for coach Schmid, but the other edge of the sword is that none of his charges are playing well enough for consideration.
To add to the irony, two players Seattle lost in the offseason, Tyrone Marshall and Sanna Nyassi, were called up by Jamaica for the Gold Cup and Gambia (for a friendly).
Sigi Schmid’s absenteeism issue is not due to good form and selections, but injuries plus the ‘parting by mutual consent’ of Blaise Nkufo, announced an hour before the season started.
If RSL have lost the most creative player in the league, Javier Morales, the loss of Zakuani to Seattle comes close in terms of the blunting of a once sharp cutting edge.
His absence on the left side of midfield has left a huge hole in both the fans’ hearts and the offense of his colleagues. His offensive capability obviated the need to ask the left back berth to produce any offense, and meant that area of the field was always covered defensively by Gonzales. This in turn freed the right back, usually James Riley, to embark on forward forays.
With Zakuani gone, Gonzales’ shortcomings as a forward-thinking wing back paved the way for Tyson Wahl, who has done a sterling job at left back prior to being rested for the midweek game against Dallas. Wahl also delivers a superb set piece, like the corner kick that won the match with Sporting Kansas City in stoppage time. Wahl’s development has been one of the positives for the side this year.
Sounders FC – by Sigi Schmid’s own admission – now desperately need set pieces to provide more goals, even though he criticized Portland for an overreliance on them after the Cascadia derby.
Days after the media storm surrounding the manner of Zakuani’s injury came a further blow for Sounders – a blood clot was discovered on O’Brian White’s leg. He is ruled out for an indefinite period. Fredy Montero broke his wrist but has played on wearing a cast. Not to any great effect, though, as his form has dipped and he badly needs a goal.
To partner Montero up front, Sigi has relied on the oldest 30-year-old in the business, loyal warhorse Roger Levesque. Roger is as reliable and as hard-working as any player in the squad, but doesn’t keep opposing managers and defenders awake at night. An on-form Nate Jaqua might do that, but Nate is still struggling to find his touch after an injury ravaged 2010. Sounders need him to do so badly.
Finally, Schmid selected the diminutive Mike Fucito on Wednesday night versus Dallas. Fucito did well enough to deserve another start, and his pace and tenacity might make for a useful weapon against RSL’s highly solid defensive brick wall.
Sounders' midfield is an all non-American affair, unless Brad Evans recovers in time. Osvaldo Alonso pales only to Kyle Beckerman as a defensive midfielder in MLS. Alonso is smaller but has taken to developing a mean streak to compensate. Expect him to cover every blade of grass for the cause.
Two South Americans, Mauro Rosales and Alvaro Fernandez, are beginning to develop an understanding, but it isn’t there yet. Despite his DP status, Fernandez has not yet demonstrated the form to match the pedigree of having been a member of Uruguay’s World Cup squad. He has taken the left midfield berth from Zakuani but has only impressed in snippets. There may still be better to come though.
Rosales has won more admirers earlier. Debate centers around whether he or Swede Erik Friberg should play central-mid or right midfield. For this writer, Rosales is better on the wing, but Schmid seems to like Friberg in that role to a greater degree. That said, Schmid has tendency to switch these things around during a match if he feels defenders need to be unsettled a little more.
One man who will understand Schmid’s feelings of losing forward upon forward is his opposite number Jason Kreis. To add to the Gold Cup losses, Paulo Jr.’s injured hip renders him unavailable. Midfielder Jean Alexandre, a goalscorer while on loan at Austin Aztex, was one of the midfield options being considered by Kreis to play at forward. His Haitian side did not qualify for the Gold Cup.
RSL are down to the bare bones and have nobody to play with Fabian Espindola up front.
Or didn’t .. until today.
Surprise overnight addition Artur Aghasyan was on trial with Chivas USA after playing, and scoring, for RSL in Oxnard against Shandong Luneng Taishan.
He came to RSL’s attention after playing for the Ventura County Fusion against them. He scored eight goals in back to back seasons for the PDL Fusion in 2008-09.
He is also the cousin of Yura Movsisyan, a famous name in RSL’s recent history. Not that lineage has worked any magic for John Rooney yet.
Another reinforcement already on the roster arrived from Europe, as youngster Luis Gil was recalled by RSL from duty with the U.S. Under-18 side participating in the Lisbon International Youth tournament in Portugal.
However, having kept Omar Bravo and Teal Bunbury at bay last Saturday, does the prospect of facing Aghasyan, Gil and/or Espindola put tremors under Sounders FC centre halves Jeff Parke and Jhon Hurtado? One would think not.
In short, for all that Seattle’s 2011 narrative has been one of patching up squad players to battle against the odds, this tussle perhaps presents them with that rarest of opportunities – an opponent more weakened by absences than themselves.
To counter balance that positive, there is the days of rest imbalance which favours the home side.
RSL last played Dallas on Sunday. Seattle hosted them on Wednesday night.
Both may have failed to breach the seemingly impregnable Dallas defense, with Jackson Goncalves quickly eclipsing Jamison Olave as the most underrated defender in MLS.
However, in RSL’s case a dour 0-0 draw signaled the end of a string of defeats in north-mid Texas. For Sounders, Brek Shea’s lone strike for the Lone Star led to the Rave Green’s second home defeat on the campaign and a return to a .500 record.
But here again there is a complication beneath the statistics. While RSL’s performance is unlikely to merit much mention in their end-of-season highlights package, Sounders produced one of their more gripping and effective performances, notwithstanding the loss.
Fucito was an effective and speedy livewire, harassing the Dallas defense with every snippet of potential possession. Gonzales, having fallen out of the eighteen completely, had his best game in recent memory at left back.
Sounders recorded 19 shots, five from Fucito. Of the 19, six were on target. The side had so much possession, measured at 72% at one point in the second half in one televised statistic. Sounders committed four fouls all game, so unthreatened were they.
Alonso returned to his dominant best after a couple of less solid games, and comparisons between him and Beckerman will surely be one focus of attention for the tactical purists. The inclusion of Zach Scott, a remnant of Seattle Sounders’ USL days, gave James Riley a rest at right back and performed well, which means the MLS veteran, once a Colorado Rapids player, should be well rested for this match.
Indeed, one of Schmid’s selection issues may be to decide how many of Wednesday’s four changes performed well enough, and can recover enough on three days' rest, to merit another start.
Erik Friberg should retain his place as Sigi Schmid has already said he considers him a natural starter. Fucito would seem to be the next most likely to get the nod. Despite both full backs performing well against a defensive FC Dallas, I would expect Wahl and Riley to return, fitness permitting.
In many ways, this is a bigger game for Seattle than for RSL. A loss would see them dip below .500 again and questions would be mooted about whether any significant progress is being made.
And strange as it may seem to RSL fans, Sounders are beginning to count the number of games left as much as games played. This tie will be their 14th MLS regular season fixture and that means 20 left.
Some of the more forward looking fans will start calculating how many points may be needed to secure a top-ten place and a post season nod, with the number 20 being easier to divide totals by.
With the Sporting Kansas City win, Sounders moved positively on the results front. With the Dallas match they moved backwards on that count, but positively forward with performance only used as a yardstick.
At some point, they have to do both in the one match. Does RSL’s paucity of forward options present them with a possible chance to do what no MLS side has done since Kansas City on May 16, 2009 … leave Rio Tinto with three points?
One would suggest it may well be a long, long time before a better opportunity emerges.
For Seattle. Indeed for anyone.
