MLS rules<\/a>, meaning they have fewer than 16 available outfield players. That potentially allows them to sign as many as three players on short-term loans from Tacoma Defiance, despite the roster-freeze deadline having already passed. Among the players being considered based on their participation in Tuesday\u2019s training session are defenders Leo Burney and Antino Lopez; midfielders Peter Kingston and Sebastian Gomez; and forward Yu Tsukanome. It was not entirely clear if Tsukanome is actually eligible, though, as he is an international and the Sounders don\u2019t have an open spot.<\/p>\nMore than likely, those players will only play reserve roles. The starting lineup will probably need to be cobbled together with at least a couple of players moving outside their normal position.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know that the job still needs to get done,\u201d said Alex Roldan, one of the players who may be deputized at a new position. \u201cThat\u2019s one thing that we\u2019ve been praising all year about this team is just the togetherness and having a deep squad where we can rotate players in and still have solid performances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not mad at Albert<\/p>\n
One of the reasons the Sounders are in such a tough situation is the red card Albert Rusn\u00e1k received at the end of the game against Portland. It was the ninth time the Sounders have had a player ejected across all competitions this year. But unlike many of those previous reds, Schmetzer couldn\u2019t really blame Rusn\u00e1k for the effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was unfortunate, just a little late,\u201d Schmetzer said. \u201cHe was trying to get in front of the guy \u2026 I\u2019m not pissed at Albert.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much the opposite, Schmetzer was actually quite pleased with Rusn\u00e1k\u2019s overall effort, noting that the midfielder\u2019s physical outputs were likely the best he\u2019s ever had in his MLS career. Similarly, Schmetzer said the Sounders graded out with one of their best physical outputs of the season on things like sprint distance, intensity and ground covered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a great way to to inch our way closer to the playoffs, playing in meaningful games like that,\u201d Schmetzer said. \u201cThey were the right opponent at the the right time. Thank god we won.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim kee-hee likely out<\/p>\n
Despite some hope for a quick recovery from the calf strain that forced him out of the Timbers match, Kim Kee-hee was effectively ruled out for this weekend\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re doing further tests on his calf,\u201d Schmetzer said. \u201cThey did an MRI. He\u2019s got a mass in there that took him out. It\u2019s kind of troubling that we can\u2019t seem to get that to stay kind of normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart Hawkins returns to training<\/p>\n
One bit of good news is that centerback Stuart Hawkins has returned to full training for the first time since suffering a quadriceps injury while doing postgame exercises on June 1. Originally expected to be out 6-8 weeks, Hawkins then suffered a setback during his recovery and has now missed more than four months. Prior to his injury, the 19-year-old had made three MLS appearances after establishing himself as one of the top young centerbacks in MLS Next Pro over the last three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looks good,\u201d Schmetzer said. \u201cThere\u2019s another body that I can maybe partially use.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RENTON \u2014 The Seattle Sounders have played 44 games across all competitions this year. They have so far…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":286240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-286239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115337995730826610","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}