SEATTLE — Coming off three straight home wins, the Seattle Sounders have another golden opportunity to claim points against an opponent seemingly ripe for the taking.
Despite some recently improved form in which they’ve won 5 of 6 games, the New England Revolution still sit below the Eastern Conference playoff line and have not won a road game against a Western Conference opponent in five years. To make matters worse, the league’s lowest-scoring team will once again be missing midfield maestro Carles Gil, who is out with a “lower leg” injury.
If the Sounders can extend their home win streak to four games — something they’ve not accomplished since 2020 — they can move all the way up to sixth in the Western Conference and would be sitting just three points out of fourth.
“We want to build and use that momentum,” Sounders midfielder Albert Rusnák said following Friday’s training session at Lumen Field. “We’re starting to win some games at home. We have to climb up in the table. We’re past the halfway line and every game is important.”
Although the Sounders have a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal looming on Tuesday, head coach Brian Schmetzer said his decisions are almost entirely focused on the Revolution match.
“This game is first,” Schmetzer said. “We’ll do whatever it takes to win this game. If we can could take some minutes off people, I would. But if the game is tight, we’re going to focus on this game and then we’ll just shuffle the deck in Sacramento.
“There are a lot of hungry guys out there that want to play.”
Paul Rothrock will ‘feature prominently’
Without literally giving away his starting lineup, Schmetzer hinted strongly that Paul Rothrock would likely be starting after another standout performance off the bench against the Chicago Fire last week. Although Rothrock did not score in that game, he drew the game-tying penalty and has now been on the field for each of the Sounders’ last nine goals over their previous four matches.
“He’s going to feature prominently in this game,” Schmetzer said.
What’s less clear is which side Rothrock will start on. If he’s on the left, that likely means Alex Roldan will also be back in the lineup. If Rothrock is on the right, that probably means Cristian Roldan will be sliding back a line.
Ramping up de la Vega
After completing another week of full training, Pedro de la Vega is in line for a few more minutes than the 15 he played last Saturday. How much, exactly, could be determined by the game-state.
“We’re going to extend his minutes if we can,” Schmetzer said. “If it’s more of a defensive struggle, I might not put him on right away, but I’m going to try to build his minutes so he can progress into being evaluated for a start.”
