Raúl Ruidíaz ‘ready to play’ vs. Pumas

RENTON – When last we saw Raúl Ruidíaz on the field for the Seattle Sounders, he was hobbling to the sidelines after a nasty tackle. Considering his recent injury history, there seemed to be ample reason to be concerned that it was serious.

A little over two weeks later, he was a full participant in Sunday’s training session and is now poised to make his return.

“He’s ready to play,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer told reporters ahead of Monday’s Leagues Cup Round of 16 match against UNAM Pumas. “He’ll be on the bench and I won’t hesitate to use him.”

The return comes just in time for Ruidíaz to face an opponent against whom he’s enjoyed a fair deal of success. Ruidíaz has seven career goals in six matches against Pumas, most of which came when he was playing for Liga MX side Morelia. But his most recent goal against Pumas was probably the most important, as it proved to be the game winner in the 2022 Concacaf Champions League final.

Questions in goal

Although Andrew Thomas has started the first three Leagues Cup matches, Schmetzer hinted after the previous game that Stefan Frei could potentially move back into goal for this match. When asked on Sunday, though, he was non-committal.

“I won’t tip my hand to my opponent,” Schmetzer said. “We have very, very good goalkeeping. Andrew is an exciting young goalkeeper. Andrew is getting better because of these opportunities I’ve given him. As I go through this tournament there will be a time when Stef sees some minutes and hopefully I can make a good choice.”

Praise for Hassan

Coming off scoring in his Tacoma Defiance debut, Sounders Academy player Omar Hassan got a chance to train with the first team. He impressed.

“He can dribble, has an eye for goal,” said Sounders midfielder Josh Atencio. “It has been nice having him on my team in the small-sided games.”

Schmetzer was even more effusive.

“Omar was fantastic, he has a great attitude and he had the best penalty kick today,” he said.