RENTON — Playing the opening game of the playoffs without one of their starting midfielders is obviously not ideal, but the Seattle Sounders are at least well positioned to cover for Obed Vargas’ absence.
João Paulo is the most likely player to fill in for Vargas against the Houston Dynamo on Monday, but Josh Atencio was also cleared to return from concussion protocol and Danny Leyva has shown some promise there as well.
The key player, though, could end up being Cristian Roldan, who will likely reprise the role he’s played often during his 10-year Sounders career.
Although Roldan played almost exclusively as the more defensive-minded of the two double-pivots over the final eight games of the season, he’s likely to assume more of Vargas’ offensive contributions in this game. It’s the position where Roldan first grew to prominence from 2017-2019 and has often moonlighted in ever since.
“I have to contribute more offensively when Obed is out,” Roldan said following Sunday’s training session. “I feel like I’ve been doing a good job defensively, providing more cover for Obed to get into attack. Now is time for me to pick up my game and provide a bit more offensively.
“I’ve been enjoying playing a little deeper and giving the team some more balance, but it’s an opportunity to show I can still go forward.”
It’s been a bit of an odd season for Roldan. When the year began, the idea was to let him really settle in as a more attack-minded right midfielder. But injuries elsewhere on the pitch and his own poor attacking form eventually led to him moving around a lot, even by his standards.
Although Roldan has made more starts and played more minutes than in any season since 2018, he’s logged multiple starts at four different positions. Until he settled in at defensive midfielder down the stretch, he had only made as many as four consecutive starts at one position once — also defensive midfielder — and has only made two total starts at right midfielder since April 20.
Roldan still managed to finish with a goal and five assists, but he’s not scored or had a primary assist in his last 21 league appearances (he did have two primary assists in Leagues Cup). As is usually the case, though, Roldan excelled in less obvious parts of the game. He still stands out among midfielders in terms of forward passing, touches in the penalty area and defensively solidity. He’s also been able to regularly put his teammates into advantageous attacking positions with through balls, often connecting with Jordan Morris and Paul Rothrock.
“Playing higher up the field, the game has slowed down a little when you’re deeper,” Roldan said of the position change. “You get the ball with more time and space, instead of four guys collapsing on you. Being able to play forward has always been part of my game, but because I’m a little deeper my line-breaking is showing a little more. I feel like I’m playing line-breaking passes, but we have a lot of width right now because it creates more space in the midfield.”
Over the last few seasons, Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer has been adamant that he thought Roldan’s best position was as a right-sided midfielder. It’s probably overstating things to say that Schmetzer has been surprised at how strong Roldan has looked when sliding back a line, but he has been impressed.
“He hasn’t missed too much when he slides back,” Schmetzer said. “He’s always had good range, power, good in the air, a thinker, he makes plays. There’s a lot that goes on there. He and Obed are a good pair.”
Roldan has been good enough that Schmetzer said it has forced him and GM Craig Waibel to somewhat rethink some of their future plans for the midfield.
In the nearer term, central midfield continues to be a position where Schmetzer says he still sees some competition. João Paulo has missed most of the past two months while recovering from an injury and hasn’t started a game since the U.S. Open Cup semifinal on Aug. 28. Similarly, Atencio hasn’t started since the 4-0 win over the Columbus Crew on Sept. 7, mostly due to a couple different injuries.
Both players have proven themselves to be capable of standout performances and should be useful pieces during the playoffs.
“We actually have an overflow of defensive midfielders,” Schmetzer said. “We have a ton of really good midfielders. That competition is there and it will be there in the future.”
