Nouhou appears to be ready to play vs. LA Galaxy

RENTON — The Seattle Sounders will be at least a little less short-handed on Saturday than had been initially feared. Although Reed Baker-Whiting (ankle) was effectively ruled out for the Western Conference final against the LA Galaxy, Nouhou (illness) was a full participant in training and Yeimar Gomez-Andrade (hamstring) has at least made enough progress to be something like a gameday decision. Paul Rothrock (quad) had been ruled out earlier this week.

Nouhou’s presence could be particularly important as he’ll mostly be matched up with Galaxy right winger Gabriel Pec. Coming off being named MLS Newcomer of the Year following a season in which he had 16 goals and 14 assists, he’s continued his hot form in the playoffs where he has three goals and two assists in three matches.

“I think it’s gonna be one of the marquee storylines of the game,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said following Friday’s training session. “You’ve got a player in Pec who’s super good, and you’ve got a lockdown defender who’s super good at what he does. Let’s see who comes out on top of that battle.”

Nouhou missed the LAFC match after picking up an undisclosed illness while on international duty with Cameroon. He returned to Seattle on Wednesday after being cleared by doctors.

Schmetzer also seemed optimistic about having Yeimar for at least part of the game. Yeimar had to come out of the Western Conference semifinal with a hamstring injury and has been limited in training all week, but is apparently making good progress.

“If I were a betting man, I’d bet I’d see him in the game,” Schmetzer said.

Galaxy injury updates

The Galaxy are mostly healthy, at least when it comes to their projected starters, but there is at least some question around the availability of Marco Reus. The German midfielder came off of the last game in the 71st minute and has only played as many as 80 minutes in a game once since arriving this summer. The 35-year-old has apparently been somewhat limited in training this week.

“Marco wasn’t out today because we’re trying to turn him around,” Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney told the media on Wednesday. “He had a little issue inside of the game which is why we took him out. I want to make sure he’s ready to go and then we’ll make some decisions about the right tactical setup.”

It’s entirely possible the Galaxy wouldn’t have planned to start Reus regardless of his fitness as he’s been in bit of a job share with Marky Delgado, who is much more of a two-way player.

Record within reach

The Galaxy have put on one of the more impressive offensive displays in MLS playoff history over their first three games, scoring 15 goals and scoring at least four in each of them. That’s just two goals shy of the MLS playoff record, which was set in 2016 when Vanney’s Toronto FC scored 17 goals. Notably, that TFC team was shut out in MLS Cup…