RENTON — Although the result couldn’t have been much worse than it was, the Seattle Sounders’ injury situation coming out of their 3-0 loss to San Diego FC was not nearly as bad.
Alex Roldan (quadricep) and Albert Rusnák (adductor) were both pulled from Saturday’s game, and were unable to train on Tuesday, but don’t appear to have long-term injuries. Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said they should both be out 1-2 weeks, but also wasn’t ready to definitively rule them out for the upcoming match against FC Dallas on Saturday.
In similarly positive news, Jordan Morris (hamstring) was again a full participant in training and is “probably” going to at least make the trip to Dallas, according to Schmetzer. Ryan Kent could also be available depending on how quickly he’s able to complete the final steps of his work visa process. Kent is scheduled to go to Vancouver either Wednesday or Thursday, and if all goes well could meet up with the team in Dallas and be available for the game.
The status of Danny Musovski was less clear. After missing most of training last week with a back injury, he was still able to play 28 minutes against San Diego, but then pulled himself out of training on Tuesday.
Tape was unkind
Of seemingly more concern than the injuries was simply how the Sounders played against San Diego.
After going through the tape, Schmetzer wasn’t comforted by just about anything he saw and shouldered his share of the blame starting with the opening goal that came less than two minutes into the match.
“It’s my job as a coach to make sure the team is prepared to play,” Schmetzer said. “Obviously that didn’t happen in the first minute. We will be doing some different changes to try and rectify that. The guys know who it is that fell asleep on that play.
“That was a team goal, but I'm putting that on me. Because the team should be prepared when the referee blows the whistle. That didn’t happen, and we will work on that this week and that won’t happen again.”
Schmetzer was just as frustrated with the other two goals, which both came on transition plays late in the first half. On the first, Anibal Godoy was effectively allowed to run about 60 yards unmarked for an open finish from the top of the penalty box. The other goal started about 90 yards from goal and ended with Hirving Lozano just running past Jackson Ragen for a relatively easy finish. In between, San Diego had two other counter-attacking opportunities that also seemed to show slow reactions and a lack of spacial awareness from the normally stout Sounders defense.
“We talked about it in film, we watched both of the goals,” Schmetzer said. “We can’t micromanage players’ decisions, but we certainly can show them ways that they can do better, and that’s what we did.
“We talked about vision, the choice of the pass, their recovery runs, their positioning on the field. In both of those moments, they can all do a better job of making sure we’re prepared for those types of situations.”
Formation change?
Schmetzer freely admitted that various tweaks he’s made in the face of injuries haven’t worked, most notably at the No. 9, where both Jesús Ferreira and Georgi Minoungou proved to be poor fits for how the Sounders want to play. He also suggested a formation change could be in the offing.
“We might have to [change] because we haven’t gotten results,” Schmetzer said. “That’s the bottom line, we're in a results-based business. If things aren’t working, we’ll try different personnel and then you have think about tactical changes.”
