Sigi Gives Eylander the Nod

Strongest Indication Yet Chris will Make his Debut against Chivas

April 17

In a statement made to the press at training, Sigi Schmid indicated that Chris Eylander has emerged as clear favourite to deputise for Kasey Keller tomorrow.

“It looks like right now that we’ll probably give the nod to (Chris) Eylander going into this game. But Ben (Dragavon) has been well. The competition has been good, but it’s good for both of them,” the head coach said.

Keller must serve a game suspension after being dismissed by the referee in the last game, something he is unused to. Other than that, Sounders appear to have no injury problems although Taylor Graham and Peter Vagenas, longer term casualties, are not considered anywhere near fully recovered enough for this weekend.

Eylander had been injured suffering from a PCL strain of his right knee and he has been struggling to get fit. So far this season, Ben Dragavon has occupied the bench. Dragavon is not a registered Sounders player, but a member of the MLS Hardship Goalkeeping pool which the league retains to assist clubs with less than two fit goalkeepers. He has been training with the Sounders due to his local connections.

Even as early as last week, Chris was optmistic. Speaking to Prost Amerika and other reporters last week, he looked forward to a week of recuperation to be ready in time, and commented on how big a loss to Sounders FC Kasey would be.

Listen to Chris Eylander Speaking after the KC Game on What he had to Achieve to Make the Chivas Game (1.07)

Nagamura out but Chivas Still Dangerous

Top scorer Paulo Nagamura is out for Chivas but Schmid does not think that will prevent them being a tough opponent, “Chivas obviously is a good team. They haven’t lost any games. I know everybody’s talking about they’ve got some guys injured. But those guys have been injured for a while. So they’ve got a team rhythm with the guys that they’re playing right now, and the guys that are on the field. And they still have a good nucleus of veteran players with Carey Talley, and Jesse Marsch, and even though (Paulo) Nagamura got a red card the last game, so he won’t be playing against us. But there’s a good nucleus of players. Sacha Kljestan is a very important player for their team. He’s been healthy all season. They move the ball around fairly well. So they’re a good team.

The challenges Chivas pose is they’re a good possession team. They’re good down the middle of the field, and defensively they’ve played fairly well this season. So they’re the kind of team you’ve got to keep good concentration and awareness because they do keep the ball a little bit. So you’ve got to stay disciplined on defense. But offensively, we’ve got to be creative and we need our flare guys to make some creative plays in the final third of the field to open up and unlock their defense.”

The match at the Home Depot Center kicks off at 7.30 pm. Coverage begins on King 5 at 7pm. Full Match Preview here.

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