Selection Problems of the Good Type Part 2

King Masters Novel Tactic

June 16

Stephen King will admit to being not one of the better known Sounders players so far in the season, but that all may be about to change.

In the absence of Osvaldo Alonso, King was called in, seemingly to share those defensive midfield duties with Brad Evans. And both players performed them well, so well in fact that when Ossie was brought on to resume his Sounders career for the last fifteen minutes, the coach left them both on.

But it was something other than his defensive duties, that caught the eye during the San Jose match. On a couple of occasions, King delivered sweeping cross field long passes, that found their mark splendidly. If you have the game taped, go back to that period at 22 minutes and ten seconds. You’ll see King collect the ball just inside the San Jose half, take it back into the Seattle half, and then turn, look up and deliver a 45 yard inch perfect pass to Seb Le Toux. It sure fooled goalkeeper Joe Cannon who came rushing out but was beaten to the ball by Seb, with only the alertness of Hernandez saving his goalkeeper’s blushes.

King told us after the match, “Yeah, you know they always say to look long first and then if that’s not on then to play a short ball, especially with Sebastien out there and Steve Zakuani , we can use their speed to get in behind, and so I try to look for that a lot and exploit that.”

The long ball to give Le Toux and Zakuani something to chase has been an under exploited tactic so far this season, and it remains to be seen whether it will survive the return of Nate Jaqua to the forward line up. Overall, King is pleased with the way his form is progressing, but modestly chose to focus on how it affected the team.
“It felt good out there. I feel like as the season’s gone on I’ve gotten more and more comfortable playing for this team and lately I’ve been getting a lot more playing time and a couple of starts so I’m definitely feeling good. I thought the team came out and we knew we had to perform tonight. We haven’t won for a while so it definitely felt good out there.”

As we had asked Patrick Ianni how it felt to be giving Sigi selection issues, we put the same question to Stephen. “You just try to work hard, and you want to make it really hard on the coaches when they go to pick the lineup each week, and you want to take advantage of every opportunity you get.”

It’s now up to Sigi to decide whether he chooses a King or goes for a more republican form of government. Exactly the kind of choice that makes the Head Coach’s life more difficult.

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