By Steven Agen

The Seattle Sounders may still be without their three most important offensive pieces and their captain, but that doesn’t look like it’ll put a damper on the proceedings when they visit the Chicago Fire on Saturday. The situation is still far from ideal, but a couple weeks and three points’ distance may have all but made up for the Seattle Sounders’ 4-1 drubbing at Portland on June 29 as they get healthy and get reinforcements at the same time.

Brad Evans, Clint Dempsey and Marco Pappa are away with the USA and Honduras, respectively, for the Gold Cup through the month and Obafemi Martins is still not fit after suffering an injury in Seattle’s Open Cup derby loss in June. Stefan Frei sprained his shoulder last week, and veteran Troy Perkins will make his first league start of the year.

However, Osvaldo Alonso returned to the field last Friday following his own stint with injury. The talismanic midfielder went the whole 90 minutes, putting in a vintage performance as the Sounders scored late to down Eastern Conference leaders DC 1-0. The Cuban turned out of trouble this way and that, hitting 60 yard diagonals on the money to unlock Tyrone Mears and Thomas whenever he could. He instantly raised the level of play in the Seattle midfield by some margin, and he’ll get to do so again this week with the help of Erik Friberg.

The industrious Swede returns for his second stint in Seattle following a successful year in the Northwest in 2011. With the MLS secondary transfer window opening on July 8th, Friberg appears to have cleared up all potential visa issues and will be ready to debut against the Fire on Saturday. Sounders supporters will remember his versatility, engine, and creativity from 2011, and will hope he can power back-up forwards Chad Barrett and Lamar Neagle to easy chances and goals. Others are just happy to have another healthy body out there.

With the matches coming thick and fast since Dempsey and Martins were sidelined, Sigi Schmid and co. have hardly had the chance to take a breath. Long road trips, derbies, and midweek games even led to the signing of youngster Andy Craven despite the forward having no less than six names ahead of him on the (full-health) depth chart. Now, with eight days of rest between matches, the squad shifts from their attentioned from the top of the standings to the bottom.

Seattle’s next three opponents (Chicago, Colorado, and Montreal) all currently sit in the bottom three of the Supporters’ Shield race. Practically anywhere else in the world, we’d be starting to talk about relegation as a possibility for these clubs this year.

For a team who simply couldn’t buy an easy fixture, it’s all coming together at the right moment for the Sounders. Alonso, Friberg, Craven and Barrett are all available and weren’t a few weeks ago. There aren’t any midweek games for the rest of the month. Three matches coming against the three bottom sides in the league. Oh, and did we mention Chicago has never beaten Seattle in MLS play? Don’t expect the Sounders to be anywhere but the top of the West come the end of this weekend.

Obviously the Fire will have something to say about that, but it might not be very loud. Sitting on 15 points from 16 games played, Chicago are winless in their last five and dead last in the league.

Perhaps the best result for the Fire would be a loss as it may finally end the tenure of Frank Yallop as head coach, as reported by Prost Amerika earlier this week.

“Yallop’s club have a dismal 4-9-2 record this season. The side are currently in Houston and reports suggest that he may be one defeat away from dismissal. Having lost their last four MLS games, Fire lie 20th out of 20 clubs in the overall standings.”

MLS is a league of parity and all, but this one looks pretty clear cut.

MATCH PREDICTION

Seattle 2, Chicago 0

Neagle (Friberg) 34’

Thomas (Remick) 52’