By Toby Dunkelberg
Wednesday’s matchup will feature two sides who saw loses on Sautrday by surprisingly large margins. The Seattle Sounders and the Philadelphia Union. Some of the blame may lie on grueling 120 minute US Open Cup games on Tuesday, in addition to absences from key playmakers, Clint Dempsey (among others) and Sebastian Le Toux respectively.
The story for Philadelphia was a rather simple one, with all but one of their starting eleven consistent over both matches it was clear they were going to be in for a rough time traveling cross coast to LA. Add in the fact that Bruce Arena was finally able to field his ideal (at least until Gerrard arrives) eleven and things were stacked against Philadelphia from the beginning.
Despite that they managed to hold LA to get LA off of them for the first twenty minutes but after that tired legs, among many other factors, led to a final score line of 5-1 LA Galaxy.
The Sounders story looks a little more complicated at first glance. Seattle was also missing key players, but with Clint Dempsey, Obafemi Martins, Osvaldo Alonso, and Gonzalo Pineda out they were missing many more. Those absences forced the Sounders into a 4-2-3-1 formation which they’ve seldom utilized before. And with many players unused to their assigned position in the formation their work was cut out for them.
They did however manage to rotate players better and thus there were four players who played minimal role on Tuesday or didn’t feature at all. However, San Jose had rotated players even better with only two players being forced to start in both matches. San Jose also had the edge in number of first team players on the field, as including the glaring exception of Adam Jahn, San Jose played a nearly full first team side. The Sounders meanwhile were forced into using four for sure backups and deployed many players in their front six out of their normal positions.
This led to a match where counter attacks by San Jose were quite simply put, lethal. Seattle still saw the majority of the possession at 57.9 % but they were outshot and were forced into more blocks and risky tackles in and around the box. And with the speed of the San Jose, Seattle defenders were forced to play at a numbers disadvantage often. Even when the did have the advantaged they were relying on youngsters, and simple mistakes, like leaving Sanna Nyassi completely unmarked, led to dangerous chances and their ultimate undoing.
This the Sounders and the Union will need to play more like themselves if they want to win. Philadelphia is a team that relies on good defensive positoning including an offsides trap to keep games close. Although they’ve continually participated in blow outs this season, giving up five goals on three seperate occasions. However they’re also a little bit bipolar as there a games where they are remarkable stout, but then let in a dribbler off a silly mistake. The Union will need to keep their focus for the entire match in order to limit the number of goals from Seattle.
Seattle in turn needs to finish their chances. Without Martins and Dempsey, the Sounders will be missing their two goal and assist leaders. Without them there is an inability to convert chances, which they were able to generate, into goals. Neagle has looked promising at times but on the road after only four days rest the energy just won’t be high enough to keep generating chances at whim.
It’s bound to be a matchup of two tired teams that are going to be heavily reliant on squad rotation with bigger games on the weekend, away at Portland for Seattle and home versus similarly positioned eastern conference bottom dweller Montreal. It might just come down to what side each coach feels comfortable fielding. But regardless if ether team can follow through on their goal while limiting their opponents, they’ll win, simple as that.
