SEATTLE — Six games in 23 days would be tough for any Major League Soccer team at the best of times.
But for the Sounders, still grappling with injuries and struggling to find a consistent attack, the three-plus week journey that begins today in Chicago could prove to be a definitive point in their season. The Sounders learned Thursday they’ll be without suspended right back Jordy Delem for the game against a Fire squad unbeaten at home this season.
Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said the time for greater urgency is fast approaching.
“We’ll need all hands on deck,” he said. “So, basically, the physical health of the players is going to be one component. The other is just being mentally tough enough to persevere. Things aren’t always easy in life. You’ve got to make do. We’ve got to figure out ways how to win.
“I think that’s what this team did last year. Figured out ways how to win under difficult circumstances. And I think they have it within them this year as well.”
The Sounders (2-3-4), in eighth place in the Western Conference, had expected some early struggles pre-June due to a shortened offseason after winning the MLS Cup. But they also stressed repeatedly that they could not afford to bury themselves as badly as last season, when they climbed out of a last-place hole at the midway point by barely losing a game the rest of the way.
That’s unlikely to be the case two years in a row.
This latest stretch of games will carry the team into June and dangerously close to the midway point at which they’d hoped not to find themselves too far behind again. After the game in Chicago, they’ll face another home unbeaten in Sporting Kansas City — at 5-2-3 overall and second in the Western Conference — on Wednesday.
They’ll have home games on May 20 against Real Salt Lake and May 27 against Portland before playing Columbus on the road on May 31 and Houston, also on the road, on June 4.
The Sounders weren’t helped by the Delem suspension announced Thursday after a league review of a yellow card handed Osvaldo Alonso last Saturday against Toronto FC. The league determined it a case of mistaken identity and that the caution should have gone to Delem — making it his second of the game and triggering the automatic suspension.
“We’ll miss him because he’s a good player,” Schmetzer said. “It was a little bit of a blow but that stuff happens.”
Right back Oniel Fisher is making the trip after a month-long absence with a hamstring issue. The team also has veteran Brad Evans available to start for the first time this season.
And as mentioned, they’ll need all available hands to contain the Fire’s star-powered, revamped midfield of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Dax McCarty and Juninho. The trio, especially German World Cup star Schweinsteiger, has helped transform a cellar-dwelling Chicago side and should present numerous challenges for Alonso, the Sounders’ defensive midfielder.
“He’s going to be tough,” Alonso said of Schweinsteiger. “He’s a good player. He’s a World Cup player. But I think I’ve played enough against good players and I don’t see this game going any differently.”
Alonso has fond memories of playing the Fire, having scored a terrific insurance goal against them in stoppage time of a 2-0 Sounders win in the 2011 U.S. Open Cup final. He dribbled past a defender and broke in alone inside the 18-yard box, then faked out keeper Sean Johnson to his left before tucking the ball into an empty net.
“I think it was one of the best goals I’ve ever scored in my career,” Alonso said.
His team will take more of those on Saturday — from him, or anybody else.
