Injuries never come at the right time. For the Seattle Sounders, the injury bug has had a bite full when it comes to the club’s core. When Joao Paulo went down with a knee injury during the team’s Champions League Final home win the news took some sting out of the historic achievement. On May 5th Paulo was ruled out for the rest of the season due to a right knee injury.
His replacement 16-year-old Obed Vargas stated six consecutive league games and as like would have it suffered a lower back stress fracture. On June 23rd head coach Brian Schmetzer announced the news.
“It’s really unfortunate because the kid was playing well for us and also had a chance to be with the \[United States\] U-20’s. It’s tough but the fact of the matter is we have a deep team, said Schmetzer.
“He covered for JP. We’ve got Josh coming back. Danny and Kelyn can fit in there. So, the team will be fine, but it’s a bummer for the kid because he was looking pretty good,”
If bad news comes in three’s then Cristian Roldan’s injury announcement on August 23rd will hopefully for Sounder fans shut the door on the injury bug and allow the team to gather momentum with just eight games left in the regular season.
FACING A MUST-WIN GAME VS TIMBERS
If the Sounders are to make a momentum-building push the first team standing in their way is who else but the Portland Timbers? The game between the Cascadia Rivals has never been about the standings. Friday’s games will be about the standings. Both teams have the exact 33 points. The Sounders are in 9th place while the Timbers are in 10th place. The Sounders have played one less game. Both teams would like to start a late-season push into the playoffs with a statement-making win over their Cascadia Rivals.
GAME NOTES
- Since the beginning of 2019, the home team has lost eight of the 10 meetings between the Timbers and Sounders in MLS play (W1 D1). No other MLS fixture has seen the visiting team record more than five wins in that span. The Timbers have 33 points through 27 games this season. Portland has missed the playoffs in all four seasons in which it had fewer than 40 points after 27 games, while qualifying for the postseason in its other six full seasons (excluding 2020).
- The Sounders have collected seven points in their last nine games (W2 D1 L6). Seattle has just two nine-game spans in a single season (excluding overlapping spans) in which it has collected fewer points: five from May to July 2012 (W0 D5 L4) and three from June to August 2015 (W1 D0 L8).
- Portland hasn’t had a single source of attacking threat this year as its offensive production has been spread around. The Timbers are one of three teams (NYC, PHI) with five players with at least five goals in 2022 (Asprilla, Blanco, Moreno, Niezgoda and Tuiloma).
