To preview the midweek clash between Sporting Kansas City and the Seattle Sounders, I interviewed SB Nation and MLSSoccer.com writer Jeremiah Oshan.
What's been the main reason for Seattle struggling offensively (5 goals through 7 matches)?
"The biggest thing has to be the lack of continuity, especially in the attacking core of the team. Mauro Rosales is the only attacking player who has played in every game. Shalrie Joseph has only played in two games. Eddie Johnson has only played in four games. Lamar Neagle has played in three games. Zakuani has played but missed a couple games. Even Osvaldo Alonso has missed a game (Sunday at Philadelphia). Everyone has missed a bunch of games. It's not just that they are missing games it's that a lot of these players haven't really had any significant training time together. You just have key pieces on this team, the guys that were expected to score a lot of goals, that haven't been able to get any continuity. Most of that's injuries but there's been national team call-ups and other things. I would think that once these guys actually train together for a few weeks at a time that things will get better but that was supposed to happen in the bye week and guys got hurt."
What are your thoughts on Sporting Kansas City?
"They are clearly a very good team and I have to imagine they're one of the favorites, if not the favorite, to the MLS Cup at this point."
How do you think Seattle will approach Wednesday's match?
"I think that they view it as maybe not a must win game but I definitely think that its a game that they realize they need to get some points from. There's going to be some missing pieces again. DeAndre Yedlin and Lamar Neagle are out with red cards. Shalrie Joseph didn't travel. Oba Martins didn't travel. Steve Zakuani didn't travel. It's a short-handed team yet again but I think that they are beyond the point of relying on that as kind of an excuse. This is a team that built a pretty deep squad. I think they are definitely going into this game trying to get points. They've played reasonably well at Kansas City. They haven't lost in regulation in the two games they've played at Sporting Park. I would imagine that they'll probably come into it with a similar attitude that they came in with the 2011 game when they got a couple late goals to win it."
What do you expect for Wednesday's match?
"It's probably not going to be a pretty match from the Sounders perspective. I would imagine that they are probably going to cede a lot of possession and they'll probably going to be looking to get out on the counter more."
"My assumption would be that they'll (Seattle) keep it pretty tight. They're going to try to not get caught up in the high pressure from Sporting Kansas City, and try to exploit the high line."
