TUKWILA, Wash. – As the Seattle Sounders took on the Houston Dynamo Sunday night, defender DeAndre Yedlin was in street clothes, watching his team from a suite at CenturyLink Field.
Yedlin’s absence from the lineup followed a marathon travel period for the 21-year-old, who was reportedly overseas undergoing a physical and conducting transfer negotiations with a European club before arriving back in Seattle on Saturday.
As of Monday morning, Seattle still hadn’t announced which club Yedlin was negotiating with, although reports in recent days have linked him to Tottenham Hotspur.
“His situation is very close,” Seattle head coach Sigi Schmid said following the Sounders’ 2-0 win on Sunday night. “Things are not entirely completed yet, so you didn’t want to play him and have the risk of injury happen without everything being finalized. And hopefully they’ll be finalized and completed in the next day or two.”
Both Schmid and Seattle general manager Adrian Hanauer have said that any transfer deal that is reached will keep Yedlin with the Sounders through the end of the MLS season.
Schmid also said Yedlin’s status for Wednesday’s US Open Cup match against Chicago is still up in the air, but that he is hopeful his young star will be available to play (10:30 pm ET, streamed live on USsoccer.com).
The uncertainty surrounding Yedlin’s playing status comes during one of Seattle’s busiest stretches of the season, with five more matches this month across all competitions. After the USOC semifinal, the Sounders take on Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday (2:30 pm ET, NBCSN, free stream on NBCSports.com), and there's still a rivalry match against the Timbers in Portland looming on Aug. 24.
“The understanding is that DeAndre will be with us through the end of the season, which is a good thing,” Schmid said. “It keeps our team intact. I think for him the opportunity to go to a club like that is fantastic.”
