The Seattle Sounders will be without Clint Dempsey when they visit their bitter Cascadia Cup rivals the Portland Timbers on Sunday afternoon (3 pm ET; FOX in US, MLS LIVE in Canada).
That is a blow that the Sounders and their fans will have to deal with after Dempsey was shown a red card on Wednesday against FC Dallas during Seattle's 5-0 win.
The good news is that up until Wednesday, the Sounders’ performances haven’t differed all that much with and without Dempsey on the field. The bad news is that those performances have been mediocre at best.
Up until their game against Dallas, Seattle had scored less then a goal per game. In fact, they averaged .8 goals per game with Dempsey starting and .8 goals per game without.
Sounders prior to Wednesday night
With Dempsey |
Stat |
Without Dempsey |
|---|---|---|
11 |
Games |
6 |
36.4% |
Win Pct. |
16.7% |
1.2 |
PPG |
.7 |
.8 |
Goals/Game |
.8 |
It should be noted that Seattle's results have been drastically different with Dempsey, with much of the credit going to the improved defense. Of course, the former US national team captain is not really known for his defensive abilities.
Seattle’s offensive woes improved after their win on Wednesday. However, that outburst came against a Dallas side that didn’t play most of their first-stringers, including Mauro Diaz, Fabian Castillo, Matt Hedges and Carlos Gruezo. Seattle were also up a man for 29 minutes after Maynor Figueroa was shown a red card for handling a ball that was likely heading into the back of the net.
The situation is going to be a bit different against a Timbers side hungry for win at home. Portland are coming off a home draw against the Montreal Impact on Wednesday, and the defending MLS Cup champions currently sit below the red line, just like the Sounders.
To replace Dempsey, Sigi Schmid will likely return Jordan Morris to his No. 9 role that he played, and excelled at, while Dempsey was away at Copa America Centenario. The former Stanford striker has averaged more than a goal every other game over the past three months.
Andreas Ivanschitz should be expected to hold onto the advanced left role in Seattle’s 4-3-3 formation, especially after his stellar performance against Dallas. The Austrian contributed a goal and an assist and you can see how influential he was dropping into the midfield to help the trio of Cristian Roldan (No. 7), Erik Friberg (No. 8) and Osvaldo Alonso (No. 6) against a 10-man Dallas team in this passing network graph (Ivanschitz is no. 23.)
This graphic is made using Opta data. The circles represent each player’s aggregate position, and the thickness of the lines connecting them represents the number of passes exchanged between players.
On the right, we could see one of three players, all of whom have not performed at a high level so far this season. Aaron Kovar started six straight games before being relegated to the bench in the last two games. The Homegrown product has just one goal and no assists in over 1,000 minutes in 2016.
Two bigger name forwards, Nelson Valdez and Herculez Gomez, have failed to produce a goal or an assist this season. Valdez has made just five starts this season due to injury and international duty, while Gomez has not started a match in almost two months.
None of the three players have shown the same attacking output that Dempsey, Morris or Ivanschitz have this season.
It's a tough choice, but getting a Designated Player like Valdez on track should be one of Schmid’s goals over the next month as the Sounders try to make a run towards the playoffs. With none of the three players separating themselves dramatically, Valdez should be the one that gets the start against the Timbers.
