Heading into Sunday’s Cascadia Cup and MLS Heineken Rivalry Week showdown with the Portland Timbers at Providence Park (7 pm ET, FOX Sports 1), the Seattle Sounders find themselves very much looking for some offensive production.
With star forwards Clint Dempsey (suspension) and Obafemi Martins (groin injury) both already ruled out against the Timbers, much of the burden of performing in their place will likely fall on the shoulders of a local source: Federal Way, Washington native Lamar Neagle, who has had an up-and-down season for the Sounders so far after posting a career year with nine goals and nine assists in 2014.
Ahead of Sunday’s match, MLSsoccer.com caught up with Neagle for a Friday afternoon phone interview to go over the pressure of filling in for two MVP candidates, as well as his perspective on getting to take part in the league’s most contentious rivalry as a member of his hometown club:
MLSsoccer.com: Obviously, the big storyline surrounding the club at the moment is the depleted roster, particularly the loss of Dempsey and Martins and how you guys are going to stay afloat offensively in their absence. How do you feel you’ve been adapting to being one of the main ones asked to produce without them in the lineup?
NEAGLE: Obviously it’s difficult when you have two DPs and players of that caliber going out. It is tough. But I think I’ve made it known that I like playing forward a lot more. It’s difficult being the lone striker but after saying that I like playing forward, that’s something that I have to deal with. I don’t think I’ve had the best year finishing-wise. I’ve put together a few performances but I hope that I can score some goals in this coming game against Portland.
MLSsoccer.com: Sigi Schmid has said that part of Clint and Oba’s value isn’t just found in their goal-scoring, but also how much attention they draw from opposing defenses. Can you feel the difference on the field when they’re not out there as far as it becoming more difficult to find space and create chances?
NEAGLE: Definitely. I think missing Ozzie [Alonso] is a huge deficit for us too just because of the amount of ground he covers. It allows guys to go forward more and the more guys you have going forward, the easier it is for you to build in their half and have possession in their half, which accounts for more goals. But, yeah, I mean if Clint and Oba are on the field at any time, those are the guys people are going to be looking at to make things happen and that’ll bring over defenders and create chaos a little bit. In the past, that’s allowed for players like me to kind of sneak in the backdoor and get goals that way. But I think with the depth that we have, we’re going to be okay.
MLSsoccer.com: Let’s get into some rivalry stuff. In your experience, what’s it like playing at Providence Park and how does the atmosphere and gameplay compare to CenturyLink Field?
NEAGLE: Yeah, Providence Park is always great to play at. Anyone who plays sports should love playing in an atmosphere where it’s that passionate and intense. I think Providence definitely proves that. With CenturyLink, just with pure mass of people and the kind of fight our supporting group plays, that’s huge. I think Providence is a little smaller and so the fans are a little bit closer and little bit more on top of you compared to CenturyLink. But, I mean, who wouldn’t play in a rivalry match of this magnitude? I don’t think there’s any rivalry that comes close, whether it’s history, just the sheer passion that’s put into it by the players and the fans. I don’t think there’s a game in the US or MLS that anybody would rather play in.
MLSsoccer.com: Does the Portland rivalry leak out into other sports? For instance, if you and your teammates are watching a Ducks game or a Trail Blazers game, does the animosity carry over or do you feel like it’s restricted to soccer?
NEAGLE: It does a little bit, but I don’t think it does as much as it would if there were more sports where the cities competed against each other. If we still had the SuperSonics here, which, man, I wish we did, then it could actually spill over more. It’s kind of weird because you hear people up here supporting the Portland Trail Blazers and then people down there supporting the Seahawks. It’s kind of a difficult situation when it comes to spilling over sports. I think soccer definitely has a hold on that rivalry. Hopefully, God willing, we’ll get an NBA team back and we can do the rivalry with them too.
MLSsoccer.com: Do you think you have a different personal perspective on the rivalry as a local kid from Federal Way? Is this even more of a hometown pride kind of thing for you and what are your memories of watching this rivalry develop since Portland became an MLS side?
NEAGLE: Yeah, I think with me, it’s kind of engrained in me more just because I’m from the area. One of the coolest memories I have was of Roger Levesque scoring that goal and Nate Jaqua doing the chopdown [celebration]. I think that was one of the first games that I was actually on the bench for. Just seeing that atmosphere and for us to come out on top like that, that was one of my best memories from Providence Park.
MLSsoccer.com: Do you think guys on the team who don’t have the local connection that you do still feel the intensity of the rivalry to the same degree? Obviously you have players from all over the country and all over the world.
NEAGLE: I think so. It’s funny because I’ve had a lot of teammates come in and out of Seattle and everybody loves Seattle. I haven’t heard one guy that’s moved here say a bad thing. A lot of times they end up living here afterwards. I think, obviously, with everything that goes a long with it, you kind of have to be invested. There’s no other way to go about it when one of these games comes up. It’s intense. You can tell from our last Open Cup game. You can tell that no matter what, these games are going to be crazy. You combine that with the backing of the fans and how badly they want us to beat Portland, you feel the pressure of the rivalry and it just builds every single year. It’s one of the coolest things and one of the coolest games to play in MLS.
