There’s been no shortage of experimentation and tinkering for the Seattle Sounders this preseason – it’s what the preseason is for, after all.
But Seattle head coach Sigi Schmid fielded a particularly intriguing tactical wrinkle in the Sounders’ Desert Diamond Cup matchup Saturday against Sporting Kansas City.
Schmid trotted out a 3-5-2 formation as opposed to their normal 4-4-2. After a 3-2 loss, Schmid explained his thought process behind the change, simply saying that he figured now was the time to see how his team would handle a different look.
“We haven’t really worked on it all that much. I wanted to see how we would do playing in that system,” Schmid said. “Sometimes you just have to see how the team looks in [a different formation] and how they play in it, and I wanted to see if that was something that maybe suits us.”
It was just one of a variety of lineups that Schmid has toyed with as his team works through the ongoing preseason tournament in Tucson, Arizona, with some new draft picks and roster hopefuls getting a chance to make their impression.
The inexperience with the new look was evident, as the Sounders surrendered two first-half goals and generally seemed to struggle with having one less body patrolling the backline. But Schmid stressed that the move was purely for testing the waters and not indicative of any sort of plans for a long-term tactical change going forward.
“It’s not something where we’re thinking about changing our system or changing our way of playing,” Schmid said. “It was just something I wanted to look at.”
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In the meantime, the preseason has also given Schmid a chance to see what he has with some of his young new faces. University of Washington alum and Homegrown rookie Darwin Jones has been perhaps the most notable of the bunch, showing some intriguing flashes of skill, including a pinpoint cross that found forward Kenny Cooper for a goal in Seattle’s 2-1 defeat against the New England Revolution on Wednesday.
Colombian signee Andres Correa has also looked strong, showing the athleticism and ability to push forward that could make him a candidate to help the Sounders offset the loss of departed right back DeAndre Yedlin with continued development.
The Sounders wrap up their preseason schedule Saturday against Kansas City and are slotted to kick off their regular season at home on March 8 against New England (9:30 pm ET, Fox Sports 1).
