Seeing a six-game unbeaten streak come to a halt in a 2-1 loss to D.C. United is bad enough for Sounders FC fans. Making matters worse for the already injury-decimated squad: Argentine midfielder Mauro Rosales was hurt in a substitute appearance at RFK Stadium on Wednesday night.
Rosales’ injury – after coming on in the 59th minute – seriously damaged Seattle’s opportunity to tie the game after some great chances late in the match. According to head coach Sigi Schmid, the Argentine injured his hamstring 12 minutes from the end of the match.
After the point of his injury, Schmid recounted after the game, “He’s just standing on the field and can’t move anymore.”
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Rosales had been held out the team’s previous match with a tender hamstring. This latest injury presumably puts Seattle’s playmaker out at least until the severity can be assessed.
The 30-year-old midfielder addressed the setback on his Twitter account shortly after the match, saying he was “sad” about the injury after “feeling perfect” during the game.
The inclusions of Rosales and Roger Levesque energized Seattle as the Sounders attempted to chase the game. In the five minutes after Brad Evans’ penalty kick goal in the 71st minute, Levesque set up Álvaro Fernández and Fredy Montero with tremendous passes, but both times, D..goalkeeper Bill Hamid was equal to the task.
“We get one back and keep pushing, switching to the 3-5-2 [and got] maybe two or three good looks after that,” Evans said. “The headers were on frame. Hamid made some good saves on different shots and different headers, but we just couldn’t pull out the tying goal.”
After those chances, Rosales’ injury had the Sounders playing down a man after using all three substitutions.
The loss was Seattle goalkeeper Kasey Keller’s first at RFK Stadium. He had been undefeated in 10 games, going 5-0-2 with the US national team and 3-0-0 for Sounders FC.
“It’s frustrating because I thought we’d been playing better than we played today and that was a shame,” said Keller. “In the end, give DC some credit. [They had] good movement up front with Charlie [Davies] and Josh [Wolff], and that made the difference.”
Rosales’ injury makes the lineup selection more difficult for this Saturday’s match at Columbus as Seattle continue their road trip against Schmid’s former team.
