TUKWILA, Wash. — It was mostly good news on the Seattle Sounders injury front on Monday.
Tristan Bowen and Leo Gonzalez were both full participants in training and could potentially suit up for the first time this year in Saturday’s game against the Montreal Impact (4 pm ET, Univision Deportes in US/RDS in Canada). Brad Evans, who was forced out of Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Toronto FC in the 29th minute, was the only player to pick up anything new and his injury was deemed nothing more serious than a contusion.
“It’s a knock, not a strain or a tear or anything,” Evans said after the game. “I’ve never really had one before, but I’d assume a couple days rest. I don’t really know. I hope I’m ready for next week.”
On Monday, Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid suggested that is at least a possibility.
“It’s better today than it was yesterday,” he told reporters. “We’ll have to see. If it can improve at the same steady pace we got a possibility for this weekend.”
Evans suffered the injury around the 15th minute when he went in for a tackle. Although he won the ball, he took a kick to his calf and was forced off the field to receive treatment. He re-entered two minutes later on a free kick, but in the confusion, Toronto FC were able to take advantage and score their first goal. The Reds scored another goal about seven minutes later and Evans came off permanently shortly thereafter.
“I tried to come back on after that and tried to get through it, but over time it just tightens up and tightens up and I’m just not mobile anymore,” the Sounders captain said. “It’s not fair to the team to try to gut it out when someone healthy can step on.”
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That turned out to be Gonzalo Pineda. If Evans is unable to play against the Impact, the Mexican World Cup veteran could get his first professional start in nearly a calendar year. Schmid mentioned Andy Rose as another possible Evans replacement.
“He’s a very good possession player,” Schmid said of Pineda. “That’s the reason I came with him. We had possession of the ball against [TFC] and had space to play so I wanted him in there.
"You lose the other things that Brad gives you, which is somebody that becomes an additional man in the box on some of those crosses, gets forward and looks for balls that drop around the 18 to shoot or gets into things that way. [Evans] is a little bit more goal dangerous.”
