The Sounders FC started the season pretty well last weekend against the New England Revolution and will look to carry that momentum into Saturday's contest with the San Jose Earthquakes.
Continuing last week's debut of 'Off-Camera Observations' we have Sounders play-by-play man, Ross Fletcher waxing on the club's performance in Week 1 and previewing what he thinks we'll see when the club's Western Conference foe visits CenturyLink Field. Kickoff is set for 7pm PT on Q13 FOX.
On keeping the momentum of win against New England:
That’s the million-dollar question, I think. Seattle set themselves such a high standard in the opening game against New England that now how do they follow on from that?
It was such a fabulous showing first time out that you quite didn’t expect things to go quite as well as they did for the Sounders, but they really laid down a marker.
Now the question is: Can they keep that level of consistency? They certainly have the talent, the ability and the squad-strength to be able to do that and starting the season twice at home will help.
The fact that you’re home with the home comforts will be big. You have another sell-out crowd so that goes in their favor, and Sigi Schmid doesn’t have any pressure to make any changes. He has had a good healthy week’s preparation so the players just have to keep their usual focus and remember all the good stuff they did against new England, which was plentiful, and take it from there and put the foot on the throat of San Jose.
On the play of Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins:
It all depends on the approach of the San Jose Earthquakes, or at least to some extent it depends on that.
A lot of teams last year frustrated the Sounders by packing the midfield and the defense very narrow to stop Clint and Oba’s playing. Will San Jose Earthquakes do the same? Depends on the level of respect they afford them and how detailed Dominic Kinnear wants to be, as the San Jose Earthquakes Head Coach.
What we do know about Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins is if they’re given any kind of time or space, they’ll punish you game-in and game-out. This is a combination that scored 32 goals between them last year and was just scoring goals and producing tricks for fun. There’s absolutely nothing to stop them, and you can see that in their relationship. From the opening game of the season, they’re already right up to where they need to be, the example being the third goal.
It was magnificent. The fact that Obafemi Martins could quite easily have shot – he was clean-through on goal – but chose unselfishly to pass to Dempsey… that says everything about their relationship.
On what he expects from San Jose:
Very different team compared to the one we saw in 2014, principally because they have another coach in charge, who had a lot of success with the Earthquakes as an assistant, winning an MLS Cup in ’01 and ’03. He has started to blow up the roster.
The biggest change on the field? No more bash brothers. I know that slowly started to slide away in 2014 but finally you’re seeing the change up front now. Chris Wondolowski remains but they’ll be looking to integrate their new Designated Player and striker Innocent Emeghara, although he has a shoulder injury.
Not the same kind of physicality from San Jose Earthquakes, which I think will suit the Sounders. They’ve been beaten up, bruised and bloodied a time or two by San Jose so I think that will work in the Sounders' favor.
Then in goal, Jon Busch departed. He’s on the bench now in Chicago, and the youngster David Bingham, 25 years of age, has finally come out of the shadows after three or four years as backup. Will he be able to withstand what is a raucous atmosphere? You saw in the last game against FC Dallas he made an error for the goal in the 92nd minute, coming for a ball he shouldn’t have claimed.
Will he be able to withstand the pressure of the Sounders attack, as it is in such good form? There are a few question marks about San Jose. We get to see their true identity but we know they’re a much different team from the one we’ve seen in the last couple of years.
