The Lord of the Rings series became famous for a wide, almost incomprehensible number of reasons. Pick one: the wizard battles, the cozy nooks under shaggy hills in the Shire, the engrossing world and unforgettable journeys, Sean Bean’s untimely but inevitable death in a movie role (apologies for the spoilers).
The eagles, though, hold a special place in the series’ lore. At a number of critical junctures in its installments, benevolent eagles sweep in from the dark and pull the protagonists from danger’s hungry maw. Powerful as Gandalf was, and crafty as the dwarves were, they’d never have survived the journey without an assist from their feathered friends.
Marco Pappa? Consider him the Sounders’ very own eagle.
Since Pappa joined Seattle in advance of the 2014 season, he’s scored nine goals in eight different matches, including his most recent on Sunday in a 3-1 win over Real Salt Lake [above]. The Sounders are 8-0-0 in those games. No draws. No ties. Just wins, delivered at least partially on Pappa’s wings. Four of those have ultimately been match winners, including the all-important regular season finales each of the past two seasons.
There’s little prescient for that kind of production, and since Pappa returned from a lengthy absence this summer, he’s been in blistering form. He’s almost invariably the first player to spring off the bench when the team needs a wider spark, and that’s for good reason. When he’s switched on, Pappa’s near impossible to mark.
For one, there’s his unnaturally accurate left foot. Pappa’s not a power player, relying instead on finesse and placement to find space and beat keepers to the post (despite his scorching 2010 MLS Goal of the Year with Chicago). Pappa’s more natural position historically has always been on the left, which suits his crossing, but in this Sounders setup he does more damage as an inverted winger on the right. In that role there are few players who can do quite as much as Pappa.
Here’s the chart for Pappa’s goal against RSL in the 10th minute.
When RSL center back Aaron Maund (the yellow-ringed 21) can’t head his clearance free of danger, the ball travels on a chain from Obafemi Martins to Clint Dempsey to Pappa on the right in his inverted role. Notice where Pappa’s positioned when he runs onto Dempsey’s ball. He’s more than a foot inside the outer reaches of the box, where he likes to compress the back four and force overloaded defenders to make difficult decisions.
In this case, RSL left back Abdoulie Mansally opted to sag off Pappa a step to not allow him an avenue into the box to interchange with Dempsey and Martins. In theory, it wasn’t a bad idea. Pappa can pick out a pass, and Seattle is arguably the best team in the league with those intricate passes in the attacking third.
And yet Mansally’s decision illustrates why marking Pappa can be such an iffy proposition. Press, and you invite him to shimmy by you. Don’t sag, and he brushes the ball with that cashmere left foot of his and you are ground meat anyway.
This is precisely what Pappa does as well as anyone in MLS when he’s locked into a game. His goal against RSL had so little outright pace that it actually bounced on the turf before it crossed the goal line. The reason it beat keeper Jeff Attinella anyway is because it was tucked into a shaded corner of the goal where he had no chance to rescue the ball before it found the net.
The way the Sounders are constructed this year, Head Coach Sigi Schmid can essentially form one of two lineups with his 4-4-2. There’s the more direct option with Erik Friberg and Andreas Ivanschitz, and then the more pass-oriented option with Pappa and Gonzalo Pineda. The latter has worked this year precisely because Pappa is so good interchanging with Dempsey and Martins when he shrinks the front line and dips into the box.
Pappa’s eagle-like qualities may be called upon when Seattle hosts the LA Galaxy in a do-or-die playoff game at CenturyLink Field on Wednesday (7 p.m. PT; JoeTV/UniMas/ROOT Sports/KIRO 97.3/El Rey 1360 AM) . Whether that’s in relief or in the starting lineup, Seattle knows one thing about the slippery Guatemalan: When he scores, expect a win.
