The Seattle Sounders are about to put to the test the notion that they are indeed turning a corner.
March was a difficult month for Seattle in myriad ways. The month opened with a 3-1 loss to Club America at the Estadio Azteca that dumped the team out of the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League.
Then came a somewhat undeserved 1-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City on March 6 on 10 men. At home.
A week later, a 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake, and a week after that came a 2-1 loss to Vancouver to open Cascadia Cup defense on a rocky note. That loss too came at home.
Then, like a pleasant gust of spring wind, April arrived. Whether or not the team is demonstrably better than it was a month ago is up for debate, but the results certainly have been.
Whether things have definitively changed might hinge on what happens against the suddenly resurgent Colorado Rapids on Saturday (6 p.m. PT; Q13 FOX/Univision-Seattle/KIRO 97.3 FM/El Rey 1360 AM).
If you’d asked anyone about this fixture in the preseason, predicting it wouldn’t be particularly difficult. While the Sounders brought back just about everyone of import, the Rapids suffered through a difficult offseason, plagued as they were by failed signings, player departures and coaching uncertainties.
It only came to pass late that Jermaine Jones signed for the club, and coach Pablo Mastroeni slyly added Shkëlzen Gashi as one of the most underrated signings of the season. Then, 38-year-old American legend Tim Howard ostensibly signed on to end his career at altitude beginning this summer.
As a result, the Rapids have been arguably the most pleasant surprise of the MLS season through the first six weeks. Mastroeni’s men have won four of their first seven games and occupy third place in the Western Conference with 13 points. It’s still comically early to be making grand pronouncements, but the odds on Colorado going 4-2-1 in its first seven were not particularly high.
And as ever, Mastroeni remains one of the most unpredictable coaches in the league. At least in some cases, that makes scouting Colorado at home this weekend a dangerous assignment.
The most important facet about Colorado’s early evolution - and the main reason the Rapids beat the New York Red Bulls last weekend - is wrapped up in all things Jermaine Jones. Injuries to Kevin Doyle and Dillon Powers paved the way for Jones’ deployment against the Red Bulls as the singular central attacking midfielder in the 4-2-3-1.
And just like that, Mastroeni birthed the concept of the destroyer No. 10.
Jones has always been best as a sitting defensive midfielder, but Mastroeni told the Denver Post earlier this week that as far as Jones’ new role higher up the field is concerned, “at the moment it’s a situation that we’re comfortable with.”
That certainly sounds like Seattle can expect to see Jones fill that role again this weekend. Cristian Roldan and Osvaldo Alonso - or whoever starts in the defensive midfield - will have their hands full.
Jones is one of the most unpredictable forces of nature in MLS. Against the Red Bulls in the snow he was incredibly scatterbrained, popping up with passes both successful and overly ambitious in almost every corner of the attacking third. He only completed about 65 percent of those, but he managed an incredible five key passes leading to shots. That was as much as the rest of the team combined. He also scored a goal.
With Marco Pappa out with an injury, stopping Jones is tantamount to stopping the Rapids. That’s much easier said than done.
As far as Seattle is concerned, simply building off an encouraging 90-minute performance against the Union that showed promising vital signs will be the ultimate key.
Seattle coach Sigi Schmid might’ve finally found an attacking arrangement in the 4-3-3 that works with consistency. By flipping Andreas Ivanschitz out to the left and pulling Clint Dempsey centrally, Schmid essentially allowed Dempsey to operate as a second striker with Jordan Morris - where he was so good alongside Obafemi Martins for so long - and gave Roldan and Alonso license to get forward as they could.
There are questions about the Sounders’ health, however, as it was revealed Friday that both Dempsey and veteran Nelson Valdez are questionable to play on Saturday, each battling muscle injures.
Defensively, the Sounders have been solid for much of the season, and Chad Marshall is putting in yet another MLS Defender of the Year-worthy start. But if the team can continue to make strides in linking the midfield and attack lines, that’ll go a long way toward building pass-centered attacks through the middle. If Dempsey and Ivanschitz can combine to be that link while the team looks for other options, then Schmid’s men should be in good stead in the league.
The Sounders learned last year that sizzling form in the early part of the season doesn’t get you very far at the end of the day. Seattle was probably the best team in the league in 2015 through May, but a brutal summer and a fall spent integrating a raft of new pieces limited the team’s effectiveness in the postseason. In the same way, they won’t be panicking at a poor March.
After all, there was a much better April just around the corner.
