When the Seattle Sounders travel to SutbHub Center in Carson, Calif., on Sunday (1 p.m. PT; ESPN, KIRO Radio 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360AM), the venue will be the same, but the opponent will be nearly unrecognizable.
The face of the franchise, Landon Donovan, re-retired after returning to the LA Galaxy the latter part of last year. Arguably the best Designated Player signing in MLS history, Robbie Keane, left too, as did English legend Steven Gerrard, who joined the club in 2015. Mike Magee, Jeff Larentowicz, Alan Gordon and A.J. DeLaGarza are all gone too, and Sebastian Lletget is out 3-5 months with a foot injury.
And that’s just the players. Longtime Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena bolted for the United States men’s national team job this past offseason and took nearly his entire club staff with him.
So who, then, will trot out for the Galaxy on Sunday?
Mexican international Giovani dos Santos is still among the elite No. 10s in Major League Soccer, Gyasi Zardes is still capable of finishing off a through ball played in behind a back line and Jelle Van Damme is still the daunting mountain of a center back patrolling the Galaxy’s defense. Throw in U.S. international Jermaine Jones in defensive midfield and explosive right winger Romain Alessandrini and LA, despite its slow 2-4-0 start, has all the makings of a talented, albeit different, team.
“The LA Galaxy have always been a top club in MLS,” said midfielder Cristian Roldan on Thursday. “They’re always in the playoffs, they always do well, so we can’t take them lightly.”
Not having to face Keane, who torched the Sounders with nine goals during his tenure in LA, is a big bonus, but Seattle will still need to shut down the likes of dos Santos and Alessandrini, who has four goals in his last three matches.
“We’re going to try to stay close, especially on the sides, to not [let] them have speed and go 1-v-1,” said defender/midfielder Gustav Svensson on Thursday.
While the players wearing the Galaxy jerseys on Sunday may be different, it doesn’t change the Sounders’ game plan of trying to march into StubHub Center, a place where they won 4-2 in their most recent match last year, and grab their first away win of the young season.
“[StubHub Center] has been a tough place to play, not just for us but for a lot for different teams,” said Roldan. “We have to do the best we can to grab some points and then come back and get our results here [in Seattle].”
