One of the side effects of the brief and relatively wondrous Nicolas Lodeiro era is that he’s pulled nearly the entire spotlight onto himself. When you score two goals and add in four assists, that’s a natural byproduct.
The secondary effect has been to snow under the incredible about-face Clint Dempsey has done in terms of form over the last month. And now the Sounders will have to deal without him for at least Sunday’s match at Portland (2 p.m. PT: ESPN/KIRO 97.3 FM/El Rey 1360AM)
It was announced Friday that Dempsey’s receiving treatment for an irregular heartbeat. What that means for Dempsey’s long-term prospects is unclear, but it certainly means he won’t make the trip to Portland this weekend for the critical Cascadia Cup match on Sunday. And on the heels of that announcement, U.S. Soccer revealed it wouldn’t call in Dempsey to the next two World Cup qualifiers next month.
The Sounders are suddenly wondering where they go without him. Because Dempsey had been nearly indispensable as an attacking threat over the last four weeks, and he’d easily had more general impact on what the Sounders had done than anyone not named Lodeiro.
The Sounders’ shift to the 4-3-3 under then-coach Sigi Schmid was largely predicated on a front three that included Dempsey and Obafemi Martins. When Martins was sold in February, the formation stayed the same but the utility did not. Dempsey flailed for form in the first three months of the season before leaving for Copa America duty. In 10 games between March and May, Dempsey scored just two goals and didn’t register a single assist.
Since Lodeiro joined for the Sounders’ game against the LA Galaxy on July 31, Dempsey’s played four games, racked up five goals and added an assist. His general shot numbers fell while his substantive chances skyrocketed. To put it simply, Dempsey was finding space and opportunity where there was none before. With a creative force pushing up underneath, Dempsey looked like himself again.
And now, just as he found top form, the Sounders will have to find another way forward.
Over the last four weeks, this is essentially what every match has looked like from a positional perspective. This was from Seattle’s smashing 3-1 win over the Timbers last weekend.
You can’t even see Dempsey (2) in this photo because he’s tucked between Lodeiro (10) and Jordan Morris (13). This was stirring news for interim coach Brian Schmetzer. Without driving creatives pushing forward from the midfield to find space, Dempsey too often fell back into the buildup. Dempsey is a goal-getter at this stage of his career, and the further back he drifts, the worse off the attack was.
This was primarily Lodeiro’s doing. He opted to more or less abandon the right flank on which he was deployed and come centrally to devastate back lines. Nobody was a bigger beneficiary than Dempsey, who’d been looking for a running partner since Martins left. He finally had it in Lodeiro, and he looked energized.
We don’t know how Dempsey’s absence will affect the Sounders on Sunday (and perhaps beyond), and we only have one example of the post-Lodeiro Sounders playing without Dempsey. That came on Wednesday, when Seattle rescued a 1-1 draw in Houston thanks to a 94th minute equalizer from Lodeiro. But even then, the tape is incomplete because five players started who weren’t established as regulars under Schmetzer.
And without Dempsey (among others), things looked a bit more disjointed.
Incredibly, Lodeiro was actually the highest player on the field as measured by average touches, even higher than Nelson Valdez (16), under whom Lodeiro is obscured. Valdez is less mobile than either Dempsey or Morris, who came off the bench, and so Lodeiro stepped up to try and pull Valdez into the action with one-twos. It worked sparingly while Alvaro Fernandez, who had a quiet start in his first game back, cratered the left flank and Cristian Roldan, who was deployed on the right, came centrally to find Osvaldo Alonso.
The Sounders didn’t look bad, exactly, but they certainly didn’t look all that comfortable.
That’s an incomplete glimpse, though, because it was a midweek game between critical Portland matches all while being on the road in sweaty Houston. How a full strength Sounders side minus Dempsey plays is murky at best.
Even still, the Sounders are in considerably better stead than they were when Dempsey missed June for the Copa America. Schmetzer could deploy Lodeiro centrally under Morris, with Andreas Ivanschitz and Roldan as the wider midfielders and pair Alonso with Erik Friberg in front of the back four. It wouldn’t exactly be a wide lineup (in truth the Sounders could still use a live wire winger), but the Sounders get most of their best work done centrally anyway.
Either way, it’s clear that Schmetzer has tools at his disposal as the Sounders travel south this weekend. Even still, it’s a unquestionable blow to lose Dempsey while he’s ensconced in a tremendously productive run of form.
