For three seasons, Obafemi Martins presented one of the clearest, most present dangers in Major League Soccer.
There was his speed, certainly, but to spend too much time chalking up a plan around his quicks would be to shove aside how his soccer IQ put him in split-open acres of space, seemingly always at the pivotal moment. When they were firing, Clint Dempsey and Martins shared a one-two repartee few in MLS history can equal.
For three seasons, Martins was not just one of the best the Sounders had seen. He was also among the best Designated Players in MLS history. And now the ever-whirling transfer market is taking him to Shangai Greenland Shenua in China, the land of escalating soccer stakes that is paying out ever higher sums to woo foreign talent.
It is unlikely Martins will ever pass into anonymous fable for those Sounders fans who saw him terrorize back lines for three years. Like Fredy Montero, his legacy is short but secure. His 5,871 minutes, his 40 goals, his 23 assists, his numerous moments of sheer joy wrapped in soccer packaging; these weren’t immediately replaced when Seattle opened CONCACAF Champions League play on Feb. 23, and it will take some work for the Sounders to ably fill that hole this season.
And just how the Sounders do that is now the next great topic of conversation in Seattle coffee shops and brewhouses.
Sounders coach Sigi Schmid has publicly veered away from the 4-4-2 formation and toward the 4-3-3 this offseason, but the team’s tactical future is still murky. It seems like the 4-3-3 will be the way forward early in the season given the attention paid to the format in the preseason and against Club America earlier this week, but there is no guarantee the 4-4-2 will not ultimately find its way back into Schmid’s good graces, where it has been for a quarter century.
To that end, Martins’ exit does not necessarily tip the formational balance out of whack. But it does crystallize a few things, at least on paper.
For one, the biggest immediate beneficiary from Martins’ sale is the young Jordan Morris. Announced as a Homegrown Player surrounded by cacophonous fanfare in January, Morris now appears in line to start regularly, especially if the lineup is a 4-3-3. With Martins in the loop, Morris appeared on paper to be the first man off the bench. Now, it seems as though he could well have a few starts under his belt before he leaves for Olympic qualifying in early March.
If Morris slides into the front three as he did earlier this week, we’ll likely see Nelson Valdez abandon all pretense of being a midfielder and cozy up next to Dempsey and Morris atop the formation. Valdez can play wide and further back, but as we saw late in the 2015 season, his legs aren’t quite up for the trampling work required of a lung-burning midfielder for 90 minutes anymore. He can do the job, but at this point in his career he’s almost certainly more effective closer to goal.
Whether or not the Sounders are demonstrably worse without Martins, a forward line of Morris, Dempsey and Valdez is still the envy of the vast majority of the league. They certainly looked comfy against Club America.
It’s inevitable the style will change, however significantly, without Martins, but it won’t be drastic. Martins was not a target striker, and the Sounders have not replaced him with one, so there will hardly be confusion in the midfield’s ranks when Morris comes barreling into the midfield to seek the run of play. Martins did that on occasion too, and any midfielder acquainted with Martins’ speed will find Morris a comfortable point of transition.
There is depth worth mentioning that should help ease the significance of Martins’ absence. By all accounts, former University of Washington and Sounders Homegrown Darwin Jones enjoyed a tremendous preseason, which has to be good news for the front office. Jones was quiet in 2015 and only muscled his way onto the field for 107 minutes, even through the club’s summer spate of injuries.
Jones and fellow youngster Andy Craven probably list more to the project side of the equation, but don’t count them out. It’s a long season, and if the 4-3-3 is the play, you will undoubtedly see one (or both) of these players as early as the first month of the season. Jones, for his part, came off the bench late for Morris against Club America with the final score very much in doubt, signaling that the Sounders have some faith in what he can do.
The question of what the Sounders do with the roster space, meanwhile, is another one worth pondering. Seattle not only freed up a Designated Player slot in the deal, but the team also earned a reported multi-million-dollar sum that the front office can pump back into the group, even if it can’t feed directly into allocation money. Combine that with the salary Martins isn’t earning in 2016, and Sounders General Manager & President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey suddenly has a bit more space to maneuver.
Whether the team uses that space to haul in another forward to provide depth, splashes on a midfielder to shore up a position that took some hits in the offseason, or dives in on a defender to bring some youth to an aging back line, there are options. Lagerwey was smart earlier this week to address the fanbase’s anxiety about losing Martins 10 days before the season starts, but he also preached patience when it comes to a replacement. No one’s rushing just yet.
And the good news is that the Sounders won’t have to adjust their early-season goals despite losing one of the league’s top players. Schmid can plug-and-play with the hottest Homegrown signing in MLS history out of the box, and he has depth cultivated in part by the emergence of S2 last year. As for the midfield, it’s clear now that Osvaldo Alonso will not lack for options, Erik Friberg will have space to operate and Andreas Ivanschitz can use his golden left foot to pick out runners.
There is no question that, not unlike most teams in the world in the same predicament, the Sounders will miss Martins’ production. He scored 32 goals in the last two seasons alone. You don’t replace that overnight. But with the pieces in place and the faculties of a newly furnished lineup seeming to take shape, it would seem Martins is leaving the forward line – and the team - in capable hands.
