The storm winds are buffeting Sounders camp this week. The culmination of a rugged season to this point came to bear harder than ever on Sunday, when bitter rival Portland thrashed Seattle 3-1 at Providence Park. That kept the Sounders tamped down in ninth place in the Western Conference and reset the search for a turnaround.
Life in MLS is a fickle beast, and it’s certainly conceivable the Sounders right the ship in time to make the playoffs. In the end, Seattle is nine points off the playoff pace with two games in hand and almost an entire half of the season to go. Nothing is yet decided.
In the midst of all this uncertainty, like a colossus shedding rainwater, stands Osvaldo Alonso. Seemingly like he’s been for the last seven years, unmoved by trends and as good as ever.
The Sounders have been on a frantic search for an attacking identity this year, vacillating between providers in a desperate attempt to stoke goal-scoring opportunities. It hasn’t always worked, and even after a five-goal deluge against FC Dallas last week, the Sounders are still the lowest-scoring team in the Western Conference. Needless to say, there’s been a frenetic and consistent shuffling of chairs in an attempt to find the right combination.
Through it all, Alonso has been the anchor in the storm. Since 2009, the Sounders have played 213 games with Alonso and 36 without him. In games Alonso doesn’t play, the Sounders’ win percentage plummets from 49 to 28 percent, and they give up almost a half goal more per match without Alonso shielding the back line.
Alonso’s quality has never been in doubt, but his role certainly has been. Before the season, Sounders General Manager & President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey said that Alonso, like just about anybody, wasn’t untouchable. He might still have outsize utility, but if the market presented an opportunity to deal him, the Sounders wouldn’t balk.
"We get calls about lots of players a lot of the time, and our good players we get more calls about,” Lagerwey said in the offseason. “Ozzie's a good player, and to whether he's here or somewhere else, that will depend on what the market tells us. And it will depend on whether or not it makes our team better. And if it does, we'll move him. And if it makes us better to keep him, we'll do that too.”
Alonso, one of just three original MLS Sounders left, entered the 2016 season with those questions swirling. Amid whispers about his durability - he turned 30 in 2015 and missed 12 games with injury - Alonso’s once sure-footed standing in the Sounders starting XI suddenly looked in doubt. Would Seattle even make it to First Kick with Alonso in the 18?
In hindsight, those days now seem light years away. Because even as the Sounders have struggled to producing scoring chances, Alonso has been arguably at his career best. If he’s ever had a better first half of a season in Seattle, the gap is minuscule.
Alonso is almost to the exact minute total he reached in 2015, and almost all of his substantive numbers are up. He’s averaging five more passes per game, almost a full key pass per game more, more tackles, more interceptions, fewer fouls. And even as his passing volume and distance has increased - he’s averaging almost a full pass of 25 yards or more per game over last year - his passing accuracy is flat. It’s hardly moved.
It’s up to the eye of the beholder as to whether Alonso’s red-hot form is a surprise, but it certainly flies in the face of a couple outside factors. Of course there was the offseason uncertainty, but a look at the roster reveals an even more unfortunate truth; Gonzalo Pineda, Alonso’s preferred midfield partner, retired in the offseason. Those two were an inseparable duo over the previous two seasons, and suddenly Alonso would be tasked with a new regular midfield partner.
There were some hiccups at first, but Alonso quickly fused with Cristian Roldan and Erik Friberg, the three creating a capable midfield trio that stanched attacks with regularity. Where Alonso is concerned, that’s more or less all you can ask. Nobody in the entire league has more completed passes than Alonso’s 1,222 through last weekend.
But Alonso’s hardly rested on his haunches in that regard. You expect him to cut out passes, restart attacks from the base, intercept balls in the box and defy the deep ball by passing short and through the middle. What you don’t expect is Alonso to drive forward and attempt to knit together passages in the attacking half. But with the dearth of chance creation, Alonso’s done just that in 2016. And he’s done it surprisingly well. As well, in fact, as anyone on the team. His four assists with three full months left in the regular season are already more than he’s ever had in one year.
Perhaps most importantly, the durability issues have largely dissipated. Alonso hasn’t had an injury all season, and the only reason he’ll miss his first MLS match of the year this weekend against Sporting Kansas City is down to card accumulation.
The Timbers match on Sunday might’ve ended poorly, but one of the undeniable bright spots was Alonso’s systematic influence. He had the team’s highest passing accuracy percentage (87 percent), and surprisingly enough it was actually a full percentage point higher in Portland’s half of the field. Nearly 70 percent of his 61 passes came in the Timbers half, which follows his season-long trend. Only Dax McCarty has completed more passes in the opposition half than Alonso this season.
Check out Alonso’s touch map from the Timbers match. This is all-action defined.
As the Sounders scramble to right the ship in the most difficult portion of their season, there’s at least one player they don’t have to worry about. Alonso, the eternal Sounder, is playing as well as he ever has, and his form shows no signs of abating.
