TUKWILA, Wash. – Coming off a huge 3-2 Knockout Round victory over the LA Galaxy on Wednesday, the Seattle Sounders will look to add to those heroics in a Western Conference Semifinal matchup of the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs with FC Dallas beginning Sunday at CenturyLink Field (9:30 pm ET; FS1 in US, TSN2 in Canada).
But if Seattle plan on advancing past the conference’s top regular season team, they’ll likely have to do so with a shorthanded roster – at least for the first leg.
After missing Wednesday’s game against LA with a groin injury, star midfielder Ozzie Alonso’s status for Sunday is very much in doubt, with Seattle head coach Sigi Schmid saying after Saturday’s practice session that he hasn’t progressed at the rate the team had hoped.
“[Alonso’s status is] up in the air still. We’re always going to hold out hope,” Schmid said. “But obviously the progress has gone a little bit slower than we expected.”
Alonso’s absence would be enough of a blow on its own for the Sounders. The 29-year-old Cuban possesses an irreplaceable skill set as a lockdown defender and one of the league’s most accurate facilitators out of the midfield.
He’s not the only Sounders player not at full strength, however. Captain Brad Evans and left back Leo Gonzales each picked up injuries of their own on Wednesday and could be limited or held out of the semifinal opener, depending on how they progress.
Schmid generally becomes even more tight-lipped than usual with injury updates during the playoffs, but he did say on Friday that decisions on his injured players are likely to be made leading up to game day.
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“All our injury situations are sort of a day-to-day type of thing at this point of the year in the playoffs,” Schmid said. “You can’t really look at timelines. Guys are going to say, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to go,’ or ‘I’m not ready to go.’”
Whoever does play for Seattle on Sunday will have the tough task of trying to stop a dynamic FC Dallas attack led by playmakers Fabian Castillo and Mauro Diaz. The semifinal matchup is a rematch of last year’s competitive playoff series between the sides that saw the Sounders advance on the road-goal tiebreaker.
“We knocked [Dallas] out last year, so we know that they have the same mindset we had going into LA,” forward Chad Barrett said on Friday. “They want to set the record straight. They’re probably a little bit bitter from doing so well this year and not winning the Supporters’ Shield, so they definitely want to come out flying. And they’ve got fresh legs, so it’s going to be really hard-fought.”
