TUKWILA, Wash. – Since midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro signed with the Seattle Sounders as a Designated Player in July, he’s been a pivotal catalyst behind the club’s recent surge back into Western Conference playoff contention.
But when the Sounders take on the Vancouver Whitecaps in a Cascadia Cup clash at BC Place on Sunday (8 pm ET, FS1, MLS LIVE in Canada), they’ll have to do so with out him. Lodeiro will be suspended for the match due to card accumulation after picking up a yellow in the 58th minute of Seattle’s 1-0 victory over the Chicago Fire at CenturyLink Field on Wednesday.
“[The yellow card] was naïve on my part,” Lodeiro said after the game. “I was annoyed with myself but sometimes it happens. I need to learn from these mistakes.”
Lodeiro’s suspension now leaves Seattle with a plus-sized void in their midfield ahead of Sunday’s match.
The Uruguayan playmaker is tied for the team lead in assists with eight, despite having played in only 10 games. He’s also added three goals, leading the sixth-place Sounders to a blistering 6-1-3 record since he made his team debut against the LA Galaxy on July 31.
“Losing [Clint] Dempsey was critical. Losing Nico is the same type of deal,” Sounders interim head coach Brian Schmetzer told reporters after Seattle’s Friday practice at Starfire Soccer Complex. “But the group is in such good spirits that we have to drag them off the [practice] field. So this will be a spirited group.
“That’s how I deal with it. We figure out the tactics we want to use and put the guy on there and expect him to do the job.”
As Schmetzer and the Sounders try to figure out how to make due without Lodeiro for this week, they do stand to regain the services of at least one key contributor.
Captain Brad Evans made his return to the practice this field this week and told reporters on Friday that he does expect to play in Vancouver, adding that he expects to make a move back to the midfield with Roman Torres now firmly entrenched in his previous center back role.
Evans also made note of the obstacle presented by playing without Lodeiro on Friday, but said he also believes that teammate Andreas Ivanschitz is fully capable of picking up some of the creative slack in Seattle’s midfield with Lodeiro sidelined.
“We’ll obviously miss [Lodeiro’s] creativity,” Evans said. “But I think Ivanschitz has been deadly on set pieces as of late as well and he’ll get his in the run of play and get some balls in the box with Torres, Chad [Marshall] and hopefully myself. We give ourselves a fighting chance.
“As a group we know we can’t rely on one player to push us into position. It’s got to be the entire roster. Once one is out, another has to step in take over.”
