Can Ivanschitz carry the Seattle attack in Dempsey’s absence?
By Steven Agen
Following a disappointing 1-0 home loss to Colorado last weekend, the Seattle Sounders travel to Foxborough, MA for their only regular season meeting with the New England Revolution this Saturday at 4.30 PST. It’s the first test for Seattle in a three match road swing on the East Coast that spans parts of three weeks due to the international break. New England enter the match on the heels of an untidy 4-2 home loss to Dallas. Both clubs have suffered slow starts to their 2016 campaign, with each sitting on 13 points in the standings. While Seattle possess two games in hand on the Revs, the home side in this weekend’s contest sit three points closer to a playoff berth thanks to the relative strength of the Western Conference this term. Both sides will have international absences due to Copa America Centenario; Seattle will need to make do without Clint Dempsey (USA) and Nelson Valdez (Paraguay), while Je-Vaughn Watson (Jamaica) misses out for New England.
The call-ups affect the Sounders to a far greater degree, and Sigi Schmid’s primary challenge of the match will be replacing Dempsey’s creative influence. Despite only finding the net twice so far in league play Seattle’s highest paid player has looked his best dropping into midfield to kickstart attacks. It’s arguably been the primary method of chance creation for the Sounders, although set pieces have been a consistent threat and the speedy combination of Oalex Anderson and Joevin Jones have received positive reviews as well. Point being, Seattle lose their most dynamic playmaker when Dempsey’s gone. Andreas Ivanschitz will be relied upon to fill this void, likely from a free role just in front of two holding midfielders. If Schmid decides to batten down the hatches on the road in his new 4-3-3, he may opt to start three holding midfielders and place Ivanschitz alongside Anderson and Jordan Morris up top. All lineup considerations may go out the window if he rests players for Wednesday’s match at DC United.
The challenge for Jay Heaps and New England will be shaking off their worst defensive performance of the season. Recent defensive addition Sambinha made his starting debut against Dallas and had a nightmare performance. The Guinea-Bissauan struggled to deal with a ball over the top that skipped up off the artificial turf at Gillette Stadium, allowing Fabian Castillo to give the visitors the lead for good at 3-2 on 70’. Goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth conceded a penalty in the first moments of the match; he later failed to keep a near-post header off a corner out of the net despite getting a hand to it. At 1.8 goals conceded per game and with 5 outings of at least 3 goals conceded in only 13 matches, things are getting dire at the back for New England. With that being said, an anemic Sounders attack may be just what the doctor ordered to heal up this defense.
With Seattle sitting at 19th in the league in goals scored, it could actually benefit the Revs to play for a shootout. Forward Kei Kamara, just brought in from Columbus, is yet to get off the mark for his new club but has looked dangerous in every match he’s played so far. Kamara will play alone up top in a 4-2-3-1 with Juan Agudelo, Lee Nguyen and Kelyn Rowe behind him. New England’s front four are almost certainly more pedigreed than their relatively average 16 league goals indicate. At the very least, the Revs seem to have a player to player advantage in the attack against Seattle – it looks as though Nguyen and Kamara are more likely to carry the game than Ivanschitz and Morris.
It’s an interesting dichotomy for a match. New England have reason to keep the game open, playing to their strong attack and minimizing the impact their leaky defense has. Seattle have reason to to play to their strong defense and keep it tight at the back, and hope the Revs are as porous as they were last week. If either is brave enough to play at their opponent’s weaknesses, we may have a really intriguing game on our hands. Perhaps this is the week that New England used a bad attack to figure out their defense. Conversely it could be the week Seattle capitalize on a shaky defense to figure out their attack. Both clubs will feel they are far better than their records indicate, whether it’s true or not. That will be less believable for one of them by the time Saturday is over.
