TUQUILA – With four weeks of preseason before their first competitive game, the Seattle Sounders You have to move a little faster. While most of the training still focuses on fitness, the team is already working on some tactical elements.
On Wednesday, it also featured some full-sided game play, which isn’t usually featured this early in the preseason.
Head coach Brian Schmetzer is eager to introduce some fresh ideas after a year in which the Sounders missed the playoffs for the first time in their 14 MLS seasons.
“Teams found us,” Schmetzer said. ‘The team knew how we played. We will work on different attacking movements and how we build. “
Another small change is something as simple as the presence of an indoor training area. Without getting into specifics, Stefan Frei suggested there is some time left in the locker room and common areas where players spend most of their off-field time together.
“Small changes like that change the feeling,” Frei said. “Those are the little details that make everyone more hungry to go.”
Among the players who fully participated in full-field practice was Obed Vargas, who missed the second half of 2022 with a back injury. The 17-year-old looked strong in the middle of the park, making several good tackles and spraying pinpoint passes on the wings. Likewise, Joao Paulo was considered “ahead of the charts” by Schmetzer. Both teams look set to be fully available for the Club World Cup opener on February 4.
The knock-on effect of those two players returning is that the Sounders suddenly have talented central midfielders. In addition to Joao Paulo and Vargas, the Sounders must figure out how best to maximize the talents of Josh Atencio, Danny Leyva and recently signed homegrown player Sota Kitahara.
“We have four really, really super talented midfielders in Obed, Josh, Danny and Sota,” Schmetzer said. “There’s a logjam that we have to think about as a club, what do we do with all these very talented young players and how do we get the most out of their development. Can some of them be taken on loan? Can we sell some of them?
“We haven’t actually sold players before. We have a surplus. What do we do with that extra? It also makes my job difficult.”
