With the World Cup getting underway, Major League Soccer will take a little break and watch with rest of us as the world’s top teams compete against each other on arguably the biggest international stage in sports. For the Portland Timbers, fans can be encouraged by a resurgent stretch of play in recent weeks that has seen the team pull its record to 4-4-7, just outside of the Western Conference playoff bubble with plenty of time left in the season.
The Seattle Sounders, on the other hand, currently sit at the top of the standings, boasting a 10-3-2 record and the most potent offensive attack in the league. Even without the services of star forward and MVP candidate Clint Dempsey (who is currently captaining the US national team), Seattle has, for the most part, managed to continue its consistent offensive output scoring 32 goals so far this year and accumulating a +9 goal differential overall.
Seattle fans were likely thrown off by the team’s 5-0 clunker at the hands of the New England Revolution on May 11. But the Sounders’ strong bounce-back performance in the following games quickly alleviated fear of substantial regression. The New England game was also the finale of a long stretch of road games that were played close together. Fatigue seemed to be a huge factor and it would be silly to read too much into a single loss over the course of a long season, even if it was an absolute throttling by what would seem to be an inferior opponent.
Nigeria-native Obafemi Martins has proven his worth this season, establishing himself as probably the second-most viable MVP candidate in MLS this side of Dempsey. Martins has 8 goals on the season, but has been an equally brilliant facilitator with 6 assists. Despite an unnecessary red card in last weekend’s match against Chicago that may sideline him for a game, Martins has proven to be a worthy acquisition and a player that is more than capable of carrying the offensive load in Dempsey’s absence.
Another somewhat under the radar aspect of Seattle’s strong start has been the play of defender Chad Marshall, who came over this year after a lengthy stint with the Columbus Crew. Marshall has an imposing 6-foot-4 inch frame and seems to win every header that comes his way. His physical presence has allowed Seattle to avoid a number of goal scoring chances from opponents, and he is always a danger to score off of corner kicks. Even though he has been playing pretty well, Marshall doesn’t seem like he has hit his ceiling yet, particularly as an offensive threat when Sigi Schmid chooses to bring him forward on corners and set pieces. Look for Marshall to take on an even bigger role when the season resumes.
While Seattle has figured out how maintain its offensive potency in his absence, Dempsey is now leading a USA squad that has a tough group and a wide range of expectations. By and large, it seems as though most US soccer fans don’t have substantial faith in this team’s ability to make noise in the World Cup. This isn’t because the roster lacks talent, but the rest of the world simply has too much firepower for us to compete. It’s a similar idea to basketball in the summer Olympics where the United States routinely throws up 50-point victories against countries that simply don’t have the players and resources to realistically compete. US Soccer is different in that the program does have quality, internationally competitive players. They just aren’t players that are of the caliber of some of the superstar talent that permeates the rosters of other countries.
Soccer is an unpredictable game, however, and the US should not be completely discounted. For all the criticism of Dempsey during World Cup qualifying and his lackluster play with Fulham, he has been playing out of his mind lately for Seattle and that confidence is sure to benefit him when game time arrives. If the rest of the roster can gel, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that the US advances out of the group stage.
It definitely can’t be considered a likely occurrence. But there are situations in sports where you can say with relative certainty whether or not something is impossible. The US team advancing out of the group phase and making an unexpected World Cup run, by my estimation, is not one of those situations.
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