Seattle Sounders Hope to Get Osvaldo Alonso, Lamar Neagle Back
The Seattle Sounders are hoping to get both Osvaldo Alonso and Lamar Neagle back in time for leg two of the Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Galaxy. Alonso has been out since he injured his hamstring in the second leg of the Western Conference semi-finals against FC Dallas and had to be subbed out in the 56th minute. Neagle was not with the team as they arrived at StubHub Center last Sunday as he went home to deal with a personal matter.
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The Sounders recently released this statement:
"“Lamar Neagle has been given leave by Sounders FC to deal with a serious personal matter and he has the full support of the club. Our thoughts are with Lamar and we look forward to having him back with us in Seattle next week.”"
It was confirmed on Tuesday that Neagle was back with the team and trained. Head Coach Sigi Schmid had this to day:
"“We’re happy to have Lamar back, for sure. There are still some things going on for him, but he’s able to be back with us right now, and that’s a good thing.”–courtesy thenewstribune.com"
The team had been optimistic that Alonso would be available for the first leg but that was just not to be. The team believes he will be ready to go come Sunday:
"“He’s been doing great. He went through the full warm-up possession and then we just wanted him to do some accelerations after that, so he’s exactly where we want him to be. He’ll do more tomorrow, and I think he’ll be ready to go on Sunday.”–courtesy thenewstribune.com"
Micheal Azira filled in for Alonso in the first leg and did a decent job throughout the game. The main difference that I noticed is that the Sounders mid-field was not able to lock it down like the last few times they have faced the Galaxy. Another difference I noticed was the lack of having Neagle as an option. Nothing against Chad Barrett (I really like the guy), he just isn’t the same.
I would really like to see Schmid come out with Neagle as the starter and bring Marco Pappa off the bench for the final 30-35 minutes of the match. When Pappa comes off the bench, it adds it entirely different dynamic to the match. He stretches the defense out wide to create lanes for the forward and mid-fielders to run through.
Let’s hope that both Neagle and Alonso play and that Pappa comes off the bench in this one.