TUKWILA, Wash. – Midfielder Erik Friberg appears to be the only Seattle Sounders starter still recovering from the team’s physical midweek matchup against Club America, and his status is up in the air ahead of the team’s MLS regular season opener this weekend.
Friberg went down in the 72nd minute of the Sounders’ 3-1 loss in the second leg of the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals Wednesday after colliding with center back Chad Marshall. He left the game after a few minutes on the ground at Estadio Azteca, and was ultimately replaced by forward Darwin Jones.
The Sounders will host Sporting Kansas City in the season opener on Sunday (4 p.m. PT; FS1/KIRO 97.3 FM/ El Rey 1360 AM).
“We gotta see about Erik Friberg, because he took a little bit of a knock to the head,” head coach Sigi Schmid said after the team’s training session on Friday. “We’ll have a better determination [Saturday], but other than, just bumps and bruises.”
Friberg has played an integral role in the team’s new-look three-man midfield so far this year, and started 11 games last season and all three in the playoffs after re-joining the club in June. He first played with the club in 2011.
Should Friberg be unable to play, second-year midfielder Cristian Roldan is the likely replacement.
Schmid added that both Clint Dempsey and Brad Evans will be ready to go against Kansas City, despite taking a few knocks themselves in the loss in Mexico. Dempsey suffered a gash above his eye and Evans banged heads with a Club America defender in the first half.
Schmid also said that rookie forward Jordan Morris was battling a cold midweek in Mexico, which led to his 70th-minute substitution for fellow Homegrown Player Aaron Kovar.
The physical matchup did nothing to make Sunday’s task any easier for the Sounders, who will play their second game in five days this weekend after a lengthy trip home from Mexico on Thursday. So it goes for teams in the SCCL – Real Salt Lake, D.C. United and the LA Galaxy will all face similar tasks after they were eliminated from the tournament this week – but Schmid said he was confident in his group ahead of the season opener.
“We’ll recover,” he said. “We’ll be ready to play.”
