The New England Revolution muddled through the first two months of the 2016 season. They weren’t particularly bad, necessarily, but they lacked an incisive finisher to bury the chances their creative and technical midfield routinely presented.
And then they traded for Kei Kamara. And suddenly the Eastern Conference tilted on its axis.
The Revolution paid dearly for Kamara, who was dealt by the Columbus Crew SC following a rash of public comments in the aftermath of a penalty kick he was cajoled out of taking. They surrendered the princely haul of General Allocation Money, Targeted Allocation Money, New England's highest 1st Round MLS SuperDraft pick in 2017, New England's highest 2nd Round MLS SuperDraft pick in 2018 and one of New England's international roster spots for the 2016 season.
Kamara, of course, is among the most lethal finishers in MLS, and he has been for several years. But his 2015 was even more incredible than usual: 22 goals, eight assists and an eyelash away from hoisting an MLS Cup trophy.
Now he’s in New England, and the Seattle Sounders get to face him for the second time in a month this weekend.
The Sounders begin their three-match East Coast swing on Saturday when they take on the Revolution (4:30 p.m. PT; JOEtv, Univision-Seattle, ROOT Sports (outside Seattle); KIRO 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360AM) in a suddenly pivotal battle between teams looking to turn around their years. For the Sounders, that means reversing course on an 0-3-1 away mark to climb back up toward the top of the pack in a quality-clogged West. The Revolution, meanwhile, have lost two of their last three and surrendered a combined eight goals in those losses.
To wit, both these teams have the same 13-point total at this point in the year, although the Sounders have two games in hand. The stakes are unusually high for a late-May matchup, if not for the result itself then for the kind of soccer that emerges from it.
The Sounders, of course, are no stranger to Kamara’s fireworks. Kamara went 90 in Crew SC's 1-0 loss at Seattle on April 30, and his three shots were among the lowest of his season. He not only didn’t score, but he didn’t come all that close. After putting two goals past Stefan Frei a year earlier, the Sounders weren’t fooled this time around.
Seattle did work on Kamara essentially by limiting his service. Kamara is a shot-generator. He’s been in the top five in shots in MLS at nearly every point in the last three years, but if you can cut off the spigot behind him he has a difficult time creating for himself. In lieu of being played in, Kamara simply fires from deeper. When that happens, you know Kamara is outside his comfort zone and you’ve taken the first step to containing his threat.
Kamara’s played for New England twice, and has yet to score. That’s natural, as the Revs’ talented midfield of Kelyn Rowe, Diego Fagundez and Lee Nguyen try to sync in with his rhythms. Osvaldo Alonso’s assignment this week isn’t hard to figure.
Perhaps the bigger question isn’t how the Sounders deal with Kamara, but how the Sounders deal with their own attack.
The last time the Sounders went on the road, Seattle coach Sigi Schmid went back to the 4-3-3 he’s used for nearly the entire season. As has been the case in turns this year, the Sounders produced chances but couldn’t pour in goals from them. Despite bossing possession and spending most of the game in FC Dallas’s half, FCD finished two of its only chances and won 2-0.
Without Clint Dempsey, who’s gone on Copa America duty for at least the next two games, a stopgap offensive reorganization is inevitable. Jordan Morris’surprising omission from Jurgen Klinsmann’s 23-man roster leaves Schmid with plenty of attacking fireworks in the cupboard, and Morris has been a bear when deployed centrally. Without Dempsey, his chances to play in the middle skyrocket.
As we’ve discussed at times this year, chance creation hasn’t necessarily been the issue for the Sounders. Seattle is ninth in the league in shots on target per game and they knit together more short passes per game - passes under 25 yards - than all but one team in the league. The problem is that they take 45 percent of their shots outside the box, and the ones from close range often aren’t dangerous enough.
After the 1-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids last weekend, Schmid noted that sometimes all it takes is one goal to start the movement. In 2015, a smashing 4-0 win over Orlando City in August signaled the end to the summer doldrums and the beginning to a fall in which the Sounders didn’t lose in two months. Seattle is largely limiting teams to small shot numbers, owning the tempo of the game and producing shots of its own. Those three things tend to add up to wins. They have not so far for Seattle, and it’s not out of bounds to expect that to change if everything’s equal. After all, the Rapids won that game with a single shot on goal. So it goes.
Even with no Dempsey and Nelson Valdez, who’s missed most of May with injury, the Sounders have dangerous options. If Herculez Gomez can snap off more shots in dangerous areas, Morris continues his maturation and Seattle develops more lethal wide play, anything’s possible.
The road trip begins here. The Revolution await.