PORTLAND – Sigi Schmid announced the starting lineup for the Cascadia Cup match against the Portland Timbers on Saturday and Clint Dempsey has returned from his two-match suspension to feature in the lineup for the first time since scoring against Toronto FC on March 15.
Demspey will start at forward in a 4-3-3 along with Obafemi Martins and Kenny Cooper, bringing that explosive trio together up front.
Stefan Frei will get his fifth start of the season at goalkeeper, boasting a 1.00 goals against average with two shutouts in his two victories.
With Djimi Traore serving his red card suspension and Leo Gonzalez returning from injury, the back four has changed for the first time this season. Jalil Anibaba will get his first start of the year at center back along with Chad Marshall, while DeAndre Yedlin remains on the right side and Gonzalez gets his first start of the year on the left side after earning the club’s Defender of the Year recognition last year.
In the midfield, Schmid opted for the same trio that started last week against the Columbus Crew, with Micheal Azira, Osvaldo Alonso and Gonzalo Pineda starting at Providence Park.
On the bench for Seattle will be Marcus Hahnemann, Zach Scott, Dylan Remick, Marco Pappa, Lamar Neagle, Kevin Parsemain and Chad Barrett.
Sounders FC XI – Frei, Yedlin, Marshall, Anibaba, Gonzalez, Azira, Alonso, Pineda, Dempsey, Martins, Cooper.
