The Seattle Sounders will face a familiar nemesis on Saturday at Avaya Stadium when they take on the San Jose Earthquakes (7:30 p.m. PT; Q13 FOX, Univision, KIRO Radio 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360AM).
‘Quakes striker Chris Wondolowski has 10 career goals against the Sounders, including a tally the last time these two teams met in a 1-1 draw last September. Wondo only has one goal through four matches thus far this year, but he’s recorded seven consecutive double-digit goalscoring seasons.
The Sounders’ struggle with Wondolowski is coupled with road woes in northern California. They enter Saturday with just one win at the Earthquakes in nine tries, owning a 1-5-3 record, and have not won in San Jose in nearly seven years when they eked out a 1-0 result in July, 2010.
The Sounders will have their hands full defensively, but the approach and game plan to stopping Wondolowski won’t drastically differ from any other match or striker.
“I won’t say we change our preparation,” said Sounders Director of Goalkeeping Tom Dutra earlier this week, “but I’ll be honest, we used to play LA Galaxy where Robbie Keane would get a lot of goals, and so for me to prepare the goalkeeper, we used to do more cutbacks. For someone like Wondo, you just have to be prepared because in the 87th minute, he’s still running and he’s still putting you under pressure.”
Much of Stefan Frei’s responsibilities on Saturday will be vocal, as he directs his back four to make sure they don’t lose track of Wondolowski, who can be deceptively elusive in the 18-yard-box. One mental lapse will be all Wondo needs to find the back of the net.
“You have to make sure the center backs are looking over their shoulders and communicating that as a goalkeeper,” Dutra said. “When he makes those runs in the box, we have to make sure someone is picking up on him and someone is touch-tight to him at all times.
“We have to be ready for him.”
