SEATTLE – The Sounders lost a lot more than a chance to win the Champions Cup when they were eliminated Tuesday night in a 4-1 defeat against Cruz Azul in a round-of-16 match in Mexico City.
The Sounders, who return to action Saturday at St. Louis City SC, lost Jordan Morris, their career leading scorer, to a hamstring injury, and wingback Paul Arriola, who suffered an ACL tear.
Morris is expected to miss four to six weeks, the Sounders announced Friday. The team also announced that Arriola is scheduled to have surgery and “is expected to miss an extended period of time.”
“That’s a tough one,” Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei said of the injury to Arriola, who played the previous three seasons with Dallas. “I think he integrated really well for us into the squad and he was an amazing guy in the locker room. That’s not going to get lost. I think he’s still going to bring a lot to the team off the pitch because he’s a good guy and a good professional, and he’s going to push really hard to come back from this.”
The Sounders also announced they will be without forward Pedro de la Vega, who is expected to miss four to six weeks with a quad injury suffered in a victory over Los Angeles FC on March 8. The Sounders also will be without defender Yeimar on Saturday as he flew to Colombia for a personal matter.
Seattle also might be without its coach in St. Louis as Brian Schmetzer is battling an illness, leaving his status to be determined, the team announced.
It’s a lot to deal with, but the matches go on.
“I feel like we’re deeper this year,” Frei said. “You always have to believe when you go through tough spells – whether it’s injuries, or bad results or whatnot – that if you keep sticking with it, if you keep working hard and you keep believing, that at some point you can turn it around.”
The Sounders are 1-1-1 in MLS matches; St. Louis is 1-0-2.
“I don’t think we’ve dug ourselves in a hole in the league yet,” Frei said.
“It’s a matter of guys stepping in, performing and keeping the train rolling right now. And some of the guys who are nursing smaller injuries, I think that they’ll be back sooner … and that will be great.”
Frei said the injuries will give others the opportunity to play.
“They ought to be hungry themselves to try to play to the best of their ability and to get results,” he said. “We’ve always said that it’s the whole team and not just 11-something guys who are going to achieve something.”
Frei said it was disappointing getting eliminated from the Champions Cup, “but from now until Club World Cup, we have league to focus on.”
“It really gives up one thing to narrow our focus on, and hopefully we can keep the train rolling despite the injuries and keep ourselves in good position to win trophies in the league,” he added.
St. Louis City was 8-13-13 in its first season last year, but has yet to allow a goal in three MLS matches this season, the only team in the league that has not been scored against.
“They’ve been very good defensively and Roman (Burki) is one of the best goalkeepers in the league, plus in the world, if you ask me,” Frei said. “Huge credit to him and to their team as a defensive unit.”