Sounders striker Raul Ruidiaz is back with the team after traveling to his native Peru last week due to the death of his father.
The club needs their designated scorer as they’ve collectively struggled to finish in the final third. Seattle remains one of the Western Conference leaders because of its defending, posting an MLS-best 10 clean sheets this season.
The details:
Sounders (8-7-5) vs. Dynamo (8-8-3)
Time/place: 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Lumen Field, Seattle
TV: Apple TV
Radio: KJR-AM (950) and in Spanish on El Rey 1360 AM
Series history: Seattle leads the all-time series 14-5-6 since 2009.
The story lines:
Defensive change
Seattle’s defensive strength will be tested. Center backs Yeimar Gomez Andrade and Jackson Ragen have started 19 of the club’s 20 regular-season matches together. Ragen is out Saturday due to a one-game suspension for yellow-card accumulation. Backup defender Xavier Arreaga is out with a quad injury, putting AB Cissoko in line for the starting spot. The team also signed Hal Uderitz from MLS Next pro side Tacoma Defiance for depth.
A positive is Houston isn’t a strong road team. The Dynamo lost their last outing at Austin FC and are 1-7-2 on the road this season.
Quotable
“We’ve been kicking everything around,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said about changing tactics to a two-forward set to generate offense. “We’re going to try, again, just for this home match just to stick with what we know. It has been successful. But time is ticking, so if we can’t get a result we might start talking about changes.”
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