Three things to watch for in Sounders vs Rapids

Fresh off the heels of their horrendous 2-0 loss in Dallas, the Seattle Sounders face the best team in the West, the Colorado Rapids, for the second time this season on Saturday at CenturyLink Field. Seattle’s Week 7 trip to Colorado ended in a 3-1 victory for the home side, and Sigi Schmid’s men will be hoping to get a much different result this time around.

After finishing dead last in 2015, the Rapids have been on fire this season with a 7-2-3 record and 24 points headed into the weekend. Head coach Pablo Mastroeni seems to finally have found his groove in Colorado, and the signings of Jermaine Jones and Shkelzen Gashi have shown to be brilliantly executed. The return of Kevin Doyle from injury has also galvanized the team, which looks as dangerous as anyone in the league right now.

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Here are three things to watch for on Saturday at 7 p.m., when the Sounders kick off against the Rapids at CenturyLink:

1. Sounders must shackle Jermaine Jones or pay dearly. Despite the player’s obvious talent and skill, the Jermaine Jones deal was met with skepticism around the league. Hot-headed and not getting any younger, it seemed like the Rapids signed the midfielder out of desperation, especially because he was suspended for the first six matches of the season. Luckily for the Rapids, they didn’t need Jones to start the season well, and luckily for Jones, the team only got better once he was available to play. Seattle saw how dangerous Jones can be in their loss against the Rapids in Commerce City, when the midfielder opened the scoring by nodding in a Gashi free kick almost unhindered by the Sounders defense. He can play all over the pitch, and is just as likely to snag the ball from an opposing forward near his own penalty box as he is to fire in a goal from distance at the other end of the pitch. Seattle needs to mark Jones at all times in their half; if he’s given time and space anywhere near the goal, he’s a threat.

2. Set pieces, set pieces, set pieces. At the risk of sounding like broken record/pundit Alexi Lalas, this is one of those matches that is likely to be won or lost on set pieces. Colorado opened the scoring from a free kick, and currently are tied for most goals scored from set pieces in the league. Central defenders Sjoberg and Burling are towering threats on corners and deep free kicks, and Jones is obviously a threat in the air despite being of average height. If it’s true that the Sounders will be without Chad Marshall for the match (he’s currently questionable), Brad Evans and Zach Scott will be the pairing in the heart of Seattle’s defense, and must be vigilant and stand tall in set piece situations. Seattle’s scoring woes may also need an injection of confidence with a nice set piece goal, which it is quite capable of doing.

3. Home. Field. Advantage. In Major League Soccer, more so than in a number of foreign leagues, home field advantage is not only real – it can be huge. This was very true with last week’s opponent, FC Dallas, who haven’t lost more than three matches in over two years at home; a win in Dallas would not only have been lucky, it would have been a true outlier. The Sounders don’t exactly have the same, nearly impeccable home record, but CenturyLink Field is still a fortress for them. I think I can say that, objectively, CenturyLink has one of the best atmospheres in all of Major League Soccer, and the team clearly feeds off of it. The Sounders will need to harness that energy and go all out against Colorado, who have a pretty blah away record this season (1-3-2). So even though the Rapids know that they have the mental edge thanks to their win earlier in the season, they’ll likely come to Seattle and play pretty conservatively in the hopes of snatching a tight win or a draw.

Spenser Davis also covers the Sounders for Sounder at Heart.