SECOND LEG

Seattle Sounders will be playing against Portland Timbers in the second leg of the Western Conference championship match. They are trailing the opposition 2-1 from the first leg. Seattle Sounders manager Sigi Schmid has a lot of headache due to the injury problems surrounding Obafemi Martins and DeAndre Yedlin. They were not involved in the first leg match against Portland, and there remains a lot of doubt about their participation in the second leg. Yedlin has been one of the impressive players for Seattle in recent times.

The 20-year-old should be fit for the encoder according to Schmid, but he is more concerned on striker Martins. The former Newcastle United striker has been suffering from a groin injury in recent weeks. This was limited him to just one appearance in the last seven matches. Since the arrival of Clint Dempsey, Martins has played very little football. This has not been good for the club’s plan of having a great attack. Leo Gonzalez is also likely to miss the match after having not recovered sufficiently from his hamstring injury.

Zach Scott, however, is expected to be fit after making good progress from his rib injury. Clint Dempsey has stated that it would be great if Seattle had the presence of Martins on the pitch.

“We’ll see tomorrow how he came through tonight. He was able to do everything tonight. He was able to do more than he did yesterday, so that’s a good sign,” Schmid said to the press on Wednesday. “You want to have as many players available as possible. He’s one of our DPs. He has a lot of quality and he has a lot of experience. If he’s available to play, then that’ll be great. You’d like to see what’s going to be that best XI that we can put on the field,” Dempsey said.