TUKWILA — Seattle Sounders forward Obafemi Martins suffered an adductor (hip) injury Tuesday in the U.S. Open Cup loss to Portland and is expected to be out three to six weeks, coach Sigi Schmid said Thursday.
Surgery is not expected.
Martins shares the team lead in goals (seven) with forward Clint Dempsey.
Martins’ injury was not the only fallout from this week’s Open Cup matches, which saw the Sounders eliminated by the Timbers, 3-1, in extra time at Starfire Sports Stadium on the same night Real Salt Lake came from behind to eliminate Sounders 2 in Utah.
Both games had refereeing controversies that brought very public complaints from the Sounders and S2. Dempsey was given a red card for dissent after tearing and throwing the referee’s book. Coach Sigi Schmid left the bench area before the end of the game, later explaining he did it to avoid choking the official. Items were thrown from the stands. And after the loss at RSL, S2 coach Ezra Hendrickson posted a twitter picture depicting blind referees.
“Tuesday was not the proudest moment for the Sounders,” owner Adrian Hanauer said. “Next to our logo are three words: Passion, courage and community. And the passion, there’s no doubting the passion of our players, coaches, staff, but … the passion maybe boiled over a little bit. We’ll deal with what we need to internally. We will certainly use any information we can to find if there were any specific fans that misbehaved, and then we have to use it as a learning opportunity and move on, because there are more tournaments and games ahead.”
Hanauer did not rule out the possibility of suspensions.
Regardless of any club discipline, action could be taken by U.S. Soccer, the governing body of the sport in this country and the sponsor of the Open Cup.
“There are disciplinary committees that review issues,” Hanauer said. “We don’t have any information yet. But certainly the prospect exists of outside bodies looking at players, coaches, our fans.”
Schmid used some time after training Thursday to apologize for his actions during the match.
The Sounders return to the Major League Soccer regular season at 1 p.m. Saturday when the San Jose Earthquakes visit CenturyLink Field.
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