TUKWILA — Jhon Kennedy Hurtado’s comeback from a torn ACL was impressive. It was also in some ways incomplete.
The Sounders’ Hurtado, an All-Star in 2009, suffered a season-ending knee injury in late May last season, and after missing the remainder of the 2010 season, he was back with his te
am for preseason training.
Hurtado opened the year in his usual spot as a starting center back, but after two games Sounders coach Sigi Schmid noticed something. The time off, followed by the intense work to get back, had taken something from Hurtado. The 26-year-old Colombian was still good enough to be effective, but Schmid realized he wasn’t seeing the same player who was a finalist for Major League Soccer’s defender of the year award in 2009.
So to the surprise of many, Hurtado included, Schmid made a change, replacing Hurtado with Patrick Ianni in the third and fourth games of the season to remove Hurtado from the week-to-week grind of preparing for and playing in games. Refreshed, Hurtado returned to the lineup last week and played his best game of the season as Seattle beat Chicago for its first win of the season.
“At first I was surprised,” Hurtado said through a translator. “I hadn’t really had a chance to talk to him, but then we did have a chance to talk and it was fine and I understand. I’m just happy and content to be playing.”
And as much as the benching caught Hurtado off guard — he started and played the full 90 minutes in 37 of his 38 league matches in his first two seasons prior to the injury — Hurtado can admit now that the time off was helpful.
“It helped a lot,” he said. “Looking at the game from the outside is very different. I had a chance to look at some mistakes and work on correcting them.”
Schmid said its too early to know if Hurtado is back to full speed and ready to start every game from here on out. But based on the way he played last weekend, it’s unlikely Hurtado will be heading back to the bench in the immediate future.
“There’s never any player who is happy about sitting on the bench,” Schmid said. “If they’re going to be happy about sitting on the bench, they’re in the wrong job. Obviously he’s a good pro and he accepted it and moved on and took his next Hurtado and the rest of the defense would also like it if Saturday’s game can bring the team its first shutout of 2011. Despite a win and two ties in its last three games, Seattle has still allowed four goals over that stretch — hardly an alarming number, but one the Sounders would like to see go down. More important than a shutout, however, is the end result.
“It’s very important, and I think it would continue to give us confidence,” Hurtado said. “But right now, winning the last game really helped give us a boost in confidence. We’re working on growing and continuing to build on that win. It’s better to get better and correct mistakes when you’re winning than to correct mistakes when you’re losing.”
Montero’s return?
Forward Fredy Montero has missed two games since undergoing surgery on his right wrist, and while he has been cleared to resume training with the team, no decision has been made on his status for Saturday. Montero said he will be ready to play if called upon, but Schmid wouldn’t say if they have even decided if Montero will travel, let alone play.
“Obviously he has got to feel comfortable with the cast on,” Schmid said. “The first time you play with it if you’ve never played with it before — some guys have played with it before so they know what to expect, they feel pretty comfortable with it — but for him he still needs to become comfortable with it.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.
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