TUKWILA — The Seattle Sounders won their season opener against Toronto, but in the process lost one of their best players, possibly for a couple of games or more.
Midfielder Mauro Rosales, who last year earned MLS newcomer of the year honors, suffered a knee injury late in Saturday’s 3-1 victory, and has been ruled out for Friday’s game against Houston. He likely will be out longer.
Rosales, who set a club record with 13 assists last year, also dealt with a knee injury last season and missed the playoffs, but Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid said this injury is unrelated.
“Mauro will be out for this weekend for sure,” Schmid said. “He’s got a knee sprain. It’s not the same injury he had last year, so we’ve just got to see how he responds. It could be a couple of weeks, it could be a little bit more. We’ll have to see how it goes next week.”
Rosales, who signed with Seattle a year ago, was one of the team’s pleasant surprises. Despite playing for the league minimum, he became one the top players in the league and helped Sounders FC lead the league in scoring in 2011. He was rewarded this offseason with a contract extension, making him one of the team’s three designated players along with Fredy Montero and Alvaro Fernandez.
So even though midfield is an area of strength and depth for Seattle, Rosales’ absence will be felt.
“You don’t want to lose players anytime, and certainly he’s a very important player to us because of the creative impulses he gives to the game,” Schmid said. “We’re going to miss that part of it. It puts a little more of a burden on the other guys to do a little more.”
Schmid has not yet decided who will start for Rosales on the right side of the midfield, but said the options include Roger Levesque, who came in for Rosales Saturday following the injury, and Christian Sivebaek, an offseason addition who impressed in preseason training. Schmid also mentioned the possibility of playing left back Marc Burch at left midfield and moving Fernandez over to the right side.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.
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