Fresh of traveling the world, Alex Roldan says he’s ready to go
Roldan logged more than 18,000 air miles while on international duty.
Alex Roldan has declared himself fit and available for Saturday’s game against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
“I feel healthy,” Roldan told reporters this week. “If I’m an option, I’m willing to play and try to help the team as much as I can.”
While Roldan may be feeling fine, he is coming off what has to be an exhausting stretch with El Salvador. The 26-year-old returned from international duty earlier this week, having started all five of La Selecta’s games and logging 435 minutes over the course of about three weeks. His travels took him to Japan, South Korea and all over the United States, totaling about 18,000 miles.
There are MLS teams who won’t log that many air miles over the course of a whole season, let alone during a three-week stretch.
Still, there will likely be an inclination to put Roldan back into the starting lineup if he’s physically ready. While the Sounders went a respectable 1-1-1 without him, they also only scored one goal and for all of Cody Baker’s promise, he’s still a bit reluctant to join the attack. On the flip side, the Sounders also only allowed one goal in those games.
“I think the games they’ve played were actually very good games,” Roldan said. “They had solid performances. I think the only thing we were lacking was just the ball in the back of the net. Defensively we’re continuing to get shutouts, that’s obviously a very big positive in my eyes, just because if we can keep a clean sheet then we’re giving our offense a chance.
“I think they played well, they had good performances, it’s just about finishing goals now.”
Other notes
- Stefan Frei will miss Saturday’s game after suffering a concussion in training earlier this week. Stefan Cleveland is his likely replacement.
- Kelyn Rowe will also miss the match. He came out of last Saturday’s match with a quadriceps injury that Schmetzer called “significant” and estimated Rowe would be out 6-8 weeks.