Seattle Sounders @ Philadelphia Union Preview

First off, here is the local broadcast information.

KONG 6/16, 97.3 KIRO FM, La Gran D 99.3 FM
Game time: 1:00 PM PST

On to the game preview. The Union are currently 1st in the Eastern conference with 9 points, and 4 games played. The Sounders are 6th in the West, with 5 points out of five games played. So far, the Union have won 3 games by a 1-0 score, and their 1 lost is also by a 1-0 score, at the hands of the LA Galaxy.

The Union can be a fairly defensive team, as evidenced by all the 1 nil results. They appear to generally line up in a 4-4-2 formation with essentially two holding mid fielders. They have started some games in a bit of a 4-3-3 With Mwanga, Le Toux, and Ruiz all playing up front, but it looks like they are getting away from that, and playing with Le Toux and Ruiz as the two forwards. Also, generally their central midfield is Stefani Miglioranzi and Brian Carroll, but it is possible that Carroll will miss this match due to injury. Last week, they played Amobi Okugo in his place when he left with injury, so he may get the start this week.

Things To Watch

Union Forwards- Le Toux and Ruiz haven't really got it going yet for this season, so they are a bit of an unknown quantity. However, Le Toux is an ex-sounder, and Ruiz has a good deal of history in MLS. Le Toux is a player who likes to float around the offensive third and try and get in behind the defense. Ruiz is a bit of a poacher who will mainly be in front of goal looking for service, but he is not a target forward. He is also a player our defense will need to very careful with because he goes down easy and we don't want to put the game in the hands of the referee.

Defensively, the Union have been known to be a bit of thuggish team. However, this isn't really evidenced in the number of fouls they have committed or in number of yellow cards. I think they are a bit more disciplined than they were at times last year. They still play pretty physically, and to some extent, some of their players like Danny Califf, will use this physical play to try and get under the opponents skin. It's something for the players to be aware of and just focus on the game. In their games against LA, and Vancouver, they drew some retaliatory red cards from the opposition.

What will the Sounders line up be? If I have to make a guess, I am pretty sure it will be the same as last week. Sigi has been coy on whether or not Montero will even travel for the game, if even play. Honestly, I think this is just gamesmanship and attempt to keep his cards close to his chest. I see Montero coming on for 20-30 minutes at the end, especially if its tied, or we are down. There is a slight possibility that he could jump back into the starting line up, but I don't really see that happening. If it does happen, who gets dropped? I would like to see Rosales play as an attacking midfielder alongside Osvaldo Alonso with either Erik Friberg, or Alvaro Fernandez playing on the right side. Unfortunately, Sigi made a comment this week about if they were to put Brad Evans up on the market this week, every team would be asking for him. Thus, I don't really see Sigi dropping Evans, so it will be interesting to see how this unfolds over the next 3 games or so.

Prediction

I hope we get the win, but in all honesty I see us coming away with a 1-1 draw. They are a decently defensive team, and we haven't quite proven that we are capable of scoring 2 or 3 goals each game yet. We have the last 2 games, but I want to see more continued success before I start believing.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or hit me up on twitter @SounderForever

Go Sounders!