Colorado Rapids vs. Seattle Sounders – Three Questions with Sounder At Heart

My questions to him about Seattle are below, you can find my answers to his Rapids related questions over on Sounder at Heart.

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BW: How did Sounders fans react on the whole to the Eddie Johnson trade, and who do you expect to replace Fucito and Neagle as the young bench spark sort of guys?

SaH: Sounders fans as a whole like the deal. Those few times when Eddie Johnson played so far he's been met with huge positive emotions. The little part of Sounder-dom called Sounder at Heart is a bit more cautious. Obviously a large part of that is because of a majority of the site's authors were fans of Fucito, but also because there is some caution based on EJ's recent history.

SaH: Gspurning is more than adequate. He's not the leader of the backline that Keller was, but that isn't surprising. He's not a legend and English isn't his native tongue. His distribution is a bit different, not better or worse, just different. He's better on crosses, maybe a weaker shot stopper, but hard to know with so few shots on goal against. The most unique thing is that his first touch is strong enough that Seattle is more willing to pass back to him to get space and set up an attacking move. People have been patient and he's quickly earning the respect of the fanbase.

BW: Speaking of Mullan, do you think that him getting the start on Saturday and getting the Sounder fan treatment for a game (combined with Zakuani coming back some time soon) will placate the need for blood by the Sounders fanbase or is this more of a 'never forget' situation regardless of what happens on Saturday?

SaH: I'm a lot like you. I want it done and gone. My hope is that Mullan plays this game and faces boos as loud and vigorous as any player in the history of sport. That should be enough, that should provide a sense of partial closure. The other moment being Zakuani's return to competitive play. There will always be a group of Sounders fans that will never let this die. I just want that to be a very small group, and the sooner Brian Mullan plays in Seattle the sooner we know how small it is.

Thanks again to Dave at SaH, check out their blog for all the Sounders news you could ever want.