The Seattle Sounders picked up Dominic Kinnear and traded for Brian Haynes to reinforce their bid for the A-League Championship.
Consider it some short-term pain for the good of some ultimate gain. The Seattle Sounders seeking to strengthen themselves for the A-League’s stretch run, acquired two national team players on the eve of the transaction deadline, only to extend their losing streak to three games.
Now the Sounders, who had sat atop the standings virtually the entire season, find themselves in second place, trailing the defending champion Montreal Impact with an all-important meeting pending in Quebec Sept. 1.
But at least Seattle coach Alan Hinton considers his team adequately stocked with the necessary personnel, both for that night and the playoffs to come. Hinton signed Dominic Kinnear immediately after his participation in the Parmalat Cup, then traded for Colorado’s Trinidad & Tobago winger Brian Haynes. All that after winning a club-record sixth straight game just a week earlier.
“The problem was that I didn’t feel we could win the championship without making a move,” said Hinton, who had lost center midfielder Dick McCormick to a season-ending knee injury before midseason.
“We were winning,” Hinton said of the win streak, “but just barely… shootouts, very tight games. The spirit of our team is outstanding. Pulling hard, working hard. But at the end of the day I didn’t think we could compete for the championship.”
With the Sounders admittedly a tightknit squad, the arrival of Kinnear and Haynes could have been resented. They essentially bumped Chance Fry and Jason Dunn, last season’s top two scorers, out of the lineup. But it was a move which was overdue, in Hinton’s mind. Whereas Fry and Dunn had scored a combined 21 goals at the same point a year ago, this summer’s total was a meager nine goals.
No cold shoulder treatment for Kinnear
If there were any cold shoulders awaiting him in Seattle, Kinnear didn’t notice:
“I don’t think I pose a problem. I know a lot of these guys and they know me. It seems to be a good mix, and I think they all understand I’ve come here to help them win a championship.”
Kinnear, a late cut from the U.S. World Cup team and owner of more than 50 caps, is well acquainted with the A-League and Seattle. He played against the now-defunct Storm while with the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks back in 1989 and ’90, and against the Sounders while with the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers late last summer. When he opted for his release from Mexican champion Necaxa earlier this summer, he found no suitors and, until the Parmalat Cup, little opportunity to exhibit his considerable skills. Hinton treasures his control, vision and attacking verve. He exhibited the latter by scoring twice in his second game in a Seattle shirt.
Kinnear tucked two headers into the net in the second half against Vancouver Aug. 19, pulling the Sounders back from a 2-0 deficit and sending the outcome into a shootout (which they lost). Haynes, meanwhile, earned himself an immediate following from the 7,624 fans with some piercing strikes from the left side.
The three consecutive losses to Atlanta, New York and Vancouver (the latter two at home), the franchise’s longest stretch of futility in two years, are not necessarily cause for undue alarm. The Ruckus and 86er games were shootouts, and the last-place Centaurs, after being outshot 22-7, won only because of a fluke deflection on the end of one of their rare forays.
Peter Hattrup, who leads Seattle in scoring, said his team was unlucky more than anything in those matches. Hattrup liked Hinton’s moves and believes the Sounders will benefit, although it may take a few more weeks for the lineup to gel. There are four regular-season games remaining prior to the playoffs.
“This is a move you see in baseball all the time,” said Hattrup. “It’s the teams on top who try to improve themselves, and we’ve definitely improved ourselves.”
by Soccer America correspondent Frank MacDonald