The Seattle Sounders welcomed back a very important, key player to their Starting XI against the Houston Dynamo this past weekend. After missing the clubs first four matches, Osvaldo Alonso returned to the lineup for the first time since last November. His presence on the field made an immediate impact.

He may have only played for 67 minutes, but those 67 minutes were the key to helping the Sounders win their first game in nearly a month. For those of you that live under a rock, Alonso had surgery at the early part of February to fix a nagging groin injury. 

At the early part of the match you could tell that Ozzie hadn't played a competitive match for nearly five months. He was a little rusty which was to be expected. From time to time Ozzie will venture forward into the final third, but his best place on the pitch is in the middle of pitch wreaking havoc. The team also does well when he sits in front of the back four disrupting the flow of the game. 

In the photo below, Ozzie made a great run through midfield pulling away from Dynamo players. At the last moment, David Horst was able to get enough on the ball to deflect it towards goalkeeper Tyler Deric. The ball went out for a corner.

It sound as if head coach Sigi Schmid played Ozzie a little longer than he wanted to; “In this situation we felt that he was at least 45 minutes fit, so I think it’s a lot easier for him to warm up and start the game than to come in off the bench. And if he somehow suffered a setback, we would have to burn another sub. So we said, ‘Let’s go ahead and start him, and if something goes wrong, then we can make the sub.’ And he came through, from an injury perspective, very well. Ozzie has such good instincts when he sits deep in midfield. He reads the play really well, and he is quick to anticipate and react. In the second half, even when he was running out of gas, he almost got a goal.”

As expect, Ozzie was happy to be back on the pitch; “I’m happy. It’s been a long time since I’ve played. To win this game, even with 10 men, I feel so happy. I can’t describe this moment for me. The game is always a battle. Unfortunately we got a red card, and we had to figure out a way to play a man down. But we did that. So I’m happy for the result, and I’m really happy to come back.”

It wasn't the ideal situation for Ozzie to return, but this writer is glad he is back and can't wait to see how well he plays once he is 100 % at full fitness. 

Here is one more shot of Ozzie that our photographer Brandon Farris took at the match.