TUKWILA, Wash. - DeAndre Yedlin is celebrating his 21st birthday in style on Wednesday, making his return to the Sounders FC starting lineup after breaking onto the world’s stage with three appearance in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Just four days after the Seattle native got back to Seattle, Yedlin will start for the Sounders against the Portland Timbers in the quarterfinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at Starfire Sports Stadium.
Stefan Frei will start in goal for Seattle, taking the place of Marcus Hahnemann, who is out with a hamstring injury suffered late last week. He will be behind back four that features aerial specialists Zach Scott and Chad Marshall in the middle along with Yedlin on the right an Jalil Anibaba on the left.
The midfield sees the return of Osvaldo Alonso and Gonzalo Pineda, who both served suspensions for yellow card accumulation on Saturday in a 1-0 regular season loss to Vancouver Whitecaps FC and are rested and ready to face Seattle’s biggest rivals. That duo will be flanked by Lamar Neagle and Brad Evans, who is starting in his third different position in three Open Cup matches.
At forward, Schmid opted to start Cam Weaver for the third straight Open Cup match and Chad Barrett.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 pm PT with a live stream of the match at SoundersFC.com.
Sounders FC XI - Stefan Frei, DeAndre Yedlin, Chad Marshall, Zach Scott, Jalil Anibaba, Brad Evans, Osvaldo Alonso, Gonzalo Pineda, Lamar Neagle, Cam Weaver, Chad Barrett.
