Pedro de la Vega’s fitness continues to make progress

RENTON — Pedro de la Vega got his first start in about a month on Saturday, logging 56 minutes in the Seattle Sounders’ 1-0 loss to the Portland Timbers. It wasn’t exactly a standout performance, but he did at least show some flashes of the type of play that prompted the Sounders to spend $6.5 million on his transfer over the offseason.

Perhaps more important than any play in particular, though, was that he was able to log more minutes than in any other appearance since going 63 minutes in a match against Austin FC on March 2. Even more encouraging was that it was his third appearance in eight days, totalling 97 minutes. It was by far the most minutes he’d played in that small of a timeframe since joining the Sounders.

Considering how much he’s struggled to stay healthy and gain fitness this year — he’s still below 400 minutes across all competitions — it was an undeniable step in the right direction.

Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer admitted that de la Vega looked “cooked” at halftime and considered swapping him for Raúl Ruidíaz, but felt it was important for the winger to push through into the second half in order to better prepare himself for a stretch run in which he’ll surely be needed. The Sounders have seven regular-season games remaining, five of which are against teams in playoff positions. The first of those matches is on Saturday against the reigning MLS Cup and Leagues Cup winners Columbus Crew.

“It’s getting there,” Schemtzer said about de la Vega’s fitness following Tuesday’s training session. “We’re going to have some conversations with him. You’ve seen his quality. Does he try to do too much? Yeah. That’s natural. But he’s got good feet, good technical ability. He’s going to help us.

“He’s building fitness. That was a pretty intense game. He’ll get another full week of training and we’ll see what happens against Columbus.”

Léo Chú’s status

Léo Chú hasn’t started a game since July 17, has not played in any of the Sounders’ last three games and wasn’t even on the bench in the last two. Even accounting for several smallish injuries he’s picked up at various times this season, his lack of playing time has been notable.

Asked about his status following the Timbers’ game, Schmetzer said Chú had suffered an adductor injury even though he was conspicuously not listed in the injury report and had been training with the team as recently as Friday.

With Chú again training on Tuesday, Schmetzer offered some clarification on the winger’s status.

“In training the day before [the Timbers game] he pulled himself out of warmup,” Schmetzer said. “He went in and came back. He’s got to show he can be durable, too.”

Pressed a little more, Schmetzer implied that Reed Baker-Whiting and the recently signed Georgi Minoungou had effectively taken his spot, at least for now.

“We can’t have three wingers on the bench,” Schmetzer said. “Léo Chú has to fight it out with all the rest of the good players we have on the squad.”

Stefan Frei likely out

Just about four minutes into the Timbers’ match, Stefan Frei absorbed a rather brutal knee to the head when Mason Toye slammed into him while going after a rebound. Frei was removed from the match, had to get 10 stitches above his eye to close the wound and is currently in concussion protocol.

Schmetzer all but ruled out Frei for this weekend’s game and wasn’t even ready to give a timeline for a return.

“We’re not going to rush him at all,” Schmetzer said. “There’s no reason to risk further injury, more consequential stuff.”

International duties

The Sounders will be missing Nouhou (Cameroon) and Obed Vargas (Mexico U23s), while the Tacoma Defiance will be without Osaze DeRosario (Guyana). The Crew, meanwhile, will be missing Mo Farsi (Algeria), Nicholas Hagen (Guatemala), Cucho Hernandez (Colombia), Steven Moreira (Cape Verde) and Patrick Schulte (USA).

For Vargas, this apparently a chance to get some training time with Mexico’s senior team as this is a joint camp with the U23s.