The Seattle Sounders returned to training today for the first time since their loss on Sunday to the Los Angeles Galaxy. If there were any lingering effects from the two-loss week falling the nine-game winning streak, they weren’t visible. Perhaps the visit from Saturday’s honorary captain, Emmanuel, helped brighten their spirits. Emmanuel is from the Austin Everett Foundation, which is working with the MLS Kick Childhood Cancer campaign, which is a very worthy cause.

The on-field news wasn’t quite as good, as Coach Brian Schmetzer confirmed that both Brad Smith and Harry Shipp are out for at least 2-3 weeks with (say it with me), hamstring injuries. Smith went down in the Philadelphia game, while it’s unclear when Shipp picked up his injury. Not that it particularly matters, as the bottom line is the same.  While noting the injury to Shipp in particular “sucks,” Schmetzer emphasized that the team has plenty of options, with a healthy Victor Rodriguez and Handwalla Bwana training in full.

I asked Schmetzer if fatigue and lack of roster rotation contributed to the somewhat sluggish performance against the Galaxy. He didn’t seem to think that was the case especially, though he later noted that he would have likely rotated the roster more if they had won versus Philadelphia. He thought it boiled down more to a good performance from the Galaxy, combined with the deficit at the half being too much to overcome. “You’ve got give our opponents some credit,” Schmetzer said. “L.A. pressed us higher up the field.”

Gustav Svensson said the team is trying to move past the L.A. game. “You take what’s good and takes what’s bad in the game and then try to let go of it.” Obviously, he is keenly aware of the importance of the Colorado game, given that it is a home game and the team is coming off of two consecutive losses.

Beyond the two latest injuries, the team had everyone else out training, which is obviously good news as they look to bounce back against a struggling Colorado side that is already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.