The Seattle Sounders are up to their old tricks. Start off a little slow, then got hot in April and May. Hopefully during the next month the Sounders will be able to win a few more games because they may need it. Why you ask? When June and July rolls around they could be without four players according to sounderatheart.com.

As all Seattle fans are used to by now, whenever there is a United States Men's National Team game Clint Dempsey receives a call up. The USMNT have friendlies on June 6th against the Netherlands and then on June 13th against Germany. One would assume that Clint will receive a call and if that is the case, he will miss league matches against Sporting KC on June 6th as well as June 13th against FC Dallas. Sounders Captain Brad Evans may also find himself in the mix as well. He recently earned a call to the senior team in April when they played Mexico. 

Marco Pappa is another international player that the Sounders will more than likely lose. Pappa has been playing tremendously well for his national team Guatemala as of late. They also have a friendly scheduled for June 6th against Uruguay. Just six days later, they begin a home and home qualifier for the 2018 World Cup against Bermuda. Guatemala will also be part of the Gold Cup so the Sounders can expect to not have him back until sometime in middle to late July depending how deep of a run they make in the tournament. 

Gold Cup group stage matches begin on July 7th and if the United States makes a run to the final, they would not be available to come back until after July 26th. If they somehow inexplicably don't make it out of the group stage, they would get them roughly ten days sooner. 

Altogether, the Sounders may not have three of their most important players from the end of May until possibly the end of July. That would be a total of nine, possibly ten games that could be missed by these three. That is essentially a third of the season. That is ludicrous. 

The fourth player would be Cristian Roldan. He is not a starter, but he is usually first off the bench when it comes time for Sigi Schmid to make his first sub of the match. He recently was called into the USMNT U-20s for a friendly in April. The U-20 World Cup runs from May 30th to June 20th. There are four to five matches that he would possibly miss if he is indeed called up. 

Just another reason why MLS needs to observe the FIFA international dates so teams aren't missing 27-36% of their starters for a third of the season. If the two friendlies in early June were observed by MLS, it wouldn't have such an effect on one team even if for only two games.

It is a blessing and yet a burden to have some name national team caliber players on one team, but it also shows you why the Sounders have certain players on the bench right now. Schmid knows they will need to step up soon and play a huge role for the club in the summer.

At least the Sounders fans don't have to worry about losing Obafemi Martins. There are rumors circulating out there that Martins and Nigeria's National Team coach don't get along that well. No skin off this writer's back.