For Sounders players like Nouhou Tolo, friendly vs. Eintracht Frankfurt a chance to gain more experience

SEATTLE – In late March, Cameroonian left back Nouhou Tolo got his first taste of Sounders action in a friendly against Mexican side Club Necaxa.

For Nouhou, whose breakneck sprints up and down the left flank all night energized the CenturyLink Field crowd, it was the chance for the former Sounders2 product to show what he could do against higher-level competition. And the team’s upper brass knew he was ready for his Major League Soccer debut soon after; Nouhou has made two starts and appeared in six games for the Sounders.

The team’s approach to exhibition matches – like the one they’ll play Saturday against top German side Eintracht Frankfurt at CenturyLink – came under fire from some fans after a second-round exit from the U.S. Open Cup last week. But the defending MLS Cup champions say their attitude toward such games has definitely shifted to where they now view them more as an opportunity to break in untested players than a chance to add to their trophy case.

“The priority of the club, as publicly stated, is to win the MLS Cup,” Sounders general manager Garth Lagerwey said. “Right now, we’re focused on defending our championship. Obviously, you want to have a really good regular season. The higher your seed, you get an easier road in the playoffs.

“Are these things compatible? Yes. But if you’re in an Open Cup game that’s early in the tournament, on the road, with some guys banged up and called up … the answer is not, any more, to send your senior players to play in those games. I think, again, it’s an opportunity to get some of your kids into the mix there.”

The Sounders (6-7-6) won’t play another regular-season game until July 19 against D.C. United.

On Friday, star forward Clint Dempsey was saluted for his two-goal, one-assist performance in a victory at Colorado by being named the MLS Player of the Week.

Whether Dempsey will be in uniform and for how long Saturday afternoon remains to be seen.

Lagerwey said the Sounders will play some starters and regulars against the Frankfurt side, but they will also be giving younger players bigger exposure against a club from one of the top European leagues.

And Lagerway figures the German squad will undoubtedly do the same.

“The idea is, we’re playing a high-level opponent, so how do we get the most out of it?” he said. “For some of our young kids, who maybe haven’t seen an opponent of that level, it can be a really good learning experience.

“We saw that for the Necaxa game, as one example, where we put Nouhou in and that was literally his first experience against somebody like that. I think, three months later, it helped him so that when we put him in a first-team game, it wasn’t his first exposure to it.”

This might sound tough to hear for fans that recall the team winning the U.S. Open Cup in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2014. But in some ways, it’s part of the franchise’s ongoing maturation from its early years, when it sought to win everything to gain a foothold in the city’s sports market.

Now that they’ve won the biggest prize of all, the Sounders know many fans won’t be satisfied with lesser trophies if it comes at the expense of repeating last December’s championship victory.

There’s also a practical side to the approach.

Lagerwey said the team’s development program has progressed far beyond where it was in those earlier years. The team’s academy squads recently advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time.

Also, the Sounders2 squad has been modified to be more of an extension of the team’s academy – with more younger players being added to it than before – and not just a feeder system to the big squad.

“Those kids are the future of the franchise,” Lagerwey said. “And now, we’re trying to give opportunities to those kids at the highest levels they can succeed at.”

And going forward, he added, that will include continued “sampling” of such players in exhibition games while wearing a Sounders uniform so they’re fully prepared to play whenever needed in games that count for more.