Former Sounders Star Midfield Pairing Could Get Increased World Cup Roles in Group Stage Finales

It's been an exceptionally exciting FIFA World Cup in North America so far.

From two of six games scheduled to be played in Seattle finishing with resounding success and the tournament's brightest stars like Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland off to impressive starts, the world's biggest sporting event is everything fans hoped it would be.

But the two players with strong ties to the Seattle Sounders, current midfielder Cristian Roldan and February transfer Obed Vargas, haven't seen the field much. Vargas got on for the final 25 minutes of Mexico's win over South Korea and impressed with multiple dynamic runs to burn clock and preserve a 1-0 win to clinch the group.

His strong minutes have pushed Mexican fans and media to suggest the 20-year-old Atletico Madrid man playing in his first World Cup should see a larger role going into a Wednesday group stage match with Czechia at 3 p.m. PT.

Meanwhile, Roldan, a career Sounders man at 31, is on track to go a second straight World Cup with the USMNT without a single second of playing time.

But after two convincing wins (4-1 over Paraguay and 2-0 over Australia in Seattle last Friday), the U.S.'s group stage finale against eliminated Turkiye on Thursday will serve little meaning. With key pieces like Christian Pulisic dealing with ailments, the chatter around the country has been whether head coach Mauricio Pochettino should rest his starters in Los Angeles on Thursday.

While Roldan was dealt a muscle injury during training that he's still dealing with, he seemed confident he'd be fit and ready to go for the Turkiye fixture when he spoke to the media on Tuesday.