MONTREAL -- Seattle Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer sees United States striker Clint Dempsey "rounding back into form" after missing eight months because of a heart ailment.
Dempsey has gone the full 90 minutes in each of Seattle's two games of this MLS season. The three time World Cup veteran scored against the Houston Dynamo last weekend in his first appearance since August, when the team's medical staff discovered an irregular heartbeat and shut him down for the remainder of the Sounders' championship-winning 2016 campaign.
The 34-year-old Dempsey had a goal called back late in Saturday's 2-2 tie against the Montreal Impact, after Seattle and U.S. teammate Jordan Morris was whistled for a suspect hand ball. Dempsey, who had three shots in all, also had a first half header stopped by home goalkeeper Evan Bush.
"He was certainly influential in many of our attacks and many of our plays," Schmetzer said afterward, adding that he might have substituted Dempsey out of the contest had the visitors not been trailing for most of the match.
"I would have loved to have been 3-0 up at halftime and taken him [off]," Schmetzer said after Morris' 90th minute equalizer salvaged a point for Seattle.
The timing of Dempsey's return to the field is intriguing from a U.S. national team perspective. In January, U.S. coach Bruce Arena said that he would not be called in for this month's crucial World Cup qualifiers against Honduras and Panama. But after Dempsey -- the only American to score in three World Cups and the U.S. captain at Brazil 2014 -- went the distance and found the net last week, Arena appeared to keep the door open for national team's active scoring leader.
"I think it's great that he's back and playing again," Arena told reporters on Monday. "I think we need to be smart and evaluate where he's at over the next two weekends.
"Again, I think in his case, we need to be very cautious."
Schmetzer was diplomatic when asked if Dempsey -- whose 52 U.S. goals are just five short of Landon Donovan's record 57 -- was ready to return to international play after such a long layoff. Arena's squad meets Honduras March 24 in San Jose, California, then plays at Honduras four days later.
"That's something for Bruce to decide," he said. "Bruce is fully aware of what it takes to win at the international level. He and I have spoken on the phone about Clint but that's out of my control."