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Joshua Mayers is the Seattle Sounders FC writer for The Seattle Times. Watch for his coverage of the team, Major League Soccer and soccer around the world.

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March 28, 2011 at 2:54 PM

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DP Alvaro Fernandez "surprised" by switch to reserve role

Posted by Joshua Mayers

Photo credit: Otto Greule Jr., Getty Images

From one DP to another, some reporters had the chance to catch up with midfielder Alvaro Fernandez today after the Uruguayan was benched in Friday's game against Houston. Here's the bulk of the transcript, with the help of a translator.

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(How have you handled moving out of the starting lineup?) "Good. It took me a little bit by surprise, but there's not much else I can do other than just train and try to get better."

(Is it discouraging? Motivating?) "Again, I was a little bit surprised. I felt like I had a good game the last game so was a little bit surprised to have been taken out of the starting 11. But I'm a professional. These are the technical decisions and you have to abide by them and keep moving on."

(Did you talk to the coaches about what you need to do to get back into the starting lineup?) "No, I haven't had any special conversations with him since he took me out of the starting lineup. I haven't talked to him about what I need to do. I know I just need to play the best I can play to get back into the starting lineup."

(You were subbed out early in the previous two games, were those surprising to you?) "In the first game I wasn't surprised at all. It was sort of the beginning of the season and it didn't surprise me to be one of the first substitutions. But the second game I thought it was going really well, so it did take me by surprise that I was taken out of the game, but again, these are decisions made by the technical staff and you just abide by them and keep playing."

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