Category Archives: Know Your History

Know Your History, Seattle University

Shared Experience: The Tie That Binds

Coming a Long Way While Putting Family First

It was a simple point of fact and yet so telling. Fourteen members of Seattle University’s original varsity soccer team were reuniting 50 seasons after the program first formed.

Later that day, the ranks of alumni would swell to about a hundred former Chieftains and Redhawks as defending champion Seattle U hosted its WAC opener, a win over nationally-ranked Utah Valley. A capacity crowd was expected under the lights at Championship Field.

Alumni from 50 seasons of soccer at Seattle University converged on Championship Field for the September 30 reunion. (Courtesy Seattle University)

But at brunch that morning, as they shared stories and consumed plates of eggs, sausage and toast, Joe Zavaglia stood to interject a timely piece of information: This was the first time these teammates had shared a meal together.

“It’s 50 years of history of guys who have played through tougher times but never as successful as times as these, (and it’s) a cause to celebrate,” recalls Zavaglia, the first team captain. “It’s an incredible feeling.”

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FC Seattle, Know Your History, NASL Sounders, Seattle Sounders FC, USL Sounders

A History of Outbursts

If set to a soundtrack, the game is more suited to symphony than garage band. Fortunes can change quickly in soccer, but usually following a long, drawn-out build-up. Yet there are the exceptions, when the drumbeat does double-time and the cymbals crash repeatedly.

So it was on Sunday. Just when it was seeming Dallas and Seattle were destined to finish the first leg of their series in a scoreless stalemate, the Sounders came unleashed, attacking in fury and soon finding themselves as top dog in a pairing with the top side in MLS this season.

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Reversing roles, scorer (Nicolas Lodeiro) celebrates with creator (Jordan Morris) after the second of the three goals vs. Dallas. (Courtesy Sounders FC)

Interim (Really? Still?) coach Brian Schmetzer pondered in his postgame presser whether he’d ever witnessed anything quite like it, the succession of blows by Valdez, Lodeiro and, again, Lodeiro during an 8-minute span early in the second half.

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Early Days, Know Your History, Washington Soccer, Washington Youth Soccer

City’s First Soccer Shop Slips Away

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Note: This article was first published in 2008, shortly after the closing of Sports Specialties. Denzil Miskell passed away in October 2016.

All too quietly, a tiny jewel of Seattle’s sporting history has slipped into the past.

Officially it was Sports Specialties, yet for 33 years the cramped, quaint soccer shop in Belltown was simply synonymous with the name of its distinctive owner, Denzil.

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Denzil Miskell was interviewed by Washington State Legends of Soccer on Sept. 21 at West Seattle Stadium. (Photo by Leann Johnson)

Know this: Denzil Miskell is alive and doing well, but behind the nondescript storefront on Second Avenue sits an empty vessel. All that remains of this everyman’s gem is the generic player painted on the plate glass front, and a brief note on the door from Denzil explaining the absence.

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FC Seattle, Know Your History, NASL Sounders, Seattle Sounders FC

Center-Halves And Full of Goals

Down through the years, Seattle certainly can claim its share of goal-scoring central defenders. Beginning with David Gillett driving home a corner kick in ’74 and renewed through Chad Marshall’s flick to the far corner versus Chicago, the big backline boys have often proven the difference between victory and defeat, at both ends of the pitch.

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Chad Marshall has scored six times for Seattle (all comps), beginning with a 2014 winner vs. Philadelphia. (Courtesy Sounders FC)

This year alone, three of Marshall’s four goals have translated to five additional points in an extremely tight playoff race. Time will tell the true importance of that header, although it wasn’t Marshall’s first big score. There was the late winner vs. Philly in ’14 and the added time strike at Dallas in the playoffs a year ago.

Whether in the opponent’s box or his own, Marshall’s works are textbook, efficient, clinical in application. As for center back goals, it’s doubtful he will ever deliver with the panache of Djimi Traore’s long-distance, aggregate equalizer against Tigres or Patrick Ianni’s sidewinder extraordinaire vs. Sporting KC.

Four Goals is Significant Continue reading Center-Halves And Full of Goals →

FC Seattle, Know Your History, NASL Sounders, Seattle Sounders FC, USL Sounders

Anatomy of a Hat Trick

How many ways can thee examine a hat trick? While delving deep into Seattle lore, let us count the ways.

You can do it early; you can leave it late.

Tommy Ord did the first Sounders trick in 1977, three games after arriving in a trade.

Cam Weaver completed his in the 34th minute. Three others required the full 90.

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Mark Baena’s three hat tricks is the most for a Seattle player. (Frank MacDonald Collection)

Five hat tricks started in the first four minutes. Mark Baena was scoreless for the game’s first 62 minutes, then… BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

You can do it in a gallop; you can do it at a canter.

For Brent Goulet in ’89, it was as fast as 1-2-3; his hat trick started and finished in seven minutes. The longest hunt: 77 minutes from first to third for Chuggar Adair.

You can wait a month; you can wait for years. Continue reading Anatomy of a Hat Trick →

Know Your History, NASL Sounders, Seattle Sounders FC, USL Sounders

The Best of 10s

You couldn’t tell the players without a program, and your program was useless unless you arrived at the park early enough to hear the squad announced. That was the first lesson learned upon attending a British football match some 30 years ago. It was a brisk spring evening in Scotland, with dust swirling in a windswept, dilapidated ground of Stirling Albion (don’t ask).

Touring Starfire
Nicolas Lodeiro (Courtesy Jane Gersovich/Sounders FC)

There were no programs and not a lot of spectators either. Although Scottish in heritage this visitor didn’t speak the language. But I’m pretty sure the ol’ man in tweed a few yards away was suggesting I keep an eye on the No. 10. And ain’t that always the case?

Since the height of Pelé’s reign, the No. 10 shirt has been football’s most prized. In theory, it should be issued to a player of quality (at least compared to the rest of the squad). Ideally, it would be worn by an attacking player with a creative, cunning mind to go along with a quiver of skills for surgically dismembering a defense.

Enter Nicolás Lodeiro, Seattle’s new No. 10 and most recently of Boca Juniors. Talk about the pressure and expectation of wearing that number, at La Bombonera Lodeiro was tracing the footsteps of both a demigod (Maradona) and a recently retired legend (Riquelme). And Nico handled it with aplomb, settling in soon after his arrival and leading Boca to the domestic double.

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Peter Hattrup, 1995 A-League MVP

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FC Seattle, Indoor Soccer, Know Your History, NASL Sounders, Seattle Sea Dogs, Seattle Sounders FC, Tacoma Stars, USL Sounders

Schmetzer & Seattle Soccer Intertwined

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As his father tells the story, Walter Schmetzer beckoned Alan Hinton to watch his vaunted Lake City Hawks to watch a player of promise. But it wasn’t his son.

Still, as is often the case when coaches scout young (in this case U18) players, the original target can be eclipsed by another aspirant sharing the field, and that’s how on spring day in 1980 Brian Schmetzer’s long association with Puget Sound professional soccer began.

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Schmetzer’s first turn as a Sounders head coach was from 2002-08.

Over 36 years since, Schmetzer has been associated as a player or coach with virtually every entity where one could draw a paycheck. Of the 500-some players who’ve worn a Seattle or Tacoma shirt over the years, Brian’s probably watched, played beside or coached an overwhelming majority of them.

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Early Days, Know Your History, Seattle Sounders FC, US Soccer

What You Don’t Know About the Open Cup

For those who have grown to appreciate the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup for its history, gritty displays and penchant for upsets, the Washington chapter can deliver on all those counts and more.

When Sounders FC pulls into the StubHub Center’s track venue for the quarterfinal date with the Galaxy, it will almost be like old, old times. Like when a Seattle side first ventured into southern California for a quarterfinal that, incidentally, was 50 years ago. Spoiler alert: Seattle did OK. That day, anyway. But more on that later.

1966USOCProgramCover

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Early Days, Know Your History, NASL Sounders, Seattle Sounders FC, Washington Soccer

Treasures Around Town

At the ripe old age of 90, Mr. Lipton stands up straight, and though he shows signs of obvious wear there is a gleam to his appearance. Women with flowing hair, goddesses perhaps, flank him on either side.

Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, made solid sterling silver, stands nearly three feet and was crafted 90 years ago.
Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, made solid sterling silver, stands nearly three feet and was crafted 90 years ago.

Lipton’s got it pretty good. Folks take care of him, and he’s got a room with a view. Unlike his prime, he no longer gets out much, if at all, and the notion of young people picking him up and jubilantly hoisting him skyward is certainly out of the question. Still, with proper care and attention, there’s no reason to think Lipton won’t outlive us all.

Such is life for the stately Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, likely among the oldest surviving artifacts of a rich soccer history that reaches back to the days before Washington’s statehood. Lipton and other sterling relics of their kind are hiding around the Seattle area, some of them in plain sight.

While the brightly-lighted Sounders FC trophy case on Occidental displays our biggest, brightest and most recent plunder–a Supporters’ Shield plus four Open Cups–the bulk of Washington’s historical treasures reside in a couple ordinary offices.

Sir Thomas Lipton, second from left, during his 1912 visit to Seattle Courtesy University of Washington Libraries)
Sir Thomas Lipton, second from left, during his 1912 visit to Seattle Courtesy University of Washington Libraries)

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Know Your History, NASL Sounders

Birth of a Legend

He’s called well over a thousand games for the Huskies and long ago became a local broadcasting institution. But it may come as a surprise that Bob Rondeau cut his teeth on play-calling as the voice of the Sounders.

That’s right, before he first exclaimed “Touchdown, Washington!” came shouts of  “Goooooooal, Sounders!”

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Bob Rondeau has been the voice of Husky football since 1980 and UW men’s basketball since 1985. Courtesy UW Athletics.

Back in 1979, when KOMO AM-1000 added soccer to its stable of UW football and basketball, Rondeau stepped up to the mic with no experience in play-by-play and admittedly little knowledge of the game.

“I knew less than nothing about soccer,” says Rondeau. “I didn’t know a soccer ball from a cue ball.”

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