Tag Archives: Clint Dempsey

Discipline, MLS, NASL

Suspensions Ain’t What They Used to Be

A long, long time ago, in a league now featuring not one but two headstones, you could see red and live to play again, and again.

The original North American Soccer League went to great lengths to make the game seemingly more palatable to the American public. More scoring, more stars and more pizzaz. But NASL nuances could also prove confusing, substituting shootouts for draws, painting an offside line 35 yards from goal and awarding six points for wins and up to three bonus points for goals.

Given all that, it should come as little surprise that the NASL brass also did its own things with regard to discipline. And given the muddled mess surrounding Clint Dempsey’s added suspension meted out 25 days after his sending off in Frisco, one could argue America’s top flight still hasn’t conformed to the rest of the world.

Ismail Elfath consults video review before sending Kelvin Leerdam to the showers vs. Montreal. (Courtesy Sounders FC)

Dempsey will serve out his suspension four weeks after Chris Penso consulted video review before showing a red card to the Sounders star. Of course, there’s a bye involved. But it’s still the most protracted suspension involving a Seattle player’s ejection, going back to 1974.

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Know Your History, NASL Sounders, Seattle Sounders FC

Goal-Setting: Taking Aim on Records

A staple of many a preseason camp is goal-setting. It taps into the competitive nature of athletes and coaches, to aspire and work toward targets, both for the individuals and the collective, the team.

They must be specific and measurable; within reason, but also just out of reach. To reach these goals will require more than before. Goal-setting asks us to give it everything we’ve got, and then some.

The urge to extrapolate the Nicolas Lodeiro effect over a full season has Sounders fans dreamy. (Courtesy Sounders FC)

Entering a ninth season in MLS, Sounders FC is well into its adolescence. Whereas the formative years were filled with modest accomplishments – winning season series, making the playoffs – those benchmarks are now merely base camps for assault on the summit.

Continue reading Goal-Setting: Taking Aim on Records →

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.

Baena?
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 →