Photo by @PNWmf
Take Your Spot Among the Stars
Throughout history humans have looked to the stars for inspiration. Humans have named these formations after legends, gods, and heroes that they aspire to be like. For the 2022 home opener we wanted to create a “constellation map” honoring a few of the club legends from our MLS history.
We honor Sigi Schmidt as the Sounders first MLS head coach and steward, who guided the club to 4 Open Cup Trophies, a Supporters Shield, and an unheard of 6 playoff appearances for any expansion club. Next to Sigi is our own Fredy Montero, the club’s first MLS goal scorer and leads the team with 68 goals across all competitions, so far. Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey represent our “Gemini” twin constellations of sorts, because as a pair they rival any forward combo to ever grace the MLS universe. To the “love of our life” we needed to include Roman Torres and him celebrating the penalty kick to win our very first MLS Cup in 2016. Above Roman, is a special star formation, that of Tom Dutra who has been the Goalkeeping Coach and mentor for the Sounders since 2006. He has shaped the careers for some of the greatest Goalkeepers in the Northwest including: Chris Eylander, Ben Dragavon, Kasey Keller, Terry Boss, Bryan Meredith, Marcus Hahnemenn, Michael Gspurning, Andrew Weber, Josh Ford, Troy Perkins, Stefan Frei, Tyler Miller, Stefan Cleveland, Spencer Richey, and Alex Roldan. On the final constellation curtain we wanted to include two of our most recent stars, Nico Lodeiro and Raul Ruidiaz celebrating goals in their most famous manners.
These constellations don’t represent EVERY Sounders legend by any measure. But for 2022 these players and coaches represent the high bar in which we desire our club to aspire. To that end, we added the overhead message of “Take your spot among the stars.” This phrase makes the display more personal to the audience on the field, because those are our future legends.
As always, thank you to our amazing tifo volunteers - this one took a lot of hands to help produce and deploy. If you are an ECS member, come out and help with the next one! More information on the forums and next time you'll be able to say: "I helped make that happen!"