The “Big Beasts” of Sounders FC Speak out

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

June 2

There is a particularly irritating phrase that lazy political journalists in Europe use to describe political heavyweights in Britain. They are described as “Big Beasts.” It is not a comment on their waistlines, but more on their influence and importance to their particular organisation. After Thursday’s likely drubbing in the European elections for Gordon Brown’s Labour Party, at least one newspaper will doubtless talk of the Big Beasts of his party having a quiet word to him about resigning.

We’re telling you this because in a fifteen minute period before the match with Columbus Crew, it virtually rained Sounders FC “Big Beasts” on Prost Amerika. OK- so not a great visual, Drew Carey and Gary Wright falling on my head. But after chatting briefly with Drew in Fuel, we ran into Majority Shareholder Joe Roth, GM Adrian Hanauer and Senior VP of Business Operations Gary Wright in quick succession.

We didn’t ask them our usual incisive piercing questions, but really just their general overview of how things looked one third into the season. Carey, with an insight to what we would see later in the day, was most appreciative of the ambition the club has and its dissatisfaction with the draws Sounders have been picking up. Drew, having showed a nice touch by buying a round for the entire bar, told us how he viewed the progress so far.

“It’s gone way better than anybody thought. We’ve been a little sloppy with the ties. Galaxy game we should have won. Dallas game we should have won. Everybody knows it. That’s the thing. We should have won and everyone realises it. While everybody knows we should have won, any other expansion team would have said ‘great we got two ties,’ but nobody’s happy with those and it’s a really good sign for the team that they realise they should have won those games and they’re mad about it, and want to do better.”

He also mentioned that not beating LA Galaxy ’stung a bit,’ but it was our fault. We brought it up.

Joe Roth was more than stung by that draw. He confessed to being physically ill for a day after failing to beat them, and went on to bemoan that penalty non-call like the most passionate of fans. Somehow we felt it wasn’t the first time he’d recited the list of reasons why it should have been a penalty. We weren’t to know then that a penalty is like ‘love’ in tennis and life. It means nothing unless you score.

Ask what causes him to lose more sleep, his latest Hollywood blockbuster or the next Sounders game, he added, “Hollywood blockbusters take care of themselves. Putting a soccer club together doesn’t.”

Next stop on our tour was GM Adrian Hanauer, who very kindly stopped what he was doing to talk to us. Asked if beating the MLS Champions would be an extra benchmark, he was phlegmatic and practical, pointing out you still only get three points for it. He handled our awkwardish inquiry about relations with the Crew very well–it’s all good apparently–and then we asked him if with Crew at home in a few hours, and Chivas to come, he had looked at the league table and subconsciously added on six points to Sounders total, to see what it could look like after next Saturday.

At that point, a big smile came over his face confirming that he’d been tempted, before he unequivocally denied it. “We have a home game today and I don’t look any further than that,” he said diplomatically, still beaming. Adrian is a world champion poker player who got there by his ability to look ahead and number crunch. Somehow his cheeky smile suggested he knew exactly how the Western Conference might look should Sounders win both.

50 yards later, Gary Wright had a different view on the importance of beating Columbus and opined that it would have a huge significance in terms of establishing how far Sounders FC has come in a short time. He did share Hanauer’s answer on the ‘what ifs’ of the days to come. “I’m not counting points ahead of time, no, been in the industry too long to do that.”

And so he proved to be wise. A player you’d bet your house on (or at least one of Joe Roth’s) to score, missed entirely from 12 yards. At least he didn’t do it against the LA Galaxy! Joe may not have survived that.

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