Smith Starts in 0-0 draw with Botswana
June 6
Jarrod Smith made Sounders FC history by becoming the first ever MLS Sounder to play for his country while at the club. He started the game against the “Zebras” of Botswana on the right side of midfield, and played 55 minutes before being replace by Jeremy Brockie.
Also appearing were MLS stars Andy Boyens (NY Red Bulls), Simon Elliott (San Jose Earthquakes) and Duncan Oughton (Columbus Crew) with Elliott captaining the team.Jarrod has made one appearance in a Sounders jersey, a brief substitute cameo in the US Open Cup tie against Real Salt Lake. But he now makes Sounders FC history and becomes the answer to a football trivia question for the rest of time.
New Zealand Coach Ricki Herbert had earlier indicated that all players on the trip will get playing time and referred especially to those who had arrived from Europe and USA. “The pitch is poor,” Herbert told the NZ Herald. “For that reason I will not risk frontliners like Leo Bertos, Shane Smeltz and Tony Lochhead but Chris Killen needs game time and will play.”
The game kicked off at 6.30 am this morning at which point, Jarrod made Seattle football history. It finished goalless and now the All Whites go to South Africa for the Confederations Cup where their opponents are South Africa, Spain and Iraq. First they have a friendly against Italy on June 10.
They open their Confederations Cup campaign against Spain in Rustenburg on June 15.
June 7, 2009 at 6:41 am
[...] Smith becomes the first Sounder to play internationally (well since the Sounders moved to MLS. The USL-1 Sounders had a few calls ups in recent [...]
June 10, 2009 at 9:16 am
Does this mean he’s fit enough to actually play for us?