Arsenal Fan ‘Gunning’ for London Rivals

Zach Scott’s Dream is to Take on ‘Drogba the Beast’

July 14

As a youngster growing up on the beautiful island of Maui, Zach Scott’s thoughts rarely turned to Islington, the closely terraced suburb of North London home to Arsenal Football Club. Why would they? But when the Seattle Sounders left back arrived at college, that all changed. The English Football bug that so many all over the world catch finally got to him.

Zach takes up the story for us.

“It was in college. I didn’t have expanded cable on Maui growing up, heck!, I’m not even sure Hawaii had any sort of premium cable channels at all. Anyway, in college I got turned on to Fox Sports World, now Fox Soccer Channel, and started watching EPL then. Fortunate for me now, we own a TiVo and I no longer need to wake up early for games! It’s funny, I’ve actually kept a program on my TiVo from 2004 called “Arsenal: The New Invincible” and every once in awhile I’ll rewatch it and be amazed by how spectacular that team was.”

This attraction to one football team in particular with its array of attractive and creative players, which an aspiring American footballer could only dream of playing alongside, was based on a number of factors.

“The attractive brand of football that Arsenal played, was the first thing I fell in love with. Also, I’ve always thought Arsene Wenger was a superb manager and had a keen eye for talent. Players like Henry, Bergkamp, Ljungberg, Viera, and Pires always inspired me as a player. I was thrilled for the organization and excited for the prospect of playing along side Freddie.”

One name in that venerable collection of Arsenal stars sticks out a mile and won’t have escaped the notice of any Sounders fan. Freddie Ljungberg, then a resident of London, has now taken up root in the Pacific Northwest and joined Zach on the Sounders FC roster.

It’s a Drog Eat Drog World out There

One famous player from London has arrived in the Pacific Northwest, and this weekend there are another 18 to follow. So we bravely began the long process of curing Zach Scott of his addiction to Arsenal, and asked him instead about the illustrious visitors from West London arriving this week.

PROST AMERIKA: Looking forward, Chelsea and Arsenal have been battling it out for London supremacy for years. What will it mean to you to play against rivals of your favourite club?

ZACH SCOTT: It’s an exciting prospect…I hope I get some time, as playing against the best players is always something I love doing. And we all know the quality that Chelsea brings! It should be fun!

PROST AMERIKA: Is there any one Chelsea player you’d particularly like to play against?

ZACH SCOTT: Drogba’s a beast and would be fun to battle against. I think a player like Lampard though, who is the definition of a well rounded football player, is someone else I’d love to match up against.

Whether Zach gets to do that or not is in the purview of Carlo Ancelotti and Sigi Schmid. Either way, you can be pretty sure Zach will have it TiVo’ed.

Full Guide to the Sounders v Chelsea Match.