Is Ockford the early front runner to be a breakout player?
Photo: Alex Caulfield/SoundersFC Communications
It’s early. It’s very early. But still fans at any club have a right to ask the question ‘who will be out break-out player this year?’ At a club where a big name signing has been added off-season, the anticipation of seeing them in action probably overwhelms any desire to look at budding talent in the youth ranks.
LA fans for example are more likely to be buying tickets to see Steve Gerrard than Bradford Jamieson IV.
However at Sounders FC, the club who won the Supporters Shield in 2014, there was palpably less need to import high profile names to revolutionize the squad. Last year went pretty well after all. So the question remains very much legitimate, if, as we said, early.
In his interview with the club on January 31, new General Manager Garth Lagerwey was asked if an of the youngsters had caught his eye. His response was forthrightly realistic:
“On some level, I’m not interested in how they are doing right now. It’s not that we are not watching but that it’s not a reasonable expectation to say that a 20 year old player is going to be at the level of the rest of the pros. Every once in a while somebody is but we haven’t had a revelatory player like that.”
However perhaps sensing the appetite for at least a name, the new GM eventually singled out Jimmy Ockford:
“You see even a difference in Jimmy Ockford who went on loan and got some games. He’s a little bit ahead of some of the guys who didn’t get a lot of games.”
Taken at face value, Lagerwey was just pointing out that Ockford had more recent playing level experience than some of the others but still, the name was offered to a question of who has caught your eye?
Two days later, Ockford himself was interviewee and was asked about his pre-season experiences:
“I’ve watched all the veterans play and have been keeping an eye on what they are doing tactically; how they are playing, how they are moving. I think that’s really helping me out.”
He said his focus was:
“Getting more fit; sharpness better; and still tactically technically everything needs to work and could always do everything better.”
The club’s own report also gives early props to Ockford, as well as Damien Lowe; Shane Evans writing:
“Tasked with marking the Sounders’ current top forward duo in Martins and Lamar Neagle, second-year defenders Damion Lowe and Jimmy Ockford held their own in a half-field scrimmage.
“Very tidy stuff from the pair that has spent a lot of time together over the years, dating back to their days with PDL side Reading United A.C.”
Ockford majored in psychology and perhaps therefore appreciates the dynamics of human interaction more than some of his young colleagues:
“It’s a great group. Everyone supports each other. Everyone has each other’s back. It makes everything lot more comfortable especially for younger players.”
Lagerwey however was quick to dampen the importance of showing up at training in Week 1 and having feet of dynamite, only for that to fade:
“One of the most important things is to be consistent. If you have a good first week then you have a bad next three weeks, that doesn’t do you a lot of good either.”
Sounders fans know a break-out season when they see one.
DeAndre Yedlin set the bar so high for that category by ending the 2014 season at the World Cup finals and starting the next one in the EPL. That’s not going to happen with every player but in terms of giving young players hope and vision at Sounders FC, one suspects his name will be used to inspire youngsters for years to come.
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