TUKWILA, Wash. — Adam Moffat was just as “shocked” to find out he had been traded to the Seattle Sounders as anyone.
The 27-year-old midfielder was a regular starter with the Houston Dynamo and had helped lead them to consecutive appearances in the MLS Cup final.
That’s not to say he was unhappy to learn about the move.
“I didn’t see it coming,” Moffat told reporters after his first day of training with the Sounders on Monday. “And then I was told it was Seattle, and it was a good thing — my wife is from the West Coast, the team is doing great.
"Sometimes you see those trades happen at that point of the season and it’s guys going to a team at the bottom of the table, and it’s tough. I’m coming to a great place. It’s amazing, the form the team is in, and I hope to add to that.”
Moffat also made clear that there were no hard feelings about leaving the Dynamo, even though the last memory many will have of him is when he kicked the bench after being subbed off in the 53rd minute of a 4-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls on Sept. 8.
“I had strained my quad, so that was frustration of being injured,” said Moffat, noting that he feels fine now. “I hate missing time. I hate coming out of a game. We knew at halftime I was going out of the game. We had said 10 more minutes, so that was just more frustration of getting injured. It wasn’t how the game was going.
“I feel like it was a tough decision for them. I was talking to the coaches and [head coach] Dom [Kinnear], and it seemed tough for him. I’ll miss those guys. It was a great organization for me, playing there, and the fans were fantastic with me.”
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Easing the transition to the Sounders is that Moffat played for head coach Sigi Schmid with the Columbus Crew and is good friends with Brad Evans. Schmid was actually responsible for bringing Moffat to MLS, signing the then 21-year-old out of the USL. The Sounders had apparently considered picking Moffat in the 2009 Expansion Draft.
“I always said when Portland traded him to Houston [in 2011] if we knew he was on the market, we might have talked to them about him,” Schmid said. “We were never made aware that they were looking to move him. He’s a good player, has a lot of good qualities, he can adjust his game to fit the guy he’s playing with and that’s important.”
Evans also pointed out that Moffat brings something the Sounders have so far been lacking this year: the ability to score from distance.
“If we implement that,” Evans said through a wide grin, “we’re coming at everybody from all angles.”
Jeremiah Oshan covers the Seattle Sounders for MLSsoccer.com.
