TUKWILA, Wash. -- Erik Friberg is headed back to the Seattle Sounders. To hear head coach Sigi Schmid and general manager Garth Lagerwey tell it, the 29-year-old Swedish midfielder isn’t coming back to the Pacific Northwest to be a benchwarmer.
“Erik’s a player who has started wherever he’s been with few exceptions,” Schmid told reporters following Seattle’s Tuesday practice. “He’s a guy that’s definitely going to compete for a starting spot.”
Friberg played for the Sounders in 2011, scoring one goal in 26 appearances. He most recently played for Italian Serie A club Bologna and Danish side Esbjerg fB before his return to the Rave Green was officially announced on Monday.
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Both Schmid and Lagerwey pointed to Friberg’s past with the club and popularity with teammates as reasons why the move made sense for both sides, particularly as the Sounders try and deal with injuries and national-team absences for the upcoming stretch of the MLS season.
“The guys who played with him really liked him,” Schmid said. “So I think he’ll fit in well. He’ll be a good character guy for our locker room.”
“He’s a player that’s really familiar to our club, to our locker room, to our coaching staff,” added Lagerwey. “That’s really important to us; particularly when you make midseason signings, you want basic stuff. Like, ideally, they speak English or have played out of their own country. Erik is much more than that. He’s actually played on our team. … I think he’ll be an important guy in our locker room, as well as on the field.”
As for the skills he can bring on the field, Lagerwey pointed to Friberg’s versatility as his most appealing asset. Friberg can play all four midfield positions, making him a movable piece should the Sounders find themselves hurting for depth in any of those areas.
“Having a guy who’s flexible like Friberg and can play a number of spots really helps us,” Lagerwey said. “We really think the [midfield] group as a whole is going to be better. We’ve just gotten through this run where we’re playing twice a week and, honestly, got really [physically] beat to heck. We’re going to head into August where we’re going to play twice a week virtually every week.
“We have three Champions League games in August along with our regular schedule, so we need bodies. We need bodies in the engine room. Those are the guys who do all the running in our system, all four of those midfielders. We’re going to need a lot of guys to be able to handle that stretch in August.”
