When Kevin Zelko was elected president of the Supporters’ Shield Foundation at the beginning of the year, he never would have imagined that he could potentially be handing the trophy to his favorite team.
Well, maybe he did imagine it, but it was definitely a dream scenario for the Seattle Sounders ticket holder and former president of supporters group Gorilla FC.
But that’s the situation he faces as he totes the trophy given to the MLS team with the best regular-season record from his home in Seattle to Los Angeles, where the Sounders have a chance to win it for the first time in Sunday’s game against the LA Galaxy (8 pm ET; ESPN2). The two teams are tied on points in the Shield standings, and a win on Sunday would guarantee the trophy for the Sounders on the total wins tiebreaker at the very least.
“I never would have imagined that in the six years the Sounders have been around that we’d be up for the biggest award, in my opinion, in MLS,” Zelko told MLSsoccer.com in a phone interview Friday. “This team is still kind of a new team, and it would be really fascinating; the Shield has so much history to it.”
Zelko was part of the group, the Independent Supporters Council, that recreated the Shield two years ago into its current form: a $17,000 trophy that is literally passed from supporters’ groups to supporters’ groups depending on whose team wins it.
This year, Zelko received the trophy via FedEx from Amanda Reichert, a member of the Empire Supporters Club who were guarding it for the 2013 winners, the New York Red Bulls. He’ll be accompanied by “Brownie,” the representative from the Galaxy supporters group Angel City Brigade, as they bring it into StubHub Center on Sunday.
Zelko will check the Shield, housed in a case covered in stickers from all of MLS’s supporters groups, for his flight from Seattle to LA. And he’ll be a part of the presentation – and celebration – should Seattle come away with a victory.
Of course, if the Galaxy win, the Shield will make the trip back up Seattle for the second of the teams’ home-and-home series to wrap up the season.
“It’s crazy that it really came down to the last two games and crazy that the two teams that play each other are the two teams that could win it,” he said.
Zelko said that when the Shield was recreated, it made a tour around the country to raise money through scarf sales for its upkeep and travel expenses. He said that has made it possible for it to literally be a trophy created by and for supporters.
“Just being involved with how to get the Shield from the previous year’s winners to this year’s winners and maintaining the paperwork with the Shield and handling social media and marketing has been fun,” he said.
