Want to hear from some of the notable names around the league? MLSsoccer.com contributor Sam Stejskal spent 10 minutes talking to Seattle Sounders veteran defender Zach Scott in the latest installment.
Scott, 34, is the longest tenured Sounder by a long shot. He joined the team in 2002, when the Sounders were still in the USL First Division, and spent the final six of the team’s last seven years in the second division as a regular starter. He stayed with the team after their transition to MLS in 2009 and has made 84 appearances (67 starts) along the back line.
Scott discussed the Sounders long-standing rivalry with the Portland Timbers, his perspective on the growth of MLS and his favorite moments during his time in Seattle.
Stejskal: You’ve been a part of the Sounders-Timbers rivalry for about as long as anyone. When you think of that rivalry – of all those matchups, of the fans, of the passion – what does it all mean to you?
Scott: It’s just really an epitome of what soccer in the US has become. It’s the premier rivalry in the entire league, in my opinion. You could even say that about any of the Cascadia matches between Vancouver and Portland or between Vancouver and us: That’s as passionate as it gets. A big part of it is not only the play on the field, but how the fans have embraced the entire rivalry. That’s something that people at other parts of the world look at and are impressed with.
Stejskal: How would you describe the rivalry to someone who isn’t familiar with it? What makes it so good? What makes it so meaningful?
Scott:
The easy way to describe it is that it’s almost like a big brother vs. little brother kind of fight – and who’s to say who the big brother is or who the little brother is? It’s one of those things where you’re so close in proximity between the three cities, it’s that love/hate relationship. You’re basically a part of the same culture up there in Cascadia, but for some reason or another, our views don’t align on a lot of things, and we take all that out on each other on the field.
Stejskal: You’ve had some pretty powerful quotes about this rivalry – and Portland – in the past. The one that sticks out the most, to me anyway, is this: “The one thing I know for certain is that we beat Portland. Period. We’re always going to be the team to beat. They can say there’s a changing of the guard, they can say we’re a group of stars and they’re the team, but in the end we’re the ones that are going to come out victorious.” Another one that catches the eye is, “Portland is not high on my list of things that I love.” I guess the questions is, do you seriously hate Portland? Why do get so intense about this?
Scott: God, it’s the years and years of playing against them and the intensity of that rivalry. It’s been something that has grown over the years and evolved, and something that I try to pass on to the younger guys coming in.
The intensity of it all, a lot of it is spurned on by how passionate our fan groups are. It’s mind-blowing. On the field, at the end of the day, we’re all a bunch of MLS players trying to make a living, and I’ve got nothing but respect for the guys on either team. Players have moved from the Sounders to the Timbers, from the Timbers to the Sounders and the same with the Whitecaps. In the end, we’re all buddies and good guys, but when you step on the field, it’s something else. You’re playing for your crest, for the respect of your fans and the respect of your city. I can’t say how huge that is.
Stejskal: Is there any one fan moment that sticks out? A tifo display, a bit of trash talk?
Scott: I think when you’re involved in a match and you’re starting and you know you’re going to be playing, I think a lot of that stuff gets pushed aside. It’s the times where I haven’t started in matches, where I’ve been on the sidelines and been able to kind of take in the surrounding a little more that it’s really dawned on me how amazing and how cool this is. Some of the tifos we have in Seattle, particularly when we’re playing Portland, are some of the most vivid ones. It really evokes an emotional response.
Stejskal: There have been so many great moments in this rivalry through the years. You’ve played a huge role in more than a few of them, perhaps never more than when you hit the winning penalty in a shootout against the Timbers in the 2010 Open Cup. You’re the final penalty taker, watching your teammates go through the shootout – Kasey Keller gets a couple saves, Patrick Ianni hits the bar right before you’re up – what was that experience like for you?
Scott: Any time you’re going to take a penalty, they want a guy that has confidence. And I wanted to take that kick. Sure, we had missed the one right before, but it’s something I wanted to be a part of, that moment. Fortunately it went in, but to know that we bumped Portland out of another tournament, especially one that’s important to them like the Open Cup, is something that was special not only personally, but I think as a team, we love doing.
Stejskal: Have you taken a penalty since?
Scott: I don’t think so. No, I haven’t for sure. That was the last one, fortunately.
Stejskal:
You made your pro Sounders debut way back in 2002 against the Timbers, coming off the bench in the second half in a 2-0 win after winning an open tryout to make the team. You actually played again the following day, helping the Sounders to a second straight win over the Timbers in consecutive days. What was that weekend like for you?
Scott: I remember very vividly playing in Memorial Stadium, right underneath the Space Needle on a converted football field, still with football lines on old Astroturf, and getting to come in at the very, very end of the game and being pretty amped up. I remember one of their forwards, a big guy, a big, veteran guy, looking back at me and saying, ‘What are you doing, kid?’ Because you know I was so pumped up, I think I was like giving him a bear hug or something, and the ball was on the other side of the field.
Then going down to Portland and playing the next day, they must have had 9,000 or so fans, and I was just thinking, ‘Wow, this is amazing, this is probably going to be as good as it gets in my career.’ Thirteen years later, it’s still going, and seeing the way it’s evolved, it’s mind-blowing. I couldn’t even – I couldn’t even tell you in my wildest dreams that that’s what I thought this was going to become. And who’s to say it’s not going to get something that gets even more special?
Stejskal: Moving away from you, there have been some great, broader moments in the rivalry. Roger Levesque scoring the goal and “chopping down” Nate Jaqua in the 2009 Open Cup; 60,000-plus crowds in Seattle; and, on the other side of the coin, the 2013 playoff series that Portland won. Of all those moments, do you have a favorite?
Scott: Probably the ones I enjoyed the most were some of the rivalry games in the USL days. Not to say that it was more passionate then, but it almost felt like it was on the field, because it did seem like there was an almost dislike between the players when we were playing in 2008, 2007, 2006. You really were playing for six months out of the year, and then the other six months you were coaching or working an accounting job or substitute teaching, so it was just a very unique situation.
But some of the craziest memories are the Roger Levesque goals and the knockout series games where we would come from behind and win, but all of them are so great and all of them kind of mesh into the others. There’s so many, it’s kind of mind-blowing.
Stejskal: With Portland riding high in 2013, then missing the playoffs last year, how do you think the rivalry will manifest itself this year? Do you think it’ll be any different, given that the Timbers are likely to be a little more desperate than they have been in the past?
Scott: The league, it’s so unique in that sense that from one year to the next, you can have missed the playoffs to you’re in the conference championship. There’s so much parity with the way the league is set up, I don’t think anybody holds too much weight with how somebody ended the year before. It’s a completely new year, and some of the teams that have done the best the year before have fallen off, and some of the teams that have been terrible are great teams.
The one thing I know is that you honestly can throw records out the window, though, when you play against Portland or Vancouver. Those games are intense, regardless of where we are in the standings.
Stejskal: You’ve won just about everything there is to win in American pro soccer, except for that one trophy, the biggest one: MLS Cup. What would it mean to you, to the team, to the city, to bring it home this year after being so close for so long?
Scott: It’d just be the culmination of so many hours of work, so much sacrifice from everybody off the field, to all the players on the field. Not only the guys that are on the team right now, but from years before of building up the Sounders brand. It’d be letting everyone in the league know that we’re the top team in MLS. That would be really the icing on the cake in a long career, one that I didn’t expect would last this long.
In the end, our goals don’t change from year to year. It’s always to be the best team and win championships and put trophies in our trophy case. That’s one that we haven’t gotten yet and one that we’re striving for more than anything else this year.
