As the Sounders FC gets set to open its season on Sunday against the New England Revolution, the club has a host of new broadcast talent. After reaching a new deal with local partners Q13 FOX and JOEtv and adding a new slate of programming, analysts were in demand and a number of local legends answered the call.
Joining the crew this season is former Sounders goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann and former midfielder Steve Zakuani. That pair joins an already stellar group that includes Ross Fletcher, Kasey Keller, Taylor Graham, Pete Fewing and Jackie Montgomery. To properly utilize this group of fantastic soccer minds, here at SoundersFC.com, we thought it'd work to have them contribute on the digital side of things. And thus, 'Off-Camera Observations' was born.
In the first installment, the one and only Marcus Hahnemann discusses the Sounders first match of the season, getting back into regular season form and what he expects from the New England Revolution on Sunday - all packaged nicely in three easily digestible observations.
On the Sounders Offseason:
You’ve added one outfield player, really, to the team: Tye [Mears]. I think he’s a great addition to the team. I think you’re going from the strength of the team and now you’ve just added a decent right back who had to replace DeAndre [Yedlin] and you’ve gained a lot of experience. Where DeAndre was, I mean, an awesome, exciting player to go forward…watching him, the stuff he would do was amazing, but I think we’ve actually really solidified our team a little bit.
When you lose a key player like that and you bring someone in that has some experience and you tend to not miss that much. That’s a massive key factor and then you look at the depth going around the team now…it’s incredible.
On New England's confidence after MLS Cup Final berth in 2014:
I think they’re going to be a little bit hungry… wanting to prove that they should have won their last game. We’re sitting there trying to figure out how we didn’t make the final. It’s going to be quite an interesting game .. I’m not even worried about them, I’m worried about how we’re going to play in that first game.
It’s just that whole preseason, get that out of you, and get in the rhythm of playing game. Training is training, but when you have the reserves…I think we had the first team playing against the reserves and the reserves may have even won that game. It’s a whole different scenario. You just need to get to games.
On getting into the regular season swing of things:
It all depends. I had some teams where it was like “Oh my gosh, what’s going to happen?” We had the best preseason of our lives, then we lost our first game and everyone thinks our season’s over then we don’t lose another game for 8 months or whatever it was, you know? That’s happened before.
You never quite know. The first game isn’t a tell-tale sign of what the whole season’s going to be like, but you want to get off to a good start, especially at home. You’ve got a lot of pressures from everybody. A new GM… all these different things. Everything matters.
It’s going to be interesting.
Check back next week ahead of the club's match against the San Jose Earthquakes when we rotate 'Off-Camera Observations' to focus on a different member of the Sounders FC broadcast team!
