Seattle’s own is staying home. The Sounders on Wednesday announced a long-term contract extension for Homegrown forward Jordan Morris, who is entering his eighth professional season in Major League Soccer.
Morris, 28, has 42 goals and 24 assists in 136 career MLS regular-season appearances and another six goals and three assists in 17 postseason matches. His signing from Stanford in 2016 coincided with Sounders dominance over the better part of a decade.
The Mercer Island, Wash., native has helped lead the Sounders to two MLS Cup trophies, four Western Conference titles and the Concacaf Champions League crown. He has been named MLS Rookie of the Year, MLS Comeback Player of the Year and MLS Best XI. He also represented the United States at this past winter’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
To celebrate Morris’ new contract, here are five of his best moments in Rave Green (in chronological order).
2016 WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
Morris capped his tremendous Rookie of the Year campaign, in which he scored 12 goals in the regular season, with the most important one of all. The Sounders entered Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo., with a 2-1 aggregate lead over the Rapids in the second leg of the Western Conference Championship. Morris had been battling an illness that week and not only managed to gut out a start, but he scored the go-ahead and ultimately match-winning goal in the 56th minute to send the Sounders to their first MLS Cup appearance.
2019 MLS SEASON-OPENER
Coming off a torn ACL that he suffered in the Sounders’ first Concacaf Champions League match a year prior, Morris delivered in storybook fashion. After falling behind early to MLS newcomers FC Cincinnati, Morris recorded a first-half brace that sent Seattle to a 4-1 home win. Morris scored 10 goals and added seven assists in just over 2,000 minutes in his bounce-back season, earning him MLS Comeback Player of the Year honors.
2019 WESTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFFS — FIRST ROUND
If Morris’ 2019 season started with promise, it ended with a bang. He punctuated his tremendously productive year with his first career hat trick in the opening round of the postseason against FC Dallas. In a dramatic back-and-forth affair, Morris scored the match-winner in extra time to help Seattle advance. The Sounders would go on to win their second MLS Cup in four years that season.
2020 HALF-FIELD GOAL VS. SAN JOSE
In one of the most dominant matches in franchise history, Morris pulled off one of his best individual goals of his career. He received the ball at midfield, and in San Jose’s man-marking system, Morris displayed his trademark speed and beat his defender Florian Jungwirth the entire half of the field before coolly depositing the opening goal inside four minutes. Morris would add two assists as well in a 7-1 rout of the Earthquakes.
2022 CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL
One of the best plays of Morris’ Sounders tenure wasn’t even a goal he scored. In the 80th minute of the second leg of last year’s Concacaf Champions League Final, the Sounders were clinging to a 1-0 lead (3-2 aggregate) at home against Pumas. Desperate for some breathing room to put the match away, Cristian Roldan sprung Morris on a beautiful through ball. Morris darted into open space, found Nicolás Lodeiro at the top of the box, and Lodeiro one-timed a pass to Raúl Ruidíaz, who doubled the lead. The play itself was a thing of counterattacking beauty and one of the most important goals in club history. Morris’ secondary assist iced what was eventually a 3-0 win and helped the Sounders become the first MLS team to win the modern iteration of CCL. Seattle will head to the FIFA Club World Cup for the first time next month.
