Seattle and Boston are the terminuses of Interstate 90, located over 3,000 miles apart.
The two cities’ professional soccer teams, however, are much more connected to one another than their geographical locations suggest. As Sounders FC prepares to host the New England Revolution in its season opener, let’s take a look at how the two clubs are related.
Revolution players with ties to Seattle
New England boasts two young, attacking players that grew up in nearby Federal Way: Sean Okoli and Kelyn Rowe. Okoli, one of the first Homegrown Players in Sounders FC history, made three league appearances for the Rave Green and scored a goal in the fourth round of the 2014 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. His rights were traded to the Revolution on January 15.
Rowe, 23, is going into his fourth season with New England, the club that drafted him third overall in the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. He tallied 15 goals and 18 assists in his first three MLS seasons. As a freshman at Federal Way High School in 2007, Rowe led the Eagles to the 4A state championship game.
Sounders who played in New England
On January 16, 2004 the Revolution selected Furman University striker Clint Dempsey in the first round of the SuperDraft. Now a Designated Player for the Sounders, Dempsey played three seasons in New England before his seven-year stint in the Barclays Premier League. He scored 25 goals for the Revs, earning Rookie of the Year honors in 2004 and being named to the MLS Best XI in 2005 and 2006.
Fellow Sounders striker Chad Barrett was with the Revs in 2013, notching a pair of goals and assists in 19 appearances before signing with Seattle after the season.
U.S. National Team connection
Both the Sounders and the Revolution feature a player that was key in the U.S. Men’s National Team reaching the knockout stage of last summer’s World Cup. Dempsey and Revs midfielder Jermaine Jones played every second of all four USA matches in Brazil, other than the three minutes Dempsey sat out at the end of the team’s 2-2 draw with Portugal.
With over 18 million average viewers on ESPN, that Portugal game was the most-watched soccer match of all time in America. Who scored the USA’s two goals? Jones and Dempsey.
Following the National Team camp that he and Dempsey took part in last month, Jones had surgery to repair a sport hernia. He did not play in the recent Desert Diamond Cup, and his status for Sunday’s season opener is uncertain.
