Editor's Note: SoundersFC.com is counting down the Top 10 Stories of the Year in December, recognizing the top storylines on and off the field in 2015. In the latest installment, we look back at the summer signing window and the impact those players made in the second half of the season.
Three signings. Eight days. One final push for the postseason.
Mired in one of the club’s worst stretches in seven years on the MLS map, Sounders FC found themselves suddenly struggling to keep up in July. Without a full stable of healthy players, the Sounders stumbled into a stretch of just one win in nine league games during the summer, and perilously close to losing out on the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
Enter the reinforcements. In a slew of signings over the span of roughly a week in early August, the Sounders picked up Austrian international Andreas Ivanschitz, Paraguayan World Cup veteran Nelson Valdez and hulking Panamanian center back Roman Torres. Those three moves – along with the June pickup of Swedish midfielder Erik Friberg, who played for the club in 2011 – ultimately helped fuel a nine-game unbeaten streak across all competitions to end the season and secure the team’s seventh straight berth in the MLS postseason.
Perhaps none of the three August signings made a larger impression on the field than Ivanschitz, a 31-year-old European veteran who the club had courted for years. Despite battling an injury shortly after his arrival that postponed his debut, Ivanschitz went on to secure the starting spot on the left wing and log a goal and an assist in Seattle’s six games down the stretch.
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He also contributed one of the most electric goals of the season in the Sounders’ 2-1 win over FC Dallas in the first leg of the Western Conference Semifinals, and proved with his work rate, experience and lethal accuracy on set pieces to be a vital pickup for this season and beyond.
Valdez, too, had his moments of brilliance. The 32-year-old forward battled a calf injury for much of the final stretch of the season and was forced to adapt to a role in the Sounders’ midfield for much of his time on the field, but he still managed to score a picture-perfect flicked header in his debut and add a scrappy finish in the Sounders’ cathartic win over the rival LA Galaxy in the Western Conference Knockout Round. He’ll be back in 2016 with a full preseason of training, and will likely be used on the right wing or up top.
Torres, meanwhile, still poses the most questions for the new year. He provided instant stability on the back line and looked every bit the part of an elite MLS center back in his first four games, but he suffered a devastating ACL injury in early September that forced him out for the stretch run and left his 2016 status in question. He’s since undergone successful surgery and begun rehabilitation with an eye on playing again next season, but the club has not put a timeline on his return.
Easily most encouraging for the club for next year, it has to be said, is the way the team’s group of established players embraced the trio of newcomers. Ivanschitz and Valdez both became instant fits in a room of veteran players, and the team showed their support for Torres after his injury with a very public display of encouragement on the long road to rehabilitation.
All things considered, there was no eight-day stretch in 2015 more formative than the one that landed the Sounders’ three newest internationals. And how those eight days shape the season to come could be one of the biggest storylines to watch in the new year.
