Book Review - “The Sound and the Glory” by Matt Pentz
“ .. we’re a little bit up here in the Northwest, counterculture, smaller-city attitude, and having big stars isn’t that important to us. Having quality people is important.” - Adrian Hanauer, Chapter 7
Matt Pentz’s “The Sound and the Glory” is the captivating chronicle of the Seattle Sounders’ ascent to their first MLS cup in 2016. The book brings to life the Sounders’ historic, deep ties to Seattle’s soccer community, dating back to the days of the NASL and weaves together the personal and at times poignant stories of the individuals who shaped the team’s journey. Rich with first-person accounts from the players, coaches, business managers, Pentz delivers an engrossing journalistic piece that solidifies the Sounders’ rightful claim as an all-around, world-class soccer organization on and off the pitch.
It is easy - almost obligatory - to think of a previous recounting of the Sounders’ history as a sort of predecessor to Pentz’s “The Sound and The Glory”. Mike Gastineau’s “Authentic Masterpiece” told how the Sounders came to be as an MLS club in 2009, evolving from - if not at times struggling through - the NASL and the USL. Indeed, among others, owners Adrian Hanauer and Joe Roth, player Brad Evans, and inaugural coach Sigi Schmid reprise their “Masterpiece” storytelling in “Glory.” But while at times Gastineau’s “Masterpiece” reaches celebratory tones in recounting the Sounders’ successful - or was it triumphant? - franchise launch, the pages of “Glory” remain firmly grounded in the raw, unvarnished day-to-day realities of professional soccer in the United States.
Starting in the summer of 2016, when the mood in the Sounders organization and with the team was as overcast as the Seattle sky, the book draws us back in time and into the personal stories of the main characters. We meet coach Sigi Schmid, the son of a German immigrant, a meticulous note-taker tirelessly devoted to improving his craft and his players, we almost feel the weight he must have felt when he sensed his looming sacking coming that summer. We meet Seattle’s homeboy Jordan Morris on his journey from local youth soccer to National team prospect, and we empathize with the crushing pressure put on him while he labored through the career-defining choice to stay in the US and play in the MLS rather than seeking the affirmation and pedigree that the Bundesliga could provide him.
And so on, the human stories intersect, the players, coaches, and managers an ensemble cast in Pentz’s engaging storytelling. We learn of Clint Dempsey’s humble Texas beginnings; of Paraguayan Nelson Valdez’s early days as a functionally homeless professional soccer player; of Swiss-native goalkeeper - and serious amateur painter - Stefan Frei’s initial refusal of and resentment toward American culture, followed by an activist embrace of his adoptive country’s political and social discourse. Osvaldo Alonso’s defection from Cuba by way of a daring escape from a Florida Walmart during the Cuban National Team’s appearance in the 2007 Gold Cup is the story of many immigrants who hopped on a bus .. and just kept going.
These individual stories unfold in the context of the early history of Major League Soccer, the professional league started in 1996 from the ashes of the North American Soccer League. Major in name only at that time, with then-players telling “vivid tales of paltry salaries and cheap, greasy team meals and fleabag motels. They were professional in name only, closer to semi-pro than they were to athletes in the other major North American leagues.” It is in this context that Brad Evans - the skateboarder turned soccer player - was earning a paltry $13,000 per year as a professional player, his grandmother sending him food cards so he could buy food.
By the time “The Sound and the Glory” weaves back to the summer of 2016, we have empathized with the individuals and understood the historical context in which their professional soccer careers were unfolding. The Sounders are low in the table and face the almost impossible task of making the playoffs, a bare minimum goal that they had never failed to meet in their 10-year history. The book shifts gears, and so do the Sounders. Under the leadership of newly arrived Uruguayan star NIco Lodeiro and newly promoted head coach Brian Schmetzer, the Sounders string together enough wins to make the playoffs, and then continue their successful run, culminating in the win during the penalty shootout after a scoreless MLS Cup final.
But this is not a rags-to-riches story of the individual, or the usual underdog-conquers-the-challenge triumph of an underrated team. It is the story of an imperfect achievement by a team that was already highly regarded, but had not yet won the big prize. The Sounders arrive at the final plagued by injuries and absences, cannot not field their best eleven, and the ones on the pitch are not totally healthy. The game plan was simple: grit and determination to survive the technically gifted Toronto squad’s assault. They manage exactly three shots, none of them on target, compared to Toronto’s 19 shots. Seven of Toronto’s shots landed on target, but are saved by former Toronto goalkeeper Stefan Frei, including “The Save” on Jozy Altidore’s header. It was not a pretty triumph, but perhaps, as soccer goes, it was a perfect one after all.
It is fitting, in the end, that Matt Pentz chooses for the final chapter of “The Sound and the Glory” not the triumphant return of the team to Seattle after the 2016 final, but rather the Sounders’ loss in the final the following year, also against Toronto, at the end of a top-notch regular season. It keeps us grounded in the realities of the game and the imperfections of the humans who choose it as their life work. It is a reminder that even as the players and coaches and staff toil toward glory, so much of the game remains random, and so much of winning rests on being able to ride the ups and downs, to keep going, to play hard, to dare to change. The Sounders did just that, and solidified Seattle’s world-class soccer status, where quality people, not necessarily superstars, persist. Matt Pentz’s book exudes grit, that rain-soaked grit we appreciate up here in Seattle, where every week thousands of kids brave the rain to be on the pitch, and their parents brave the cold and wait patiently by the sidelines, and hundreds of badly-paid coaches channel Sigi Schmid and Brian Schmetzer with their dedication to the young players. I love this game.