Former Chelsea, Barcelona and Iceland national team star Eidur Gudjohnsen is scheduled to fly home today.
Before leaving, he gave Seattle Sounders FC something to remember him by: the opening goal in Seattle’s 4-2 win over Chivas USA in an MLS Reserve League match Sunday at Starfire Sports Stadium in Tukwila.
Gudjohnsen was not available to the media after his get-to-know-each-other week with the Sounders. However, general manager Adrian Hanauer said the return to Iceland is not necessarily an indication that the club won’t sign him.
“(Saturday) is the roster freeze, so by then something will be figured out for sure,” Hanauer said. “But we’re going to sit down with (him) and his representation and see what opportunities there might be. … He would probably go back whether he was signed or not signed, to get himself organized. But again, we’ve got our work cut out for us to try to come up with a way to keep him.”
Hanauer was similarly noncommittal about plans for defender George Ogararu, a Romanian international who played 2006-10 at Ajax of Netherlands. He played the final 45 minutes of the reserves match.
“We’re always going to try to make the team better,” Hanauer said. “When there are opportunities to get good players in on trial, we’re going to do it. Beyond that, we’ll have our own internal discussions and figure out where we are with this year’s roster and beyond.”
Ogararu said he had watched the Sounders MLS first-team win over Chivas at CenturyLink Field on Saturday with Mauro Rosales, a former teammate with Ajax who sat out the match because of a quadriceps injury.
“He told me … it’s a fantastic club, and he was right” said Ogararu, who added he hopes to stay “as long as possible.”
Seattle’s other reserve goals were scored by Cordell Cato, Mike Seamon and Seth C’deBaca, who last played with USL Pittsburgh.
The next reserves match is Oct. 10, when San Jose visits Starfire. The first-team Sounders return to MLS action Saturday at Portland.
don.ruiz@thenewstribune.com 253-597-8808 blog.thenewstribune.com/soccer @donruiztnt
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