Earlier this week it was announced that former US youth national team player Sammy Ochoa had signed a deal with Major League Soccer, and that he would go through the allocation rankings much the same as a returning US international. Notably, this has been quite the season for returning US players, seeing the return of Kenny Cooper (to the Timbers), Jay Demerit (to the Whitecaps), Charlie Davies (to DC United), Benny Feilhaber (to the Revolution), and excluding Ochoa most recently Freddy Adu (to the Union). The Sounders managed to trade their way up in the rankings, trading their 2012 Super Draft third round pick to the Chicago Fire to move from sixth position up to fourth.
The Sounders have somewhat of an idea of what they're getting with Ochoa, having had the young striker on trial and given him play time in a Reserve League match, in which he netted a goal, earlier in the season. This acquisition isn't all that surprising seeing how the Sounders recently saw two deals on strikers playing over in Europe fall through in the last couple of days before the transfer window officially closed. According to Adrian Hanauer, the Sounders took a part in bringing Ochoa to the MLS. Hanauer also stated that the failing of the two deals wasn't a direct motivation for picking Ochoa up, the Sounders apparently maintained interest in picking him up after he had finished up his trial (source). Whatever the case, Ochoa will provide much-needed depth up top. In Schmid's words:
"He's a good back-to-goal player and a good finisher around the box, those are qualities that he's had. In all his time in Mexico he was in and out of the lineup because they had so many head coaches. So it was tough to establish a rhythm."
It will be great to see what sort of impact that Sammy can have up top, seeing how much the Sounders have struggled this season in scoring from strikers.
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