Clint Dempsey's amazing time at the Sounders.

Dempsey will forever be an American soccer legend and you all know that. Tying Donovan's record of the most goals scored in a USMNT career (57) will forever ensure that. Along with many of the legendary moments, such as his goal to help us defeat Italy for only the 2nd time ever and even more, we'll get into it as we recap his time as a Seattle Sounder. 

In 2013, it was announced that Dempsey, after becoming a cult hero to those in London, England, who prefer black, white and red to anything else, and a failed stint at Tottenham, Dempsey was returning to his home country, but instead of playing for the New England Revolution where he started his career, he chose to take the yellow brick road to come to the Emerald City of Seattle, Washington. He was a DP player who came for a 9 million dollar fee and quickly proved to be worth every penny. Instead of his signature 8 shirt, he chose to start with the No.2 shirt in his debut against Toronto FC. Even DeAndre Yedlin moved to number 17 as he was the previous number 2 holder. 

But quickly into his Sounders stint, he wanted to give the city of London a proper goodbye. So he went on loan back to his old club Fulham for a handful of games. After no announcement was made, Dempsey returned to Seattle in the season opener on March 10, 2014 to face Sporting Kansas City in the season opener for 2014. And he quickly proved to everyone that he hadn't lost any of his quality. As early in the season, he scored a hat-trick against our rivals, the Portland Timbers, which began his return to form. Dempsey scored braces against FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids, leaving his goal tally at 8 in 5 games for 2014 and easily earned the MLS's Player of the Month award for April 2014. And not only was this a return to quality, but he was actually better than he ever was in his past MLS stint, showing that experience he gained in England. Both Dempsey's 16 goals and 7 assists were MLS career highs and this wasn't for nothing; this led the Sounders to a Supporters Shield victory. 

After Dempsey's hat-trick against the Timbers, he needed to do something really big to top that moment in 1 of the next derbies next season and in some ways you could say he did that. On June 16, 2015, in the 4th round of the U.S. Open Cup against the Portland Timbers, Dempsey was sent off for ripping up referee Daniel Radford's notebook in protest at the dismissal of Michael Azira. Showing his passion and leadership, but not in the best way, although to be honest, it was part of a team wide breakdown that game. As the Sounders finished the match with seven men, through three different dismissals and even an injury, they lost 1–3 at home. For the incident, Dempsey was given a 3-match suspension in the MLS, a fine and was banned from the Open Cup 2 years, in addition to a 2nd fine. Because 1 fine wasn't enough apparently. His form for 2015, while it wasn't as good, he still had 21 total goal contributions, which is of course impressive, with 12 goals and 9 assists in total for the MLS season. 

For 2016, his great and eventful season was cut short for tragic reasons, but did begin with its usual insanity and quality. With his game against the FC Dallas, perfectly recapping his time in the MLS, Dempsey started the game with his usual, excellent, as he scored and provided an assist on Jordan Morris's goal, 1 of his very 1st for the club. The young American striker is now a USMNT capped legend for the Sounders like Dempsey. But Dempsey then picked up his 1st MLS red card after putting his hands in the face of FC Dallas midfielder Juan Esteban Ortiz, after he struck Dempsey with a late challenge on him. Then on August 7th, he scored a hat-trick against Orlando City SC to get our 2nd road victory of the 2016 season, showing he was still the elite striker to lead the frontline of the Sounders attack. 

Dempsey played his last game of the season on August 21st (my birthday) against Portland, where he scored 2 goals away while simultaneously setting a franchise record for the most goals by a player against one team in MLS play, with the goals being his 7th and 8th. When he was rested for the next game against the Houston Dynamo, it was said to be a scheduled rest but later it was revealed that he was being benched for an irregular heartbeat. And after a brief return to training, it was announced that he was being benched for the rest of the season. And of course, there was a lot of concern that his career would end early. 

However, in the offseason, Dempsey was cleared to play again for the 2017 season. Helped by his fellow pro soccer player and Texas native Drew Moor, who plays for Toronto FC, whom he trained with as a youth who went through similar heart problems at a similar time. He performed like his season was cut off early, in 29 appearances and had 15 goals, one short of his career high and with 4 assists as well. He would advance to the MLS Cup final to face Toronto FC and his buddy Drew Moor to see who'll be crowned MLS Champions. It would be Toronto FC who took the crown 2-0 and while Dempsey wanted to give it 1 more shot, his body had different plans. In 2018, in his 14 appearances, he had a massive dip, only scoring 1 goal and had 1 assist and so he knew for everyone's sake it was time to hang up his cleats and did so. 

And so ended the career of 1 of the best Americans ever to do it. And somehow we were lucky to see do it in the green, blue and white before his career was up. Thanks a bunch for reading! 

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