Issue 16 | Sounders Monthly by Seattle Sounders FC

ISSUE 16 | SEPTEMBER 2018

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Xbox is a Proud Partner of Seattle Sounders FC

IN THIS ISSUE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF RYAN KRASNOO

CREATIVE DIRECTOR TY KREFT ASSISTANT EDITORS ROBERT CASNER ALEX CAULFIELD DANNY CIACCIO KELLY SCHUTZ MATT WINTER COVER ILLUSTRATOR DAN LEYDON CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS MIKE FIECHTNER JANE GERSHOVICH CORKY TREWIN LINDSEY WASSON QUINN WIDTH CHARIS WILSON GETTY IMAGES REUTERS USA TODAY SPORTS IMAGES

CLOSER LOOK

Brad Smith is welcomed to Seattle, Raúl Ruidíaz is larger than life and Nicolás Lodeiro phones home

2018 SCHEDULE

10 matches unbeaten and counting for the Rave Green

10 MEET THE TEAM

Get to know a little bit about your 2018 Sounders FC First Team

12 CONQUISTADOR

Víctor Rodríguez aims for MLS glory

WORDS BY FRANCO PANIZO

22 2018 GM VOTE

All the info you need for this year’s GM vote

WORDS BY ROBERT CASNER

24 BIG DATA

A foray into the Sounders' use of analytics

WORDS BY RYAN KRASNOO

32 SOCCER SAVED ME, CANCER MATURED ME © 2018 BY MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER, LLC AND SEATTLE SOCCER, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT OF SEATTLE SOCCER, LLC IS PROHIBITED. SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC 159 SOUTH JACKSON, SUITE 200 SEATTLE, WA 98104 887-MLS-GOAL SOUNDERSFC.COM

S2 midfielder details his battle overcoming cancer

WORDS BY RAY SAARI

38 10 QUESTIONS: CRISTIAN ROLDAN

Cristian Roldan opens up about his hidden talent, love of video games and more

CLOSER LOOK

AUGUST 6, 2018

Defender Brad Smith sits down for his first interview as a Seattle Sounder after joining the club on loan from Englandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s AFC Bournemouth.

AUGUST 9, 2018

Raúl Ruidíaz poses with a mural of himself painted by artist WeirdoCult in Capitol Hill.

AUGUST 12, 2018

Nicolás Lodeiro dials up his traditional “shoe-phone” celebration after his gamewinning goal against FC Dallas.

2018 SCHEDULE DATE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22 THURSDAY, MARCH 1 SUNDAY, MARCH 4 SUNDAY, MARCH 18 SATURDAY, MARCH 31 SUNDAY, APRIL 15 SUNDAY, APRIL 22 SUNDAY, APRIL 29 SATURDAY, MAY 5 WEDNESDAY, MAY 9 SUNDAY, MAY 13 SATURDAY, MAY 26 SATURDAY, JUNE 2 SATURDAY, JUNE 9 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13 SATURDAY, JUNE 23 SATURDAY, JUNE 30 WEDNESDAY, JULY 4 SATURDAY, JULY 7 SUNDAY, JULY 15 SATURDAY, JULY 21 WEDNESDAY, JULY 25 SUNDAY, JULY 29 SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 SUNDAY, AUGUST 12 SATURDAY, AUGUST 18 SUNDAY, AUGUST 26 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 MONDAY, OCTOBER 8 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28

OPPONENT

SANTA TECLA FC SANTA TECLA FC LAFC FC DALLAS MONTREAL IMPACT SPORTING KC MINNESOTA UNITED FC LAFC COLUMBUS CREW TORONTO FC PORTLAND TIMBERS REAL SALT LAKE REAL SALT LAKE D.C. UNITED NEW YORK RED BULLS CHICAGO FIRE PORTLAND TIMBERS COLORADO RAPIDS NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION ATLANTA UNITED FC VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES NEW YORK CITY FC MINNESOTA UNITED FC FC DALLAS LA GALAXY PORTLAND TIMBERS SPORTING KC VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC PHILADELPHIA UNION LA GALAXY COLORADO RAPIDS HOUSTON DYNAMO ORLANDO CITY SC HOUSTON DYNAMO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

TIME

WATCH ON

7:00 PM 7:00 PM 2:00 PM 2:00 PM 7:00 PM 1:00 PM 1:00 PM 6:00 PM 1:00 PM 4:30 PM 1:00 PM 2:00 PM 6:30 PM 7:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 1:30 PM 6:00 PM 4:30 PM 11:00 AM 1:00 PM 7:30 PM 2:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 1:00 PM 6:30 PM 1:00 PM 7:00 PM 8:00 PM 4:00 PM 1:00 PM 7:30 PM 4:30 PM 2:00 PM 1:30 PM

GO90 GO90 ESPN JOETV JOETV ESPN ESPN FS1 JOETV FS1 ESPN JOETV JOETV JOETV JOETV JOETV FOX JOETV JOETV FOX JOETV JOETV ESPN JOETV FS1 ESPN FS1 JOETV JOETV JOETV FS1 JOETV JOETV JOETV JOETV JOETV

RESULT L

1-2

4-0

0-1

0-3

0-1

2-2

3-1

0-1

0-0

2-1

0-1

0-2

2-1

1-2

1-1

2-3

2-1

0-0

1-1

2-0

1-0

3-1

2-1

5-0

1-0

3-1

MATCH DATES AND TIMES SUBJECT TO CHANGE. ALL TIME PACIFIC. MORE INFO AT SOUNDERSFC.COM/SCHEDULE. STREAM ALL MATCHES LIVE ON YOUTUBE TV 9

TONY ALFARO

OSVALDO ALONSO

#15 | DEFENDER

A: ORLANDO

#6 | MIDFIELDER

A: TORONTO

CALLE BROWN

#25 | GOALKEEPER

A: LOS ANGELES

WAYLON FRANCIS

STEFAN FREI

KIM KEE-HEE

KELVIN LEERDAM

JORDAN MORRIS

LAMAR NEAGLE

VÍCTOR RODRÍGUEZ

CRISTIAN ROLDAN

#90 | DEFENDER

#13 | FORWARD

#24 | GOALKEEPER

#27 | FORWARD

#20 | DEFENDER

#8 | MIDFIELDER

#18 | DEFENDER

#7 | MIDFIELDER

A: PORTLAND

GUSTAV SVENSSON #4 | MIDFIELDER

NOUHOU

#5 | DEFENDER

ROMÁN TORRES #29 | DEFENDER

HENRY WINGO

#23 | MIDFIELDER

Q: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MLS ROAD TRIP?

WILL BRUIN

#17 | FORWARD

HANDWALLA BWANA

JORDY DELEM

CLINT DEMPSEY

CHAD MARSHALL

JORDAN MCCRARY

BRYAN MEREDITH

#70 | MIDFIELDER

#21 | MIDFIELDER

#2 | FORWARD

A: VANCOUVER

NICOLÁS LODEIRO #10 | MIDFIELDER

#14 | DEFENDER

#30 | DEFENDER

#35 | GOALKEEPER

A: CHICAGO

ALEX ROLDAN

#16 | MIDFIELDER

RAÚL RUIDÍAZ #9 | FORWARD

TECHNICAL STAFF

HARRY SHIPP

BRAD SMITH

#19 | MIDFIELDER

#11 | DEFENDER

BRIAN SCHMETZER

DAMIAN RODEN

DJIMI TRAORE

RAVI RAMINENI

GENERAL MANAGER & PRESIDENT OF SOCCER

GONZALO PINEDA

JOHN HUTCHINSON

CHRIS HENDERSON

PREKI

WADE WEBBER

TOM DUTRA

MARC NICHOLLS

GARTH LAGERWEY

VP OF SOCCER & SPORTING DIRECTOR

HEAD COACH

ASSISTANT COACH ASSISTANT COACH ASSISTANT COACH

CLUB DIRECTOR OF GOALKEEPING

HIGH PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR DIRECTOR OF SOCCER ANALY TICS S2 HEAD COACH

S2 ASSISTANT COACH DIRECTOR OF PL AYER DEVELOPMENT

FROM SPA I N TO CENTURYLINK F I E L D VÍCTOR ROD RÍ G U E Z IS PRIM E D TO TAK E O VER

BY FRANCO PANIZO 13

RO D R Í G U E Z WITH B R A Z I L A N D PSG STAR N E Y M A R A F TER A L A L I GA M ATCH.

ON S E V E R A L O F H I S S CO U T I NG TRIPS TO SPAI N , S E AT T L E S O U N D E R S SPORTING DIRE C TO R & V I C E P R E S I D E N T OF SOCCER CHR I S H E N D E R S O N F O U N D HIMSELF ROU T I N E LY I M P R E S S E D BY ONE PERSON IN PA RT I C U L A R . T H E P L AY E R DID NOT S U I T U P F O R O N E O F L A LIGA’S PO W E R H O U S E S , B U T R AT H E R W A S ON THE BO O K S O F T E A M S AT T H E OTHER END OF T H E TA B L E , T H E O N E S R EGUL ARLY F IGH T I N G TO STAV E O F F R E L EGAT ION . 14

THE BRASS SOLD ME ON A TEAM THAT IS VERY COMPETITIVE THAT CAN FIGHT FOR THE TITLE. THAT'S WHAT REALLY DROVE ME TO COME TO SEATTLE. MIDFIELDER VÍCTOR RODRÍGUEZ

Time and again, the player caught Henderson’s eye with a delicate touch, an elegant smoothness on the ball, constant movement off it, a strong work rate and an overall deep understanding of the game. His name was Víctor Rodríguez. “What intrigued me about him initially was he was playing for a lower team in La Liga and that’s really difficult to do: to be a player who stands out and plays well,” said Henderson. “Every game you’ve got to play a certain way when you’re playing Sevilla and Valencia and Real Madrid and Barcelona when most of the time you don’t have the ball. “I thought, ‘Man, if you could take him out of that and put him on a team that keeps the ball and is a good team, he could really excel.’”

Henderson was so fascinated that he tracked Rodríguez over the course of a few years — at stops with Elche, Getafe and Sporting Gijón — before convincing the Spanish midfielder to sign with the Sounders in August 2017 with the use of Targeted Allocation Money. Rodríguez could have easily opted to stay in his native land, but what persuaded him to uproot himself was the potential to have a career opportunity that he, and anyone not playing for Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid, would never experience back home. With the Sounders, he could compete for a championship. “The brass sold me on a thrilling project, a team that is very competitive that can fight for the title,” said Rodríguez, whose 15

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[RODRÍGUEZ] REMINDED ME SO MUCH OF AN OLD TEAMMATE, TAB RAMOS, IN THE WAY HE MOVED, THE WAY HE PLAYED. S O UNDERS F C SPORTING DIRECTOR & V P OF SOCCER CH R I S H END ERS O N

profound desire to win in MLS is palpable. “That’s what really drove me to choose to come to Seattle.” Since landing in the Emerald City last summer, the 29-year-old winger has shown flashes of the quality that impressed Henderson and likened to a former U.S. men’s national team star. “He reminded me so much of an old teammate, Tab Ramos, in the way he moved, the way he played, his acceleration,” said Henderson. Rodríguez has not, however, been able to consistently demonstrate his abilities to the rest of MLS. In addition to going through an adaptation period on and off the field in 2017 that limited him to just seven starts in 11 matches, he has suffered injuries that have kept him off the field for large periods this year. Rodríguez is now fully settled in Seattle with his family, and the Sounders are confident that the best is yet to come from their technical veteran.” “The more [Rodríguez] can consistently stay on the field, the better we’re all going to be because he’s the type of player who plays in combinations,” says Sounders General Manager & President of Soccer Garth

Lagerwey. “The more minutes he gets with [Raúl] Ruidíaz, the more minutes he gets with Nicolás Lodeiro, the more minutes he gets with Brad Smith, and Cristian Roldan, etc. etc. that’s going to make the group better.” The Spaniard fondly remembers walking out to the field at CenturyLink Field for his first game as a Sounders player and being surprised by the passionate support in the stands. He knows there is a real hunger for soccer in the city, and wants to give back to the fans by performing well so that he can win their admiration much in the same way that he did with Henderson. If the Barcelona native can avoid picking up any more knocks, he should have no problem making a bigger impression on the club’s supporters. His sophisticated touch and calmness on the ball are easy on the eyes and his hardworking nature on the defensive side makes for an admirable trait. Few observers may currently know that Rodríguez is as strong a two-way player as he is. In a postseason match last year against the Houston Dynamo, for instance, he made a 40-yard sprint to make two successive tackles deep in Seattle’s half. Those abilities were all developed during his formative years in Spain, where he played in Barcelona’s La Masia academy from ages 11 17

to 15. Rodríguez recalls that “magnificent” period of his life vividly, including how fun, but long, the days were. “We went to school in the morning and then a taxi would come pick me and other kids up,” recalled Rodríguez. “I remember the taxi would pick up a lot of kids in the Sabadell area where I was from and then we would go train, and we’d practice until five or six in the evening. Afterwards, the taxi would take you back home and you’d have to do mandatory homework until 11 because Barcelona also required you to do schoolwork regarding the practices but in written form. You would then go to sleep, and wake up the next day to do it all over again.” Those early years molded Rodríguez into a player who could cut it in La Liga, one of the most technical and talented leagues in the world. He might not have ended up playing for Barcelona or any of Spain’s other juggernauts, but nonetheless, he carved out a respectable career that saw him make more than 100 league appearances before impressing Seattle’s front office and making the move stateside. “The one thing off the ball was that I felt he could play both transition and possession,” said Henderson of Rodríguez. “Sometimes

people are only one or the other. Sometimes they’re counterattacking or possession types. I think he adjusts to both and I just loved his reaction. If he lost the ball, he’s quick enough that his first response is, ‘How can I win it back?’” Rodríguez shares a similar approach with regards to lifting a trophy with the Sounders. He was not yet a member of the club when it captured the 2016 MLS Cup and came agonizingly close last year before falling to Toronto FC in the championship match. The painful feeling from suffering that defeat still remains, but so too do the Spaniard’s hopes of becoming a champion with the Sounders. Rodríguez might not have won his first career title yet, but he is eager to change that in the near future. After all, that is why he chose Seattle in the first place. “It leaves you with a thorn in your side and with a desire to want to win it the next year so you can flip the script,” said Rodríguez. “But in the end you always learn from bad moments and hopefully this season we can get back to the final so we can grab the chance by its horns and win it this year.”

HOPEFULLY THIS SEASON WE CAN GET BACK TO THE FINAL SO WE CAN GRAB THE CHANCE BY ITS HORNS. M ID F IE LD ER VÍ CTOR ROD R Í GU EZ

SCARVES UP! LIKE, 30,000 FEET UP. OFFICIAL AIRLINE

BY ROBERT CASNER

SINCE THE CLUB’S MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER DEBUT 10 SEASONS AGO, THE SEATTLE SOUNDERS FRANCHISE HAS BEEN ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY. On-field success, a difficult task for an expansion team in its early years, came immediately in the form of three U.S. Open Cups in the team’s first three seasons. Off the pitch, the club set attendance record after attendance record including a record-setting 66,848 fans at then-Qwest Field to watch the Rave Green take on FC Barcelona. Seattle had reconfigured what an expansion sports team could look like. But, before any of the on-and off-field successes became visible, the Sounders’ ownership group had installed a unique mechanism unheard of in professional sports. Drew Carey made it a condition of his joining 22

the Sounders ownership group that fans have a say in the direction of the club. There was to be a guiding principle of “Democracy in Sports” that deepened the relationship between the clubs and its fans. This involvement came to fruition with the creation of the Alliance and Alliance Council. Generally every four years, Alliance Council and Alliance members have the ability to vote to retain or remove the club’s general manager. Through the purchase of season tickets, fans are granted membership in the Alliance and receive all associated benefits. This includes full-season package holders, half-season package holders and suite holders. “I'm very excited about what we're doing here in Seattle,” said Carey in 2009. “Where else can the fans fire the general manager? I hope this becomes a model for every professional sports organization in America.” Fast forward to 2018, and for the second time in the club’s MLS history, Alliance Members have the unique opportunity to cast a vote of retention or lack of confidence in General Manager & President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey. “It was important for me to do [the GM vote], because that’s the only reason I wanted to be a part of the Ownership Group in the first

place,” said Carey. “If they would have said, ‘No, we don’t want to do that,’ I wouldn’t have been a part of the Ownership Group. It was very important to me. There’s no other fan base in the country that can do that for any other sport — have the opportunity to get rid of the GM if they don’t like what’s going on.” In 2012, the club held its first GM Vote. Owner and then-General Manager Adrian Hanauer earned a 96.3 percent approval rating of 13,775 votes cast by Alliance members. Lagerwey was hired prior to the 2015 season, marking 2018 as his fourth full season as GM and providing an opportunity for fans to vote on his retention. For the final tally to be considered, the bylaws state that 40 percent of eligible Alliance members must cast a vote. In order for a vote of no confidence to move forward, it must be chosen by the super-majority of no less than 67 percent of all votes cast. The vote is also weighted meaning that each Season Ticket Member holds as many votes as seats owned.

“This is really like a fail-safe system for when things are going badly,” added Carey. “It’s to keep the fans from divorcing the team and quit participating in the team. It’s better than writing a letter to the editor, it’s better than [to] quit buying tickets, it’s better than complaining on a message board. Like all the stuff you do as a fan if you’re a fan of other teams that’s all you get to do is complain in a letter or complain to your friends on a message board or send a tweet.” The 2018 GM Vote will run from Sept. 19 to Oct. 17 with eligible members able to cast their votes online at www.SoundersFC.com/ GMVote or in person at CenturyLink Field during the team’s home matches on Sept. 19, Sept. 29 or Oct. 8. Added Carey: “This is the strongest message you can send to a team. It’s a big responsibility they have, it’s not some joke. I hope they treat it as seriously as it is because you’re going to cost somebody his job or not and change the whole direction of the team or not."

THIS IS THE STRONGEST MESSAGE YOU CAN SEND TO A TEAM. IT'S A BIG RESPONSIBILITY THEY HAVE, IT'S NOT SOME JOKE. S O U N D E R S F C O WNER D R EW CAR EY

HIGH PERF ORMANCE DIRECTOR DAMIAN RODEN, LEFT, PREPARES A TRAINING SESSION WITH HEAD STRENG TH AND CONDITIONING COAC H S EA N MU LDO O N.

H O W T HE S O U N D ERS' USE O F A N ALY TICS I S D R I VING O N - F I E LD P E R F O R M ANCE

BY RYAN KRASNOO

HEAD TO STA R F I R E S P O RT S CO M P L E X IN TUKWIL A , W A SH . , O N A N Y DAY T H E S E AT T L E S O UNDERS ARE TRAIN I N G A N D K E E P YO U R E A R S O P E N. AMID THE CACO P H O N Y O F COAC H E S B A R K I N G I N STRUCTIONS AND PL AYE R S CO M M U N I CAT I N G , L I ST E N F OR A STEADY HUM, A CON STA N T B U Z Z I N G . H I G H A BO V E T HE PRACTICE FIELD S , V I D E O A N A LYST TO M C H I L D S FLIES A DRONE, RE COR DING E V E RY D R I L L , EV ERY P L AYE R’S MO VE ME N T. The information the drone records is used to give players and coaches comprehensive visual feedback to see what they got right and what can be improved. The drone is a massive advancement from a handheld camera on a tripod, what Childs used when he first started.

help Tenney with special projects. The two would meet at a Starbucks, Tenney would give Ramineni raw numbers and a few weeks later they would reconvene to discuss his findings. By the end of 2012, Ramineni had quit his job at Microsoft and Tenney and the coaching staff wanted his services.

“My recollection of drone footage was from Afghanistan,” said Childs, who at one time served in the British Royal Artillery as a Lance Bombardier. “It was very shaky. But [our drone] is very still, a very stable camera with 4K footage, so it’s very good quality. You can go back 10 years and a lot of clubs didn’t have any of this stuff. The Seattle Sounders are definitely a world-leader in that sense. They embrace the data, they embrace the video and I’ve never met a staff that is this willing to take data on board in the decisionmaking process.”

“The first year was interesting when I came in because there was no infrastructure,” Ramineni said. “There was no database or website or anything, so I started building that.”

The drone is relatively new, another high-tech instrument in an ever-growing collection at the club. The Sounders’ data surge has been spearheaded by Ravi Ramineni, a former Microsoft data analyst with a background in computer science who joined the club full time ahead of the 2013 season. Through his wife, Sarah, who does data analytics for English Premier League club Arsenal, he met former Sounders High Performance Director Dave Tenney. Ramineni had been interested in soccer analytics for quite some time, and he would occasionally

THEY EMBRACE THE DATA, AND I’VE NEVER MET A STAFF THIS WILLING TO TAKE DATA ON BOARD IN THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS. VIDEO ANALYST TOM CHILDS

There are three main components to Ramineni’s job. The first is helping General Manager & President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey and the scouting team find new players. The second is helping coaches and players prepare for the next opponent. And the third is general sports science and monitoring training loads. He and his team collect data through GPS and heart rate trackers, software that Ramineni created with the help of Tenney to take that information and formulate reports. Now Ramineni works closely with Tenney’s successor, Damian Roden, who joined the club from England’s Stoke City ahead of this season. While at Manchester City, Roden met Tenney and the two spent time discussing different sports science approaches and techniques. “From afar before I came here, Seattle was the one driving the development of sports science in MLS,” said Roden. “From the manager to the general manager to the owner, they’re all invested and very open-minded in new ideas that are going to enhance the performance of the team.” Roden’s main responsibility is to break the year down into smaller pieces and develop daily and weekly sessions so that

throughout the season, the team starts off at a certain point and peaks during the playoffs. To do that, Roden and his staff dictate the players’ diets, what they need to do to prepare and recover from training and general exercises to improve their speed, power, strength and endurance. “We have to plan the team component, but also consider all the individual needs, how they respond, so [Head Coach] Brian [Schmetzer] has every player available for selection on [matchday],” said Roden. “The last three or four months, we’ve been quite good at achieving that.” Data collected from training sessions and matches goes a long way in determining how Roden approaches a given week. He utilizes “readiness testing” to see how players respond from a game, so when he wants to push them during the following week, he knows how a given player’s body has responded. It influences how hard they can go and whether they might need to ease back in order to remain healthy and available.

FROM AFAR BEFORE I CAME HERE, SEATTLE WAS THE ONE DRIVING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPORTS SCIENCE IN MLS. HIGH PERF ORMANCE DIRECTOR DAMIAN RODEN

RO D E N W A R M S U P W I T H N I CO L Á S LO D E I RO D UR I NG A PR E S E A S O N T R A I NI NG S E S S I O N .

I ALWAYS TRY TO GIVE A NUANCED EXPLANATION. I TRY TO SEE WHAT THE LINK IS BETWEEN WHAT HAPPENS ON THE FIELD AND WHAT THE NUMBERS ARE SAYING. DIRECTOR OF SOCCER ANALY TICS RAVI RAMINENI “For example, two players in the same position will have totally different data having done the same session, but on your eye, you know you’ve got what you wanted them to get,” Roden said. “It’s just how their body responds, and everybody is built differently. You’ve got to see it and then have the data to back it up.” Roden works closely with Ramineni, as well as with Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Sean Muldoon and Performance Data Analyst Amber Rowell. It’s a completely interdisciplinary approach. When analyzing complex data, though, the most difficult part of Ramineni’s job is communication, how to translate information into layman’s terms for people who aren’t fluent in what can be an intricate analysis. “The question that I always get from coaches that I’ve learned to answer first is, ‘What can I do with this?’” Ramineni said. “Instead of giving raw numbers, I always try to give a nuanced explanation. I try to see what the link is between what happens on the field and what the numbers are saying. I try to present it to them in their language. It’s a learning process.” Another question most coaches ask immediately is how to fix the problems that the data has presented. Data can be descriptive, predictive and prescriptive.

Descriptive data tells what happened, while predictive data can forecast future events. Prescriptive data, how to apply what the information is saying, is the hardest one to get right. “When Tom and I are filming the game, we don’t really get excited for every goal we score, but we get excited for every chance we create a certain way because that’s what we prescribe,” said Ramineni. “We want [the players] to repeat certain patterns or behaviors because that’s what’s going to sustain the success longer.” Ramineni is excited about where the future of technology in soccer is headed. During this past FIFA World Cup in Russia, for the first time teams were allowed direct communication between the benches and the coaches’ booth upstairs. Staffs could even send videos and pictures down to the field in real time. “What I see 10 years from now is the head coach sitting higher because I think he gets a better view of what’s happening,” said Ramineni. “You may identify something much earlier [from above] than from field level. “Someone like me will get more and more integrated into a coaching staff [in the future],” he added. “Right now, we have really good integration, and you’ll see that more often.”

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NOW IN HIS FOURTH PROFESSIONAL SEASON, CRISTIAN ROLDAN IS ENJOYING YET ANOTHER STRONG YEAR, SCORING THREE GOALS AND ADDING FIVE ASSISTS SO FAR AS A CONSTANT IN THE SOUNDERS' MIDFIELD. 38

01. I WISH MY NICKNAME WAS

02. MY SECRET TALENT IS

03. MY TEAMMATE WITH THE BEST FASHION GAME IS

04. STEFAN FREI MAKES ME L AUGH WHEN

05. I AM THE BEST ON THE TEAM AT

06. JORDAN AND CRISTIAN REALLY NEED TO

07. MY FAVORITE MLS STADIUM ON THE ROAD IS

08. I HAVE AN EXTREME FEAR OF

09. IF I COULD HAVE ANY SUPERPOWER IT W OULD BE

10. THE GREATEST SOUNDER OF ALL TIME IS

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