On Friday 02/17/2012 Seattle made a shock move by bringing in U.S. International Eddie Johnson from Montreal, in exchange for Mike Fucito and Lamar Neagle. The Sounders are getting a wealth of experience in Johnson, who the Impact took with their number one spot in the allocation order, and an “established forward with good pedigree” according to Sigi Schmid.
Eddie Johnson is a veteran of the U.S. International team, with 42 appearances and 12 goals, but with an outstanding youth record with 53 appearances and 37 goals over his U17, U20 and U23 career.
He started his football career as one of the youngest players to sign with the MLS seeing his time between 2001 – 2007 at FC Dallas and Kansas City. In this period it saw him see a lot of playing time and even led to a transfer to English Premier League side Fulham FC.
This was were Johnson saw a decline in his form and resulted in a number of loans around Europe, with no resemblance of his former self. One interesting goal he scored was his first for Greek side Aris Thessaloniki, where he nutmegs the goalkeeper, which is new team mate Michael Gspurning.
But now Eddie is part of the Seattle set up and Coach Sigi Schmid is hoping that he and fellow striker Freddy Montero become a perfect partnership. In a recent interview, Sigi said that he has been an admirer of Johnson for almost 10 years and he said that Johnson/Montero partnership was “going to give us a lot of joy by scoring a lot of goals.”
Johnson hasn’t got much time to get acquainted with his new teammates as they head off to Florida for a few days training, but he hopes to bring something different to the team. “I’m just hoping I can bring my experience to the team and work hard every day and try to accomplish the goals that the coach has set forth for the team this year,”
Some fans may be skeptical on the signing because of the loss of favorites Fucito and Neagle, and also because of Johnson’s non-successful past. But with a CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal match in his sights, Johnson will no doubt be fully determined to prove a point. And as Sigi said, “Good players catch on very quickly,” “It didn’t take Mauro Rosales long. It didn’t take Freddy Montero … it’s not going to take Eddie Johnson long.”
(image courtesy of Seattle Sounders FC)
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