SEATTLE — The preseason had not gone how Paul Rothrock hoped or expected.
After briefly testing free agency and turning down more lucrative offers to return to the Seattle Sounders, Rothrock found himself mostly playing with the reserves. In the final preseason game, he was relegated to a split-squad game where he started at left back.
It felt a far cry from the seemingly star-making performances of last year that turned him into a cult hero, if not necessarily a club legend.
Prior to the Sounders’ regular-season opener, Rothrock decided he needed a mental reset. Wearing white Beats headphones and his warm-ups, Rothrock walked out to the Lumen Field turf all alone. With a soccer ball in his hands and standing in the nearly empty stadium, the Seattle native used the moment to remind himself that this was exactly where he wanted to be.
“I was just taking it in,” Rothrock explained. “Lumen has a special magic to it. I was just appreciating that for a minute.”
Playing in his headphones was a song that suddenly is having quite a moment. Donna Summer’s 1978 hit “MacArthur Park Suite” is currently one of the most downloaded songs on the internet, thanks to its starring role in Alysa Liu’s gold-medal-clinching free skate at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
It wasn’t just a catchy tune. Rothrock said he found inspiration in Liu’s performance and story. Liu, one of her sport’s brightest stars, retired from ice skating at 16 due to burnout. After taking a couple of years off, she returned two years ago with a newfound freedom. She translated that into a nearly flawless free skate that she punctuated by telling the camera “That’s what I’m f-ing talking about.”
“I was trying to play on that a little bit today,” Rothrock said. “Just going in free and going in for the joy of it. Just making connections with the guys and not thinking about objectives and results, and just enjoying it.”
Whatever the reason, Rothrock may need to make this part of his regular routine.
Although he didn’t start, Rothrock still had the biggest impact on the match, coming off the bench to assist on the first goal and score the second in what was ultimately a 2-0 Sounders win over the Colorado Rapids in both teams’ MLS season opener on Sunday.
“That kid is always ready,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “That could have been a statement to me. Like, ‘You know what, coach? I should be in there.’
“I admire that. I appreciate that. He had a really, really good performance tonight.”
Both goals showcased almost perfectly what Rothrock’s game is all about.
The assist came just a couple minutes after he entered the game as a replacement for the injured Jordan Morris. Jesús Ferreira overcooked a cross that looked to be heading out of bounds. But Rothrock didn’t give up on it, surprising even himself when he managed to get just enough of a touch to keep it in bounds.
He then pushed himself off the ad boards to recover the ball, took one touch to settle, picked up his head and bent in a perfectly weighted cross to a late-arriving Albert Rusnák, who hit a glancing header inside the far post.
“It caught me off guard, so it probably caught [the defender] off guard as well,” Rothrock said. “I think the game is won in some of those moments. Schmetzer always talks about making plays and I think that was a good example of that. There were a lot of plays made by a lot of guys tonight.”
Another one came almost immediately, as it looked like the Sounders might run the Rapids out of the stadium. Just two minutes after the opening goal, Hassani Dotson poked in a rebound off an Alex Roldan volley that appeared to give the Sounders a 2-0 lead while their press was barely allowing the Rapids to get out of their own end. But after a four-minute delay, VAR disallowed the goal.
The Sounders seemed to catch another break almost immediately after that when Noah Cobb was shown a red card for his violent collision with Rothrock. Another four-minute review followed, and again the call was rescinded.
At that point, more than 10 minutes had elapsed since the Sounders first goal with only a few minutes of actual game action. Predictably, the life was sucked out of the match, which was then compounded when Dotson had to be removed late in first half stoppage time over fear of a concussion, prompting yet another lengthy delay.
But it was Rothrock who ensured those would be footnotes. Making a hard weak-side run, Rothrock ran onto Ferreira’s deflected cross and struck his shot first time. The left-footed attempt was hit so cleanly and with such force that Rapids goalkeeper Zack Steffen could barely get his hands up before the ball struck the back of the net.
Rothrock immediately turned to the crowd and pantomimed checking his watch before his teammates mobbed him.
Any tension lingering from the first-half frustrations felt immediately lifted.
It certainly wasn’t a performance on Liu-levels of perfection, but there was a symmetry in the way Rothrock let go of his frustrations and allowed himself to live in the moment.
One goal made of pure hustle, the other showcasing a bit more talent. In the span of a couple hours, Rothrock went from overlooked to unforgettable.
“I think that’s been a bit of my calling card, but I also think that’s part of this club,” Rothrock said. “I hope to try and embody some of the characteristics of this club, that it strives for, and has continued to show. That’s a part of my game, but it’s also part of the Sounders.”
