Seattle’s Spencer Richey close to joining Sounders, report says

The Seattle Sounders will likely be bringing a couple locals back home this week. In addition to the expected signing of Kelyn Rowe, Sounder at Heart has confirmed that Spencer Richey will be joining the Sounders. The signing was first reported by The Athletic’s Jeff Rueter.

Like Rowe, Richey was a bit too old to have played in the Sounders Academy, instead playing youth soccer for Crossfire and the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. He then went to the University of Washington, where he spent five seasons — including a medical redshirt year.

Richey was drafted by the Vancouver Whitecaps in the third round of the 2015 MLS SuperDraft and spent parts of four seasons in their organization, mostly playing for their USL affiliate. He then moved to then-USL club FC Cincinnati in 2018 and showed well enough to make the move with them to MLS. Richey made 28 starts for Cincinnati over two seasons in MLS, but was stuck playing behind one of the worst defenses in the league.

In Seattle, he’ll likely be competing with Stefan Cleveland and Trey Muse to be Stefan Frei’s backup and could potentially see some time with the Tacoma Defiance. While it’s at least theoretically possible to have all four goalkeepers on the first-team roster, one of them is likely to be loaned to the Defiance for the entire year.