Rise Above (eBook)

FOREWORD

BY SIGI SCHMID

It was a rainy, cool evening in Columbus, Ohio. The date was November 7, 2008. I was going to the soccer stadium to watch Ohio State play the ranked men’s soccer team from the University of Akron. I was going to see Steve Zakuani primarily, although Akron had a lot of good players. I had been watching Steve since his first year, in 2007, at Akron. I had driven to Akron many times in 2007 and 2008 to see him play, part of college scouting for the Columbus Crew, who I worked for at the time as the head coach. I settled into a seat in the stands, made sure I was warm, and waited for the game to begin.

I knew Steve was a good player; he had shown that many times in the games I had seen him play. His speed, dribbling ability, and that deceptive first step. However, to make it at the next level, the pro level, you need something extra. Skill alone does not do it. At times, the collegiate game was too easy for him. He took some breaks. Did he have the character, the will, and the drive to be a pro?

Twelve minutes in Steve scored, and that score stood until halftime. Would it be another easy game for Akron? Would I see something special tonight? I was not sure. In the forty-eighth and forty-ninth minutes, Ohio State scored. Suddenly momentum had swung, and the game was in the balance. Zakuani exerted himself and set up Ben Zemanski for the tying goal. But less than a minute later Ohio State scored to retake the lead.

Then it happened: I saw this talented player take his team on his back and drive them to victory. Steve scored the tying goal in the sixty-eighth minute and then beat a couple of players in the eighty-second minute to provide the assist for a Blair Gavin winning goal. Akron had won 4-3. Steve had scored two goals and gotten two assists. This game convinced me of his drive and willpower, and that was when I knew he could be a difference maker.

January 15, 2009, I was in Saint Louis at the MLS draft. Now I was the coach of the Seattle Sounders FC, and we had the number one pick in the draft. Who would that be? Steve Zakuani did not have a good combine in Florida. I had sung his praises to my new boss, Adrian Hanauer, and our technical director, Chris Henderson. They were not sure based upon his performances at the combine. But I remembered that night in Columbus and knew what he had. We all spoke, at the end we all agreed to take Steve with our number one pick. There could have been safer picks, but you only get so many chances to draft a player with special talents and gifts. I told Adrian he could be a big star or a bust—there would be no in-between. We drafted Steve, and the journey began.

The first year was a whirlwind. It was our first year in the league as an expansion team. Everyone was uncertain how we would do. I felt if we got some confidence early we would be alright. We had some talent and some workers. It was a good mix, and the feeling on the field and in the locker room was good. I was deciding how and when to use Steve. He had the talent, and we needed his ability to unbalance a defense with his dribbling on the field. He was also a better passer than I had realized when watching him play. But working hard every day and being challenged every day at training was a concept he was still adjusting to. We had some guys like Evans, LeToux, Scott, and others who worked hard all the time and set a high standard. Steve was reaching for that daily.

Our first-ever game was at home in Seattle against New York. Great crowd, and most expected us to lose. We won 3-0, and Zakuani came on as a sub. He was very sharp. The next week I started him and he got his first assist. He took on Beltran, faked in, then out, then in again, pass to Jaqua—goal. He started again in our first road game in Toronto and scored his first goal for the club. The talent was there, and he was improving daily on his training approach. He was on his way to being a key member for our team.

In 2009, he averaged sixty-nine minutes a game but was often upset with me when I pulled him out of games. But I had to: his fitness was not there yet. When you have talented players who are so skillful, they can get away with less effort at training. I was working on adding that work to his skill level. We bumped heads at times, but in the end he worked harder and got more minutes. It was the start for Steve of understanding that he had to work to be better than the rest.

It was not a lot of fun at training to be the right back who played against Steve on a daily basis. He could tear you apart. James Riley improved going against Zakuani daily. As a coach and coaching staff we would marvel at some of the things he could do. It was brilliant. The frustration only came in because our expectations kept growing, but Steve was on a good path. His innate dribbling ability and the speed at which he could perform you cannot teach. He was an incredible talent.

Year two was something we were all looking forward to. There was a little more pressure in the club due to our success in year one. An Open Cup title and the playoffs in year one were measuring sticks now. The pressure on the individual players also increased. That included Steve. Was he going to be fitter? Would the opponent have figured him out? Steve had finished year one with four goals and four assists. Would year two be better?

Steve Zakuani finished year two with eleven goals and six assists. Twice he had the goal of the week and was voted league player of the week. On top of that he averaged almost seventy-nine minutes in a game—ten more than the year before. Steve had worked harder in the off-season than ever before. It was a big improvement, but he could still do more. But remember: for a wide player to get a goal every three games is fantastic. Opponents started to game plan for Steve. They started dropping wide midfielders to double on him. So I started to move him around a bit more, switching wings, going into the middle a bit more so the opponents had a harder time keeping track of him.

Steve can be stubborn at times, and we had some disagreements. I know I can be stubborn as well. But our understanding was good, and in the end we respected each other and knew that we wanted the best for the team. The team and its success were important to Steve. But like all creative players, he needed a little bit of space. Finding the right balance was an ongoing process.

By the end of year two Steve had established himself as one of the top attacking talents in the league. We would talk about whether he could represent the USA one day—or would it be for his native country, the Congo in Africa? The third year was going to be the year that he could emerge as a star in our league. He worked even harder in the offseason, and his training approach was definitely improving; it was making him a better player. He wanted to have success, but he also wanted more than just an Open Cup title, which we had won again in year two.

The club entered year three with a lot of optimism. We had a good group of players and we had guys with star potential. Steve was one of those guys. How much could he shoulder this year? He had a great relationship with Randy Noteboom, our trainer, and worked hard with him on maintenance issues and preparing for training and games. He had a love-hate relationship with our fitness coach, Dave Tenney, but it had become more love, and he saw the good it was doing for him. He was stronger and fitter as he entered his third season. I was pleased with how he had grown.

Steve was now playing full games. His fitness had improved, and I did not sub him out. The team got off to a bad start. We lost our first two but then we tied our next two, then won. And then came the game in Colorado. Steve had missed game two in New York due to illness. In our next three games he had a goal or an assist in each game. You could see his confidence grow and the team starting to rely on him when things were on the line. His numbers were projecting to take another jump in year three, and his minutes would be up again.

The game in Colorado was important to our team, as we were working out of our early season slump. It started like any other game. The tackle and the resulting aftermath are a bit of blur in my mind. It happened right in front of their bench, 20-30 yards from our bench. But right away we knew it was serious. We heard it and saw it. As the head coach I knew we had to sub, so I tried to get that player, Flaco Fernandez, up and warming up. After a lengthy time, they had Steve on a stretcher and started taking him off the field. Everyone tried to offer a word of encouragement or just touch his hand or the stretcher as it went by. The players were in shock. How we won that game, I will never know. We seemed to play the rest of the game in a daze. We talked about winning for Steve at halftime, but it all seemed so unreal.

After the game I just wanted to know where Steve was—and could we get to him? The club was fantastic, and some of us stayed behind in Denver to be with Steve. Randy Noteboom, our trainer, was great, and Adrian Hanauer eventually flew Steve back on his private jet once the surgeries were done. But we knew he was out for the season, and we hoped he would play again. Early on that was not certain.

The following weeks had surgeries for Steve, getting his family over from Europe and just trying to help him with all the immediate needs. As a team we had to continue, but it was difficult for all knowing we had lost such a key player.

Rehab was in the distant future. Compartment syndrome was an issue...