Listen to this. It's Steve. Who is it Brad Evans? Happy days in here again. Burning with a private Steve Zucka-Wonning! He's an attacking Brad Evans. The party has started. Welcome back to this week's episode of the Sounders FC Podcast, presented by Toyota. This week we're honored. We got Andrew Thomas on board. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. We have no Steve Zucka-Wonning. No, it's got a sore throat. Yeah, always got a sore throat. Yeah, not good for a pod.
Let's jump straight into this one. I know your time is valuable. I think everyone listening wants to know. Give us a brief just rundown where it started and how you became to be a sounder that's now started in a good lot of games. Yeah, I'll go through the short version of the kind of a long story. I'm half Russian, half American. I was born in Russia, but grew up in the UK. Playing for What For Academy. Did that from about 10 years old or the way through to about 18.
Was playing there full time, realized at the time that it wasn't really what I wanted to be doing at that moment. I don't think I was ready to be playing full time football. And so I kind of reached out to the coaches at Stanford, sent some full game tapes, some training highlights, and was lucky enough to kind of get recruited by them. Was there for four years? I was in the middle of it, did COVID, and changed the draft up a little bit, and it kind of worked out perfectly that I ended up here.
So then I signed here in 2021. And it's been an awesome two and a half years, and I'm excited to finally have a few games on the belt now too. So I'm always curious, and you know, obviously, Koh-Ho Steve is a player like yourself. I grew up Arsenal Academy, and then decided that wasn't for him. I'm always curious, like in that player's mind, you see a lot of guys, Jack Harrison, right?
Same thing, decided, I'm going to come over to the States and go to college, and now he's playing, you know, well, not right now, but back in the premmet at some point. I'm fascinated by that, because in the US, you don't really have any other options. And now you're starting to get them a little bit more with academies, right? That decide to go to college, but in your perspective, what made you make the leap to want to come to America? Was it the education aspect?
Just a transition in your life? What was it that made you decide? I'm out of the academy system. I'm not going to pursue. I know I want to pursue it at a certain level, but it's got to be somewhere else. Yeah, absolutely. The education was definitely a big part of it. It's something that the US has, that the UK just doesn't. It's that ability to go through college and still chase that during being a professional.
The way I've always kind of thought about it is that, you know, obviously England has had so much success, and football generally, you know, the Premier League is as good as it is. But the perspective there, in my opinion, at least, is to kind of sacrifice the 99% for that 1%. Whereas the US doesn't do that quite as much. It is much more of a rounded system.
And, you know, I had my exposure to the US through my dad, which, you know, kept my eyes open to the fact that that was an opportunity that I could go and get an education, and then still continue down the path that I wanted to continue on. So you come here and any goalkeeper, it's the worst, right? It's just like a kicker in football. You've got to buy your time. You're kind of separate from the team, especially being a backup or a backup to a backup, right?
That's the most difficult job in sports, I think. So just about the mental toughness that it takes, and I've been there too. My first year, I was sitting behind a starter, and then a second, they both got injured. So then I'm straight into a lineup, and then I played the rest of my career at that point. Just that mentality of what it takes to be a goalkeeper, and just the constant grind, and what you've been able to achieve now, given your chance.
Yeah, absolutely. When I signed here in 2021, it was Steph Rye, Steph Cleveland, Spencer Richie, and me, which, you know, those are three proven starting goalkeepers at that point. Spencer had his games in Cincinnati, and Cleveland played in, I don't know, 15 games by the time I got here, a little bit less than that, and then fry obviously with the career that he's had.
And so, you know, when I was thinking about coming to the sounders, or you know, came to the sounders in the first place, it was about where is the best place for me to develop going to be. I knew that I wasn't going to be beating those guys out, weak one of, you know, of my contract, that would have been, you know, beyond full hearty. But it struck me as the place that I was going to learn the most from Tommy, included in that set, I can't leave him out.
I had so many things that I needed to work on, and Tommy made that clear weak one. Day one, minute one. Day one, minute one, yeah. And it was, you know, in stark contrast to kind of the college perspective, which, you know, is at the time very results driven. It's not so much about development as it is, you know, when you're down the depth trail in a professional environment.
And so, my mindset when I came in wasn't so much that, you know, I'm trying to beat these guys out, and that's going to be frustrating if I don't. Where am I going to learn the most, and how do I learn from all of these guys that were incredible goalkeepers ahead of me. And, you know, as things have progressed, and I feel like I've improved over the last few years, I'm, you know, excited to be able to put that out on the field a little bit more. But, yeah, the perspective has been development.
Even getting to this level, obviously you've had Tommy. But you've been a little bit of a journeyman in the last year, year and a half, and gone through injury as well. I know the fans might not know just kind of about that, that side of things too. Yeah, for sure. It's not been the easiest couple years for sure. I had, you know, two back injuries with the same back injury twice. It ended the 21 season for me in August, and the 2022 season for me, and, you know, like July, early August.
Second time, a little bit more aggressive with the poise of treatment, and got, you know, did the surgical route. Which, you know, to date has held up pretty well, which is a relief, that's what for sure. And I feel, you know, both of those, both of those years, I felt like I was starting to get my feet under me, performances were improving. I was kind of happy with the way things were going, and then the season ended pretty early.
Which is to finally have the kind of consistent time out on the field has been incredibly beneficial. And then obviously last year, it's been a lot of games with Tacoma, which is, you know, for a goalkeeper in valuable minutes. So there's nothing that replicates it. You can't, you know, train, positional work the same way in a training session that you would in a game. And at the end of the day, a shot for eight yards out was a shot for eight yards out.
It doesn't matter if it's, you know, Royal Root Dears or a guy on an academy team playing for a second team. And then when it's a new Mexico at the end of last season two, which was fantastic, because it was a kind of change in perspective from slightly more development oriented games with Tacoma to, we're going to push for the playoffs with 3.3 places out of it at the moment. Eight games to go, how are we getting into it with, you know, 10 to 15,000 in a crowd.
And just a much, you know, higher stakes environment in the best jerseys. Yeah, oh, so cool. I bet. Okay, did you go to Meow Wolf? I didn't know. I didn't get away. I didn't make it up there. But I have, I took way too many jazzy's home with the Meow Wolf. It is the wildest place. If you don't know about it, make sure you Google it. I've been there once. And it is like Alice in Wonderland on steroids.
Every room is different. You walk into a, like, refrigerator slide down a slide and then you end up in some other realm. You just get lost. It's like living arts. We never grow up, by the way. Like, it's just like a playground for grownups. Yeah. Speaking of growing up. So when you were young, who are your idols? All good question. Let's see. So the early is I was an Arsenal fan. I, you know, that changed a little bit when I signed with Watford myself.
It was then a little bit of a self-serving interest. But Jens Laman, for some reason, stuck me as the guy I, you know, model myself after a little bit as an 8-9-10-year-old model. It was a little bit too extreme for word. But, and then I had Almouna and Gomez come to Watford when I was in the academy. And that was really cool because I got to see, you know, those guys went from Champions League games and incredible heights to, to one pitch over for me.
And granted there was slightly more towards the tail end of the career by the time they got to Watford. But it was incredible just watching the kind of way these guys trained and, and when about their business, which, you know, little things that I, you know, still try and take into my own game, I guess. Yeah. I think even for those guys on the tail end, right? I was here with Casey on the tail end of his career.
And I played with Guzann, with the national team, played with him. And I still think Casey was the best shot-stopper of all the guys that I've played with at the top level. And when you have it, you have it. And I just remember doing shooting here with the sounders. And you could see it every day. So maybe I was a bit biased, but still even in finishing, like I'm a midfielder with the national team, played defender.
And, you know, I can bang goals when necessary. And it's really, it was really, really hard on Casey. And then Casey gets in your head because then he's talking the entire practice to every single player, you know. And that's, that's part of it though. And it's that relationship between players and goalkeeper. That's just so different than having a relationship with a player on the field.
And I think taking little lessons from that, but what have you seen from Steph? Because Steph is kind of, you know, maybe on the tail end of his career as well as he starts the age, he's, you know, going to be 39 this year, I think, is 38 to 39, 38 this year. And so, you know, Casey came in at, I think, 40 or 39 or 40. So about that time, and they still have it. They still have it.
What is it about a top level keeper that just continuously evolves? The, the first thing that comes to mind is you ask that question is, you know, like you said, Fry is going to be 38, you know, whatever he is going to be this year. And I don't even want to put a guess to how many training sessions he's had. But his mentality in every training session does not change. It is still 100%. It is still maximum effort. It is still, you know, micro adjustments and focus on the little things.
He's still, you know, striving for improvement every day. And it's easy to think that in his age and experience that, you know, there's ways to kind of work through sessions or take reps off or whatever like that. But that isn't the case. It's still absolute, you know, pedal to the metal type type training, which is probably the biggest thing you can see.
So what's the biggest thing you take from stuff, though, is that the distribution at this point, because when he came here in 2014, left foot non-existent, right distribution out of the back. You know, at that time, everyone pretty much played the ball long, say for, you know, a couple of moments in transition, where you could play short and play out of the back.
But for me, it's been his feet, right, his feet. And that's something that you must have now in the modern game, especially you're going to have a center back right next to you in the box. You've got to play out of pressure. How much are you working on that consistently? Is that the biggest piece? Yeah, for sure. You know, for myself, I'd like to think that I'm probably slightly stronger in the in the short stopping department of the distribution department.
So the distribution is something that I'm always thinking about and trying to work on. And like you said, I mean, the era that Steph grew up in is more root one, kick it long, safety first. And so to have developed the kind of attributes that he's developed over the last five, 10 years is very impressive.
And, you know, the thing that strikes me when I think about Steph, the goalkeeper is that he's incredibly consistent. Be it the distribution, be it the handling, be it the short stopping. It's like he's going to, what you want in the goalkeeper is to be able to trust them fully, right?
You're not going to put a name on the team sheet unless you've got complete confidence in them. And that's something that Steph has given this club for a long, long time. It's, you know, what you're getting and it is, you know, consistently excellence in the things that he can control. And with the high school team, we have a couple of really good freshmen, right? And I pull them to the side and I'm like, I don't care if you're a freshman sophomore junior senior.
Like if you're good enough, you're good enough. And you need to also demand more out of the guys in front of you. Where are you at in that thought process? Because, you know, we had guys jump in, Ben Dragavan, Josh Ford, you talk about the second or third Terry boss that came in, you know, and had a run of games.
We as players need you to, like you said, be confident and also take control. Right? If you're screaming and yelling, as long as it's the right information, like we love it. Right? Have you gotten free reign to be that guy in the back? Or have they told you like, hey, just worry about yourself and let the guys in front of you dictate.
Absolutely. It's, you know, maybe you get a little bit of leeway game one, but game two, three onwards, it's you're there to do the role of the goalkeeper, not, you know, the, the, there's no expectation for a drop off in standard, I guess, is the way to put it. And you're there to be the guy and part of what comes with the job description is that organizational piece, that leadership piece, and it doesn't matter if you've got, again, can't guess how many game staff has 400 and whatever it is.
Or two and five minutes like me. And so, yeah, the expectations are the same. And the confidence and the energy that you bring is infectious. It's, you know, if you're positive, then the team is positive. And if you get no V, then the team gets nervous and that's, you know, not something that can happen. It needs to be maximum. The good table ça mort.
to remember but kind of don't and me I have to remind myself like they're like exactly yeah that's what I'm saying this is 2009 it was such a long time ago after 2000 it was crazy yeah they're nine or 10 years old but Jordan was saying you know you remember is watching from the stands and was it that way at Watford for you when you went in was it I'm sitting in the stands going to every game or were you kind of just worried about yourself yeah I know we went
to a lot of games we're kind of the older you got the more your expects to be there at the weekends and I remember I think the first time one of the first games I went to Sean Dyshe was the manager I can't remember what year that was
but he had a few of the academy guys sitting behind the bench well yeah which was really cool like before the stadium and re-developed so you were like you know in it and if you've heard Sean Dyshe pitch side it some choice words yeah exactly yeah exactly you know but that was kind of like the first
exposure to wow this is what first-team football the intensity the aggression the power the like speed and for a kid to be sitting that close to what is going on it was it was incredible and then as we got a little bit older into that kind of scholar age under 16 under 18 sorry they'd have us
some of the on rotation some of the academy people clean the locker rooms after games of course which was great primarily because we were just in there with the guys and you know they're showering dropping tape on the floor they could have been a bit better putting in trash cans but you know whatever and you'd be in there picking up their boots and doing all those things and you know you feel the energy of them winning 2-0 and that's a lot of positivity or
you know the sadness of losing at home whatever it is so that was always really cool and a pretty special moment you know that was like the era that Gomez was playing and you know seeing this guy take the tape off his fingers after game you get to pick it up exactly you know seeing this guy forever I was always
pretty cool yeah what Americans at what for J.D. Marit was J.D. Marit was there see there while you were there he's what was a long time ago that was like the idea is that I was that okay I think I was on the 10th yeah what what a journey meant that guy's story is something else I mean just took off didn't want to play Major League Soccer and took a chance started in like Nation League and worked his way all the way up and finally made it to the Prem with with
Watford I think yeah yeah that's wild I think that is that the only American that's what you want to come to mind I think so yeah I think it might be just J.D. so Russian Australian American Russian American Russian American grew up in London how do you end up in London it's a good question it was the middle of the grandparents and my dad got a job there and they kind of figured I think that was going to be a slightly more optimal place to raise me as opposed
to Moscow which you know for obvious reasons but yeah so you pledge allegiance to the flag I've got three so yeah I think you've got three one of those parts okay so a little bit less useful now yeah so if one of those three for us this before called your name yeah rank them well I can put one at the bottom yeah leave Russia out I mean I'm gonna go wherever it takes me let's be honest yeah it's not like I'm gonna be holding on hold it on for another one
yeah yeah yeah yeah so where does your I mean your mindset now this will be the last question as we leave this this podcast but and we enter Saturday's game what is your mindset right now obviously you go to Philly and you're said first okay talk about the conditions there because we're all watching it on TV and it's wild but when did you actually know that the game was gonna get canceled do you feel it before you even kicked off like in warm-ups
it was it was completely terrible on the warm-ups it was it was wet but it wasn't crazy there wasn't really any standing water when we were warming up and so it was gonna be wet but fine but the best part about it it wasn't cold right so we got out we got out for the game and we're just drenched immediately but it was nice it was that kind of like you know again if you ask fry of the four-inch and whatever it is games he's played he's not gonna remember Kansas
City at home in the Los Angeles you know like some random some random game it's gonna be the sub-optimal conditions the you know the crazy stories and that kind of thing and that's kind of the perspective I think we had out there that we wanted to play it didn't bother us it was gonna be a different kind of game we had a training session earlier this year I think you were it was a yeah on the turf where again same thing standing water you can't play past
or a center back it's like JP's flicking the ball up and hit inside of all this is trying complete passes and you know Christian said it in his little huddle before we start the game that you know we've we trained in this was we were ready to go yeah so I think that was honestly a bit of
disappointment to being kind of pulled off the field there you know why Philly would you know did it with the champions of your game coming up and obviously the conditions weren't ideal yeah and then they lost six nil yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ball never lies didn't help too much but you know hopefully the silver lining of that is that we time out well with you know our DC trip and right and yeah whenever the game is is when the game is but so so
mindset entering this next one it's it's looking for three points there's no other really well way to put it with the what ended up being like a by-week class week we're into week four and have played two games at the point and it's
time for three and there's excitement we're ready to go it's you know the first time game we had here was mid 30s and raining and now we've got 70 degrees in sunshine and hoping that kind of inspires the crowd and in an extra way which you know helps us out too for sure so just excitement ready to
go awesome well thanks for coming we're stoked to see you on the pitch I mean appreciate it I've been around practice for you know three or four years now and it's always like how you doing how you doing how you doing and it's always a positive attitude and something to be admired for the you know youngsters listening it's it's the grind it's the grind yeah so congrats but the best is yet to come yeah absolutely good luck thank you