To Continue...
“We felt as though we didn’t finish as well as we could have, should have, last year,” said General Manager Adrian Hanauer. Adding insult to injury, Seattle’s season was ended after two scoreless playoff matches against budding rival Huston Dynamo in the first round.
In an effort to bolster the year-end goal tally, the Sounders on Thursday announced the signing of 34-year-old striker Blaise Kufo. The seven-year veteran from Holland’s FC Twente, who has scored 111 goals in 213 matches, is the all-time goal-leader for the Dutch team. He has played in 27 matches for the Swiss national team, scoring seven goals in the process. Kufo indicated that part of the reason he chose to sign with the Sounders was the support of the fans at Xbox Pitch and high standards set by last year’s performance.
“What I saw is that they’re great fans,” Kufo said on a conference call Thursday at Starfire Sports Complex. “They almost have 30,000 fans average. The expectations are very high and they really support the team. For me, also, it was a key. That’s why I decided to come.” Kufo also pointed to coach Sigi Schmid’s experience with other European players (read Ljungberg) as playing part to his decision to sign the 18-month contract, with option for another year.
While some worry Kufo’s age may be a detriment around so many young teammates, coach Schmid offered strong praise. "He's a proven goal-scorer who has had a good run with the Swiss national team in their qualifying for the World Cup. He's had a tremendous run at Twente and is a player that knows how to find space in the box at appropriate moments.”
"He's somebody that's going to play up top, he's going to be a target," Schmid said. "Whether we play with one [striker] and one [withdrawn forward] underneath, or whether we play with one [striker] and two wingers, or whether we play with two strikers, he's definitely got to be one of the guys up top."
"He's not going to be a forward like Jeff Cunningham or someone like that," the veteran manager clarified. "He's going to be more like Juan Pablo Angel, a guy who can hold up the ball for you, who can play with his back to goal, who's going to get on the end of crosses. The timing of his runs are good. [He] is somebody who just knows how to sniff out opportunities when they present themselves."
Part of the contract stipulates that Kufo will stay with Twente during the remainder of the Dutch Cup and the Eredivisie league season as well as playing World Cup matches for the Swiss national team. Hanauer estimated that Kufo could join the team as soon as the Sounders’ July 15 match at D.C. United.
In an April 2008 interview with Sportsweek.nl in Holland, Kufo said he does not know how the N and apostrophe were added to his name, but because he is from the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), someone probably added it at some point to make his name sound more African.
"My official name is Kufo without N. This is also in my passport," said Kufo in a rough, Google Translated version of the Dutch web site.
Reach Galen Helmgren at nextseasonsports@gmail.com
Posts
