{"id":40124,"date":"2022-01-13T15:24:55","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T20:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/?p=40124"},"modified":"2022-01-13T15:35:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T20:35:01","slug":"albert-rusnak-sounders-dp-mls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2022\/01\/13\/albert-rusnak-sounders-dp-mls\/","title":{"rendered":"Albert Rusn\u00e1k signs with the Seattle Sounders on a DP contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The anticipation \u2014 and the watch \u2014 is over on where Albert Rusn\u00e1k will sign. After being linked to almost every club in Major League Soccer, and a few overseas, Rusn\u00e1k ended the weeks-long speculation of where he will continue his career. On Thursday, it was officially announced that he would sign with the Seattle Sounders FC.<\/p>\n<p>His contract is for two years, with a club option for 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Rusn\u00e1k signed a Designated Player contract with the Sounders. Other DPs on the Sounders roster include Ra\u00fal Ruid\u00edaz and Nicol\u00e1s Lodeiro. He will take the DP spot that has been freed up by Jo\u00e3o Paulo \u2014 Paulo still remains with the club, but has been signed to a contract using TAM.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very pleased to add a player of Albert\u2019s caliber to our roster,\u201d Brian Schmetzer, Sounders manager, said. \u201cFor years, he has been one of the more difficult players we\u2019ve had to face, so I\u2019m more than happy we get to welcome him to our team as preseason camp begins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are very excited to welcome such a quality player like Albert to Seattle,\u201d General Manager &amp; President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey said. \u201cAt 27, he is in the prime of his career and already knows our league very well. We\u2019re confident his addition puts our roster in a very good position to succeed in 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rusn\u00e1k was a thorn in the side of the Sounders last year, scoring in both regular-season meetings last year. Rusn\u00e1k did miss out on the highly-contested playoff match between the two sides, but Real Salt Lake advanced over Seattle in the first round in 2021. Now, Rusn\u00e1k reunites with former head coach Freddy Juarez, who is an assistant under Schmetzer.<\/p>\n<p>Rusn\u00e1k features internationally for Slovakia, scoring seven goals in 34 appearances.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Albert Rusn\u00e0k is going to look GOOD in Rave Green \ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n<p>Highlights of our latest signing! \ud83c\udfa5 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tM56ymu2xA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/tM56ymu2xA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SoundersFC\/status\/1481722822963580928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 13, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Three Takeaways on Rusn\u00e1k to Seattle<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>The RSL to Seattle train:<\/strong> As mentioned, the Sounders not only got Rusn\u00e1k, but during the season last year the team picked up an assistant coach in Juarez. Seattle has been cherrypicking Real Salt Lake for the last few months, and this signing was the icing on the cake.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Will Rusn\u00e1k replicate last year&#8217;s numbers?:<\/strong> The depth chart is interesting in Seattle. Not only do you (presumably) have Ruid\u00edaz returning, but you also have a healthy Jordan Morris back from injury. While there have been talks about Will Bruin staying or potentially leaving for Atlanta, he&#8217;s not a starter. Fredy Montero is a free agent and has yet to sign with another team. Seattle is stacked on the attack, and Rusn\u00e1k will only make the team better. But, with all that talent, will he see the career-high 11 goals he scored last year? That combination of Morris-Ruid\u00edaz-Rusn\u00e1k could be lethal.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Circle these matches:<\/strong> Enough said here. Sounders fans, Real Salt Lake fans, you&#8217;re going to want to circle these dates. On March 3, Rusn\u00e1k will return to Salt Lake City, and on Aug. 14, his former teammates will pay him a visit at Lumen Field.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Seattle Sounders 2022 Roster<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Goalkeepers<\/strong> (2): Stefan Frei, Andrew Thomas<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defenders<\/strong> (6): Yeimar G\u00f3mez Andrade, Xavier Arreaga, Abdoulaye Cissoko, Jimmy Medranda, Nouhou, Brad Smith<\/p>\n<p><strong>Midfielders<\/strong> (11): Josh Atencio, Reed Baker-Whiting, L\u00e9o Ch\u00fa, Ethan Dobbelaere, Jo\u00e3o Paulo, Danny Leyva, Nicol\u00e1s Lodeiro, Cristian Roldan, Albert Rusn\u00e1k, Obed Vargas, Dylan Teves<\/p>\n<p><strong>Forwards<\/strong> (4): Samuel Adeniran, Jordan Morris, Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez, Ra\u00fal Ruid\u00edaz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The wait is over. Albert Rusn\u00e1k, one of the most sought-after free agents in MLS and abroad, has signed a Designated Player contract with the Seattle Sounders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2497,"featured_media":40125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,119,3,22],"tags":[1174,57,1430,1863],"class_list":["post-40124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-mls","category-news","category-sounders","tag-albert-rusnak","tag-mls","tag-seattle-sounders-fc","tag-sounders"],"modified_by":"Rachael Kriger, Senior Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}