As the MLS season stretched into its third month, Chad Barrett was feeling restless. Blocked from the starting lineup by the healthy, in-form duo of Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins, Barrett spent March and April nibbling at playing time where he could find it.
Eighteen minutes as a sub against the San Jose Earthquakes. Seventy five minutes against FC Dallas. Sixteen minutes against the LA Galaxy. But for Barrett, who understood the talent ahead of him but felt he had more to give, it wasn’t enough. So he approached coach Sigi Schmid with an impassioned plea.
“I want to get in these games,” Barrett told Schmid. “I have to get in. I’ve got the itch real bad.”
Barrett admits he’s been “complaining a little bit” in an effort to arrow his way onto the field, but after his performance over the weekend, it’s hard to disagree with his insisting.
Barrett’s brace not only guided Sounders FC to a critical three points at Vancouver, but it also earned him MLS Player of the Week honors. Barrett couldn’t remember the last time he’d won the award in his 11-year MLS career spent with five different clubs - or if he ever has - but the performance netted him his first goal since Aug. 24, 2014 and his first two-goal game since an April 8, 2010 performance with Toronto FC. Talk about taking advantage of your chances.
Martins’ precautionary absence due to an injury he picked up in training allowed Barrett to earn his second start of the season. He didn’t waste the opportunity, scoring twice in the first half off a perfectly-weighted chip and again on a volley that would’ve made Robin van Persie proud.
“It’s kind of overwhelming,” Barrett said. “You haven’t done anything all year, and all of the sudden you have a good week and you’re doing interviews and all that stuff and pretty much back to what I was circa 2011.”
In a lot of ways, Barrett’s performance did turn back the clock, but not to 2011. To last season. Barrett’s filled a variety of roles off the bench for this team, but it’s mostly been the spadework required of a striker in the latter stages of the game as a substitute. But Barrett was efficient last season in the moments he was called upon to start, scoring a goal in four of his eight starts. In fact, his seven league goals in 2014 tied his career high, and he did it in fewer than 900 minutes.
But even Barrett can sense the increased possessional intensity surrounding this year’s team. As a forward, he likened Sounders FC’s monotonously effective build-up to a magic eye brainteaser, as if trying to discern something hidden from a mass of seemingly incongruent shapes. It forces a striker to stay switched on when his number is called after a long string of possession in the team’s own half. Seattle managed more than 20 consecutive passes in the build-up to Barrett’s second goal, and when Marco Pappa found him splitting a pair of Vancouver defenders, Barrett was ready.
“It was awesome,” Barrett said. “People (were saying) there were 21 passes down there in the defensive half and those passes don’t mean anything. Barcelona does it. When they do it, it means something. It was a beautiful play up to the goal. All those passes gave Pappa that much space and gave him the time to look up and find me.”
Barrett said the team’s video session this week at times felt like watching a passing clinic. At intervals, the team would watch a clip that only featured Sounders FC players knocking it around for more than 90 seconds. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for improvement, but for a striker who thrives off service, this particular Sounders FC team is built to supply traditional strikers like him with service pinpoint enough to make scoring chances a regular occurrence.
Ultimately, Barrett doesn’t regret talking frankly with Schmid, a man he’s known for a decade, about playing time. If he keeps performing like this, Schmid probably welcomes the conversation.
The 30-year old understands it’ll be tough to permanently dislodge Martins from his starting spot. Martins’ partnership with Dempsey is the best in MLS, with those two players combining for a league-high 13 goals already. But that certainly won’t stop Barrett from doing his best to crack into the starting XI as much as possible.
“I step on the field and I score two goals, I feel like I backed up my talk,” Barrett said. “That’s what I wanted to do, ultimately. Whether it turns into a starting spot, you never know. But what you need to do when you get out there is make sure you give 100 percent effort and you can score goals for the team as a forward.”
