When the Seattle Sounders visit the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday night (7:30 p.m. PT; JOEtv, YouTube TV, 950 KJR AM, El Rey 1360 AM), defender Kelvin Leerdam will face another one of his former teammates.
Prior to joining the Sounders last summer, Leerdam spent the previous four seasons with Vitesse in the Eredivisie, the top flight in the Netherlands. The Earthquakes acquired one former Vitesse teammate, Valeri “Vako” Qazaishvili, last year before recently adding another in defender Guram Kashia, someone Leerdam knows very well.
“He’s a funny guy,” Leerdam said of Kashia. “He was my captain for four years in Holland. We played a lot of [the] NBA2K [video game] together. People will like him [in San Jose], he’s a guy who’s always involved in the community.”
In addition to making nearly 300 appearances for Vitesse since 2010, Kashia also captains the Georgia national team. The 31-year-old center back will look to help turn around San Jose’s recent misfortune, as the Earthquakes sit last in MLS and have allowed 39 goals in 19 matches.
“[Kashia] was the captain of my former club for eight or nine seasons and he’s the captain of his country,” said Leerdam. “If they were looking for a leader, they found the right guy.”
