When Will Bruin joined the Seattle Sounders this past offseason, he came in search of one thing: a fresh start.
After spending his first six professional seasons with the Houston Dynamo, he fell out of favor toward the end of 2016, not playing consistently for a team that finished last in the Western Conference and missed the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs for the third consecutive year. Now, somewhat fittingly, the team standing in his way of a trip to the 2017 MLS Cup Final is his former club.
“It would be great to be in Seattle and knock Houston out to go to MLS Cup,” Bruin said with a smile.
Bruin and the Dynamo went to back-to-back MLS Cups in his first two years in 2011 and ’12, losing both to the LA Galaxy. A young Bruin admitted he took for granted those opportunities and had just assumed they would come again. They wouldn’t, and it’s something that has gnawed at him.
Bruin, now 28, found his stride again in Seattle. He finished second on the team with 11 goals, the fourth time in seven years he’s hit double digits, despite playing the third-fewest minutes of his career. His adjustment into Seattle’s starting lineup was slow and arduous, though, and he didn’t break into the XI until the seventh game of the year. But the one constant was finding goals.
“He came here and knew we had good strikers, so he needed to fight for his spot every week,” Sounders Assistant Coach Djimi Traore said of Bruin. “In the beginning of the year, he started on the bench, but he proved that he can be more than a backup. He did well to come off the bench, score some goals and gain some confidence. It’s a different look when you have someone like him. He’s a natural goalscorer.”
There was a stretch in Houston where Bruin started regularly and had assumed he would be selected every match, and he admitted it made him somewhat complacent. Now being surrounded by the likes of Clint Dempsey and Jordan Morris, Bruin has relished the challenge to impress in training each and every day.
“That makes everybody on the squad better,” he said.
Bruin capitalized on his chances. With Morris away with the United States national team for stretches during the summer and most recently sidelined with a hamstring injury, Bruin has stepped up admirably and produced at a high level, proving exactly why he was such a vital signing for Sounders General Manager & Vice President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey.
“Will is a known commodity as a consistent goalscorer that we believe can immediately bolster our attack,” Lagerwey said after completing the deal last year. “The cliché is that you pay money for goals, and Will Bruin scores goals.”
FT: Who else but Will Bruin? His goal gives @SoundersFC the 1-0 win over @HoustonDynamo.#SEAvHOU: https://t.co/Mh2DqTBVkepic.twitter.com/oxpwXxjrsk
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) June 5, 2017
As the Sounders prepare for their Western Conference Championship series with the Dynamo, Bruin recognizes how his season has come full circle after Seattle opened the regular season at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston. Bruin came on as a late substitute in a 2-1 loss, before scoring the game-winner against Houston in Seattle in June, but he’s eager to get back on his old pitch and deliver what would be an all-important road goal in the first leg on Tuesday, Nov. 21 (6:30 p.m. PT; FS1, FOX Deportes, KIRO Radio 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360 AM).
“I’m mentally prepping for that and going to try my best to make that happen,” Bruin said. “There will be no better feeling for me than to score for Seattle in BBVA.”
As for whether he would celebrate against his old team, something many players tend not to do against their former clubs, the verdict is still up in the air.
“I’ve always said I black out when I score, so I don’t really know what I’ll do,” he said with a laugh. “I’m not going to not celebrate it just because, but it depends on the time of the goal, what the score is, how the game’s playing out because I celebrate on a whim of how I feel.”
One thing for certain, though, is Bruin won’t be taking an opportunity to win his first MLS Cup lightly. Not again.
“Not being [in the playoffs] the last three years and now getting back, you really don’t take it for granted,” he said. “Each game you prep better, you get ready mentally better throughout the week.
“The way I look at it is that you have a great opportunity and you definitely don’t want to let it slip through your fingertips.”
