Ever since Garth Lagerwey first took charge of the Seattle Sounders’ soccer operations, contending for championships has been the primary goal. By any reasonable metric, that has been a roaring success.
But somewhere close behind that on the list of priorities was building a sustainable model that would allow the Sounders to restock their roster with players from both the Academy and their USL affiliate. The metrics are a bit more mixed on that front.
While there have been some obvious breakthroughs, the developmental pipeline is still not flowing quite as freely as anyone would like.