TUKWILA – For Sounders right back Kelvin Leerdam, this winter brought the rare opportunity to help forge a nation’s soccer history while completing unfinished business from his family’s sports past.
On the eve of the MLS Cup victory over Toronto last November, Leerdam, 29, who scored the game’s opening goal, learned of a landmark government decision in his native Suriname removing barriers for overseas professionals to join its national team. The news caused Leerdam to skip the Sounders’ championship victory parade and return to his South American birthplace, where, just eight days later, he was on-hand as Suriname registered its biggest soccer triumph in a generation by qualifying for its first ever CONCACAF Gold Cup.