TUKWILA, Wash. — Veteran Seattle Sounders defender Zach Scott’s final regular season game is this Sunday in Seattle’s Decision Day match with Real Salt Lake. He is retiring at the end of the season after 15 years with the Seattle Sounders.
The club has yet to secure a postseason berth, but can do so with a win. Depending on other results, though, a draw or loss could end the Sounders’ season — and Scott's career.
Scott entered as a substitute for injured center back Chad Marshall in Seattle’s 2-1 loss to FC Dallas last week, his 349th career appearance for the club across all competitions since his debut in 2002.
Scott hasn’t started a game for the Sounders since Aug. 24 at the Houston Dynamo, so any minutes on Sunday will likely come off the bench. Asked whether he had any special plans to honor Scott or symbolically get him into the game, Sounders interim head coach Brian Schmetzer was candid.
“If Zach were telling me what to do on Sunday, he would say, ‘Make sure the team wins. I don’t care if I play,’” Schmetzer said. “That’s what a good soldier Zach is and that’s my intent.”
Scott, 36, played his first six years with the Sounders in the USL prior to their jump to Major League Soccer. He has logged nearly 8,400 minutes for the MLS-era Sounders since 2009.
“If the game goes well, certainly [playing him late is] an option,” Schmetzer said. “But we can’t predict that.”
