National Post

Zavaleta has extra motivation heading into MLS final

- NEIL DAVIDSON

TORONTO • Eriq Zavaleta is the lone member of Toronto FC’s roster that has history with the Seattle Sounders, the opposition in Saturday’s MLS Cup final.

And the 24- year- old defender, who has found a home in Toronto as part of a tenacious three- man backline, has mixed feelings about his short time in the Pacific Northwest.

Taken 10th overall by Seattle in the 2013 MLS Super- Draft, ironically using a pick acquired from Toronto, Zavaleta was initially excited to be headed to the Sounders. Coach Sigi Schmid played with his father Carlos Zavaleta at UCLA and Eriq saw Seattle as an exciting soccer town.

Si gned to a Generation Adidas contract by the league, Zavaleta gave up his last two years of college eligibilit­y. And he arrived as the Big Ten offensive player of the year with 18 goals and four assists in helping Indiana win the NCAA title.

“It was cool for me to be drafted there as my first club,” Zavaleta said of Seattle. “I don’t think the experience went exactly as I had planned it, for sure.”

While Zavaleta scored 28 goals for the Hoosiers, he spent time as a defender growing up.

“We weren’t really sure which position I was going to play ( in Seattle). We flipfloppe­d a couple of times,” he recalled. “I came in there initially as centre back. Didn’t have the greatest of pre-seasons, if I’m honest. And then was immediatel­y transferre­d back to playing forward and I thought got better as the year went on.”

He made just five appearance­s with the Sounders, spending just 31 minutes on the pitch.

“Not nearly as much as I would have liked,” he said. “I think after that they just sort of gave up on me, to be honest. They loaned me out to Chivas ( U. S.) and said ‘ Let’s see what he can develop into there.”’

Schmid had told Zavaleta prior to the 2014 season that he was going to be loaned out. The coach’s preference was as a forward with the NASL’s Indy 11 in Zavaleta’s hometown of Indianapol­is. But Zavaleta wanted to stay in the MLS. Chivas was interested and coach Wilmer Cabrera knew Zavaleta from his time at the United States’ U-17 residency program in Bradenton, Fla. Plus Chivas wanted him at centre back.

Schmid gave Zavaleta the choice.

“I felt like I was centre back, I felt like my higher ceiling was as a centre back. And Chivas was in the MLS, at the time. It was another opportunit­y for me to play at that level and get comfortabl­e at that level.”

In 2014, he saw 1,323 minutes of action in 17 games with Chivas in California, where he lived two blocks from the beach.

“I got better every game. By the end of my stint at Chivas, (I) felt confident that I could play in this league.”

But not in Seattle. He never wore a Sounders uni- form again as Seattle traded Zavaleta to Toronto in January 2015 for a second- round pick in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft.

“Seattle — and Sigi — tried to do right by me by sending me to Toronto,” said Zavaleta, whose only beef is that the Sounders did not give him the chance he believes he deserved there.

He found family in Toronto in the form of head coach Greg Vanney, his uncle who had played under Schmid at UCLA and the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Zavaleta has worked hard to push aside those family ties to prove he’s here “because I deserve to be here and because I can help this team win.”

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