Sounders

Photo credit: Dean Rutz, The Seattle Times

Captaincy isn’t often trumpeted on soccer teams, so Brad Evans wearing the captain’s armband for Sounders FC the past few games might have gone unnoticed.

Mauro Rosales had assumed the large part of that role upon Kasey Keller‘s retirement after the 2011 season, and Osvaldo Alonso has often had it when Rosales is out. The recent change to Evans, an “original” MLS Sounder who has become a regular with the U.S. national team, was largely player-inspired.

“I’ve let them decide,” said coach Sigi Schmid. “I’m not a big one on being a coach who says, ‘OK, I’m going to determine who the captain is.’ I want the players to kind of decide that. I think the one game Ozzie was going to wear the armband and then they decided amongst themselves that they were going to have Evans wear it.

“As I’ve said before, you need a lot of captains on the field, you don’t need just one, and I think it was good to see them determine that and take that responsibility themselves. As to why it happened, I didn’t ask. As long as they’re happy with it, I’m happy with it.”

Evans said captaincy is an honor, first and foremost. He has worn it before on an interim basis for the occasional game the past year or so. He even once passed it along to Fredy Montero for a couple games last year.

This time Evans is happy to keep it.

“I’m ready to take that on,” he said. “I’m in a position where I think I can contribute in a game, focus on my game, but also have a leadership role, as well.

“Any time you watch it go somewhere else, you think what can you do to have it on your arm. Sometimes it’s a coaches decision, sometimes it’s seniority or whatever it is. At this moment, it’s just something that happened. I’ll wear it as long as I can.”