TORONTO – “Jordan is a super star.”
It’s a throwaway line, said in a part mocking, part affectionate sing-song voice by a veteran who simply can’t resist the opportunity to needle a rookie in the middle of an interview. Jordan Morris smiles in recognition of the gibe, but doesn’t miss a beat as he answers one of many of questions that will be thrown his way in the lead-up to the biggest game of his life.
Morris is used to it by now, the attention, the pressure and the good-natured ribbing that comes with being a 22-year-old with the world that your feet. Minutes before, the Sounders’ leading scorer and MLS Rookie of the Year had stepped off the team bus following a long flight from Seattle to Toronto and entered a gauntlet of reporters trying to milk a headline-worthy quote from a player who is undoubtedly one of the stars of the 2016 MLS season.
Superstar, though? Not yet, but maybe soon. Perhaps even as soon as Saturday, when Morris and the Sounders will play in their first-ever MLS Cup at BMO Field (8 pm ET; FOX and UniMas in the US; TSN and RDS in Canada) and the former academy player and son of the team doctor takes the field with an opportunity to make the sort of history that would make him an instant legend in his hometown.
“It’s such a weird feeling,” Morris says. “It’s still so surreal to me to drive to the stadium and see my name on the back of people’s jerseys. It’s crazy. I never thought this would happen.”
If he’s honest, there were times when it only seemed logical that a scenario like this would be completely out of reach, that a championship ring and the sort of individual plaudits recently heaped on his broad shoulders were dreams with little chance of being realized.
Like in March and early April, when the Sounders limped out of the gates and Morris, thrust into the starting lineup following the abrupt departure of Obafemi Martins, failed to score in his first five games. Or a month later, when Jurgen Klinsmann left him at home and took Chris Wondolowski to Copa America Centenario instead.
Did he make the right decision to choose the Sounders and MLS over German side Werder Bremen, pundits wondered? How can he hope to become an elite MLS forward and a national team player with that left foot (or lack thereof)? Was he ready for the pressure that accompanied his place on the American soccer hype train and expectations inherent with playing in Seattle?
As for the latter, Morris isn’t shy about admitting he wasn’t ready for the limelight, for the barrage of critiques, for the harsh words still nowhere near as cutting as his own self reflection.
“I came from a situation where people didn’t watch me play that much really in college and then into MLS and a lot more people were watching our games and there’s a lot of pressure on you to perform,” Morris says. “… I have very high expectations of myself, and I’m maybe my harshest critic. When I’m going through times like that, it’s tough because I almost feel like I let myself down. I wanted to prove myself right, that I could hang in this league and do well. For me, at the beginning, it was kind of a letdown because I put a lot of pressure on myself.”
The goal finally came on April 16 at home against the Philadelphia Union, a game-winner that featured the sort of run in behind, tidy touch and composed finish he’s punished opposing defenses with as the season’s gone on. It was the first of 14 in 2016, including the two Morris has scored in the playoffs, and a watershed moment for a young man who quickly realized he’d paid too much attention to the noise.
“I had a few doubts, if I’m going to be honest, because everything had been so positive and then there was this huge negative,” Morris says. “But once that first month was over and I got my first goal, I haven’t looked back since.”
There have been bumps in the road, of course. Sigi Schmid, the man whose sage words helped the young striker pull out of that career-christening slump and the only coach the Sounders had ever known in MLS, was let go with the club one point out of last place. Clint Dempsey was forced out of action in late September after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.
For much of 2016, it appeared Morris’ personal development might run parallel to the worst season in club history. That narrative is long gone. As is the sentiment that he might be better off beginning his career in the Bundesliga.
“I think I’ve developed a lot this year. It’s important to me that I’m playing games, and who knows what would have happened over there. You can never know,” Morris says. “With how things have gone and how much fun I’m having and just to be back home, for me at least it was 100 percent the right decision to stay here. I think other guys might have been different, but I knew I wanted to come home and try and win a championship. Hopefully we can do that.”
A year ago, Morris was lifting another trophy, Stanford’s first-ever men’s soccer national championship, a title that Morris sealed just two minutes into the match with the first of two goals in a 4-0 shellacking of Clemson at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan.
“That was by far the best moment of my career, winning that trophy,” he says. “The thing I take away was just how much fun it was to win. It still gives me chills every time I watch the highlights of that game. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
It’s a memory he’s reflected on as the Sounders made their own run – past Sporting Kansas City in the Knockout Round, FC Dallas in the Conference Semifinals and the Colorado Rapids in the Conference Championship – to Toronto and the brink of an MLS Cup triumph that would give a vocal fanbase the prize they’ve desired since 2009.
In some ways, there are parallels between the two teams. Morris hopes that’ll still be true when he wakes up on Sunday morning, his first professional season in the books but his career just beginning.
“It’s so much more than a ring,” he says. “What I’m excited about with Stanford is that we’re going to have those reunions 15 years down the road when we all come back. That was the first national championship for them, so you left your legacy in that way. Hopefully we can do the same with the Sounders.”
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