If Chad Barrett’s goal celebration at Portland on Sunday looked like the kind of thing you’d only do if you’d lost a bet: well, bingo, that’s exactly what happened.
“Last year I lost a fantasy football bet, head to head with a friend of mine,” Barrett explained. “He got to pick my dance, but he didn’t say which game and where I had to do it. So I told him (if) I ever scored when we played in Portland, I’d do it in front of them, and it just worked out perfectly.”
Barrett’s goal put the Seattle Sounders up 3-0 in what turned out to be a 4-2 win. He received a touch pass from Clint Dempsey on the left side of the penalty area, created an opening, and then beat goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to the near side.
Then he ran toward the stands, touched both hands above his head and added a prancing spin.
“I don’t know what that was,” coach Sigi Schmid said. “(I don’t know) whether that was a ballerina, whether that was a little teapot, whatever. But they don’t have to worry about ‘Dancing with the Stars;’ he doesn’t have to worry about that show at all.”
Barrett has had a run of chances to practice goal celebrations. The goal at Portland was his third in Seattle’s last three MLS games and fourth in the last four across all competitions. It brought his season total to seven, two short of the career-high nine he recorded in 2008 with Chicago and Toronto.
Those are just two of the five teams Barrett has played for since joining MLS in 2005. He came to Seattle over the offseason after being selected from New England in the re-entry draft.
He was brought in to add depth at forward behind Obafemi Martins and Dempsey, and alongside Kenny Cooper. And that has been his primary role this season, when he has appeared in 19 of 24 games but with only seven starts.
His seven goals are third on the team behind co-leaders Dempsey and Martins, who have 10 each. But with only 711 minutes played, Barrett leads the team with an average of 0.89 goals per 90 minutes.
He wants more — for himself and for his team.
“Seven’s great, but it’s nowhere near the ceiling where I want to get to this year,” Barrett said. “The goal is going to be 10 this year. I’ve never scored in double digits, so that’s a personal goal of mine as well. But the only thing I really want to do is win the Supporters Shield, I’ve never done that. I want to win the Open Cup, and I want to win the MLS Cup. I want to be greedy this year.”
Added time
Sounders FC Academy alum Jordan Morris was included on the U.S. national team roster for the friendly Wednesday at the Czech Republic. Morris is a forward from Mercer Island who has played for the Pierce County-based Sounders U-23 and now attends Stanford. “We’re obviously happy for him because he’s one of our academy kids,” Schmid said. … The MLS Disciplinary Committee fined and suspended for one game Portland defender Norberto Paparatto for a foul ruled to have endangered the safety of Seattle defender Chad Marshall on Sunday. “It certainly looked like he definitely led with the elbow,” Schmid said. “I’m not going to say if it’s appropriate or not for them to have suspended him for a game — that’s the decision they reached — but I think it was definitely a play that needed to be looked at.” … Seattle Reign midfielder Kim Little on Thursday was named most valuable player for the 2014 National Women’s Soccer League season. Little, 24, is a native of Aberdeen, Scotland. She scored a league-record 16 goals in 23 games and was second in the league with seven assists. The Reign meets Kansas City for the league championship at noon Sunday at Starfire Sports Stadium.
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