1-on-1 with Cristian Roldan: A rivalry turned friendship with Jordan Morris
Sporting KC duo Soony Saad and Dom Dwyer might claim to have the best bromance in MLS but Cristian Roldan has other ideas. The Seattle Sounders midfielder spoke of his friendship with Jordan Morris in this week's installment of theScore 1-on-1, while recounting that Stefan Frei save to close out 2016.
Once rivals, now brothers
Morris and Roldan both enjoyed a homecoming of sorts with the Sounders, but joined the club in drastically different circumstance. Morris was already a member of the U.S. national team and joined MLS with his hometown team under tremendous hype.
Roldan, out of the University of Washington, had a Generation Adidas contract on the recommendation of then Seattle head coach Sigi Schmid. It was a favor, really, as Roldan was projected to go as high as second overall. But at No. 16, Schmid's kindness turned into a masterstroke; he plucked a plummeting Roldan and turned him into a star.
The two became fast friends at Seattle, despite Roldan having pipped Morris to the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year title back in their college days.
"We were once on opposing teams," Roldan told theScore, when asked of his friendship with Morris. "He went to Stanford while I went to U-Dub. We played each other five or six times in college.
"I always envied him. I always envied that he was such a good player.
"Instantly, as he came to the team, for some reason we just clicked. We started hanging out quite a bit. We were once rivals and now we're best friends, which is pretty unique, I think."
Our hero, Stefan Frei
As Roldan watched name after name get called ahead of him at the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, only one thing went through his mind: "I didn't care what all these different clubs thought about me. I didn't care if they thought I was good or bad. The reality was, I wasn't on their team."
Roldan went on to explain that he was never given a reason for his inexplicable drop, offering: "There were a couple of different people who said that I was a little bit smaller or they didn't think I was strong enough. Those were things that I just heard but for me, I knew what I was capable of."
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
He'd prove their assessment wrong in 2016, as Roldan and Morris combined to help Seattle eventually claim the MLS Cup over Toronto FC, a team that passed on Roldan three times at the draft.
It was a game defined by what didn't happen, more so than what did. Seattle failed to muster a single shot on goal. Neither team scored over 120 minutes. In the end, it was former Toronto goalkeeper Stefan Frei who proved the game-winner with his incredible save on a Jozy Altidore header.
"Initially I thought it was a routine save to be honest," Roldan recounted. "I kind of got blocked by one of the Toronto players so I couldn't really see the actual save and what he had to do to get to the actual ball. Then I looked at the replay and I said 'Wow! He actually saved our butts.'
"He saved our long season, our fight, our commitment to get back into the playoffs and make it to the finals - he saved our entire season.
"When we talk about that save with Stef, we joke around that he's like, our hero. The guy who really made this happen."
Beep test and quiet bliss
Morris is the undeniable star at Seattle, but Roldan likes not being in the spotlight. He describes himself as a "pretty quiet guy" who doesn't really talk much. He's not "extremely social" and likes to "go home and play video games and watch a movie," hobbies he says doesn't make him a very exciting person.
It's on the field that Roldan expresses himself fully - and in truth, he does so with everything he's got. It's why he topped the team's beep test scores this year, and did so as a purist. There's no cheating allowed ... at least, for now.
"I think, as you get older, you're definitely allowed to bend the rules a little bit. Not necessarily saying I bend the rules but I'm saying, later down the road, I'll probably bend the rules," Roldan said with a laugh, before adding: "It's not something I enjoy. I do not like the beep test."