For the second time in as many weeks to the start the 2017 season, the Seattle Sounders will travel to take on the former team of one of their offseason acquisitions.
Midfielder Harry Shipp will return to Montreal on Saturday as the Sounders take on the Impact (4 p.m. PT; JOEtv, ROOT Sports outside Seattle, KIRO Radio 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360AM), the team with whom he spent the 2016 season. The Sounders and forward Will Bruin fell 2-1 in Houston to his former team the Dynamo last week.
Shipp scored twice and added three assists in 27 regular-season matches with the Impact after being abruptly traded from his hometown Chicago Fire following the 2015 season. He only spent a year in Montreal, but he’s still excited to go back and see some familiar faces.
“It’s totally different for me versus last year going back to Chicago, that was a little weirder for me,” Shipp said on Tuesday. “I’m looking forward to seeing some of the guys.”
While Shipp did form a few friendships with some of his former Impact teammates, he never really felt comfortable while in Montreal. He said earlier this year that he was out of his comfort zone professionally and personally and struggled to settle into his new life in Quebec.
“I didn’t want to stay in Montreal for my whole life, I really didn’t,” Shipp said in January. “But having that year away from home was the best thing for my personal development. I feel so much different now as a person and a player than I did 12 months ago.”
Shipp was on the Sounders’ 18-man roster for their match in Houston, but he did not see the field. He had been nursing an ankle injury he suffered in the preseason, but he feels ready to play and get his first opportunity in a Seattle kit.
Of his own volition, Shipp told the coaching staff that he rewatched the Impact’s Eastern Conference Championship matches against Toronto FC and has given Schmetzer and his staff a breakdown of the team's tactics in that series. While he only there for one season, Montreal did not have a lot of personnel turnover heading into 2017, so Shipp said he would help Seattle prepare as best it can.
As to where Shipp may factor in for the Sounders at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday, Schmetzer has plenty of viable options in the midfield.
“He can play where Ozzie [Alonso] or Cristian [Roldan] play, he can play in [Clint] Dempsey’s role, he can play where [Nicolas Lodeiro] or [Alvaro Fernandez] play wide, he can play any one of those,” Schmetzer said of Shipp on Wednesday. “He fits in nicely.”
