MLS SuperDraft selections Charlie Lyon and Oniel Fisher came to Seattle in late January to join Sounders FC for preseason training. Unlike most of the other rookies in camp, neither Lyon nor Fisher knew for certain if he’d be sticking around for the 2015 season.
Fellow draftees Cristian Roldan and Andy Craven had signed deals with MLS prior to the Draft. First-year strikers Darwin Jones and Victor Mansaray were already under contract as Homegrown Players. Fisher and Lyon, meanwhile, remained unsigned at the start of this season after training with the club for nearly two months, including preseason camps in California and Arizona.
That hard work and dedication finally paid off earlier this week when Sounders FC officially signed the two rookies to First-Team contracts.
“Getting the deal signed and done, I’m just ready to get on the field and help the team as much as I can,” Fisher said. “I still have to put the work in, and to get in the squad I have to raise my tempo a bit. So that’s what I’m doing right now.”
“It was a long preseason not knowing,” Lyon added. “You just show up each day and work hard. That won’t change, but it is a relief to have the contract signed and to be moving forward.”
This week’s announcement added to an especially exciting March for Lyon, who got engaged to his girlfriend, Jacie, one week before signing his contract with Sounders FC.
Lyon, a goalkeeper drafted in the fourth round, was twice a first-team All-Big East selection at Marquette University. Since he arrived in Seattle, the 22-year-old has enjoyed learning from Goalkeeper Coach Tom Dutra and veteran netminders Stefan Frei and Troy Perkins.
“They’ve been teaching me a lot,” Lyon said on Tuesday. “To have three people that are giving me feedback has been really helping me improve my game.”
For Fisher, a 23-year-old right back out of the University of New Mexico, the primary mentor throughout the preseason was highly experienced defender Tyrone Mears.
“I watch Tyrone every day,” Fisher said. “I’ve talked to him a few times. I kind of take what he is doing because he’s coming from that high level of soccer. I pretty much watch him and how he plays, his body position – just detailed stuff. I take it into consideration to better myself.”
One reason for the delay in officially signing Fisher and Lyon was the CBA negotiations between the league and the MLS Players Union. Once the Sounders FC technical staff learned that teams would have 28 roster spots for this season, it proceeded with inking the two rookies to deals.
“We were always going to sign them, but we didn’t know if it’d be the First Team or S2,” said General Manager & President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey.
“The general concept is that you can loan down but you can’t loan up,” Lagerwey continued. “That’s not 100 percent, but that’s the simplest way to explain it. So if those guys are signed to Sounders contracts, the advantage is that we can move them up and down.”
S2 plays its opening match on Saturday against defending USL champion Sacramento Republic FC. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. PT at Starfire Stadium. The First Team hosts Club Tijuana in an international friendly on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. PT at CenturyLink Field.
