San Jose (USA), 10 Jan. The Seattle Sounders made history in 2022 with the first Concacaf Champions League for an MLS team and Peruvian international Raúl Ruidíaz, one of his great references, assured this Tuesday that this was just another step in the growth of the league.
“MLS has been showing, for some years now, that it’s growing a lot. Last year was the big test (with the Sounders title). I think from now on MLS will give a lot to talk about.” declared the attacker.
MLS celebrates its “Media Day” 2023 this Tuesday in San José (California, USA), an official open day for the media in view of the new season which will start on February 25th.
The new course comes with tasks for the Sounders, who in 2022, and for the first time in their 14-year history, were excluded from the MLS Cup “playoffs”.
“We didn’t do things the way we were supposed to do after winning a big tournament (the Concacaf Champions League). The next step is to maintain or surpass the level and ours hasn’t been like that,” he admitted about a year of contrasts which he called as “very strange”.
“But hey, that’s in the past and now we focus on this year, nothing else,” he added.
Ruidíaz, who has been one of those affected by injuries that have hampered the team’s performance in 2022, has added 9 goals and 2 assists in 18 games.
The Peruvian said he feels “super good” physically heading into 2023 and stressed that he is particularly excited about Seattle’s participation in the FIFA Club World Cup, which will be held in Morocco.
“We are very excited about this great tournament. It is the most important in the history of the Sounders. We are preparing ourselves in the best way both physically and mentally to do things right,” he said.
Finally, Ruidíaz spoke about the signing of Brazilian forward Héber, who scored 10 goals for New York City last year.
“He’s a very good player. The attack will give us a lot on the subject (…). Come with me,” he said.
