Meet the new Sounders player who wowed fans with last-minute goal in debut

A ball knocked in goal during a wild scramble in the final moments at the Sounders season opener on Saturday not only clinched a 1-0 victory over defending MLS champion Sporting Kansas City, it also made for quite an introduction for a new player to Seattle’s ball club.

“I couldn’t have wished for a better start to my Sounder career,” Chad Barrett tells KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz.

Barrett has previously played in the MLS for the Chicago Fire, Toronto, LA Galaxy and New England, but playing in Seattle is what he’s always wanted.

“I’ve always had family up here in Vancouver, Wash. and Portland, Ore,” says Barrett. “It’s always been a dream of mine since Seattle and Portland got teams up here.”

After nine seasons in the MLS, the 28-year-old, is happy for once to be on the right side of Seattle’s notorious fans.

“When I was the away team, it was always just terrible playing here just because of the level of noise they bring to the game.”

And he made a good first impression, making good on a scoring opportunity after Clint Dempsey’s header clanged off the crossbar and goalkeeper Eric Kronberg was caught out of his net.

“As a forward, you just want to make sure if the opportunity to cherry pick is there, that you’re there to pick the cherry, and luckily I was there that time,” says Barrett. “When it came to me, I just thought I better score this goal or there’s going to be some repercussions.”

The goal was a stunning conclusion after it appeared Kansas City would be happy to open its title defense getting out of Seattle with a draw.

Barrett hopes to continue with more successful action from the Sounders this coming weekend when the team takes on Toronto. He just hopes this time they can get the game under control a little earlier.

“Hopefully, they don’t leave it until the 94th minute to secure a win. Hopefully, it starts earlier and we can cruise to a victory.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.