Goalkeeper Michael Gspurning will not be back with the Sounders, a club spokesman said Monday. The club will not pick up its contract option in 2014. Gspurning lost his starting job late in the season and becomes the biggest casualty so far of the Sounders’ collapse in which the club lost nine of its final 10 games, including in the playoffs.Salary was a factor: Gspurning, 32, was paid $285,000 and was MLS’s second-highest paid goalie. But 41-year-old Marcus Hahnemann started three of the final six games, which included a single-game, red-card suspension.
The 6-foot-5 Austrian did well for awhile in succeeding the club’s most iconic player, Kasey Keller, who retired two seasons ago. In 2012, Gspurning was a finalist for MLS goalkeeper of the year, averaging 0.73 goals against.
Also likely gone are five players who were posted to the MLS’s re-entry draft Friday: Steve Zakuani, Mauro Rosales, Marc Burch, Josh Ford and Blair Gavin. The team declined contract options on the four except for Zakuani, whose contract expired.
Teams can re-sign players, or players can opt out, by 2 p.m. Wednesday, but typically most teams do not. The first chance to make an offer is Thursday.
The oft-injured Zakuani was one of six Sounders remaining from the team’s first year in 2009.
3 Comments
Disappointing but expected. Gspurning did a complete tailspin in the last quarter of the season that affected the team negatively. Hope he can rebound from that. When he’s on he’s a solid GK. Not sure what happened to him there.
I’m okay with all of this. Although i’d not put the late season collapse on Gspurning’s shoulders. Our Center Backs Hurtado and Traroe were abysmal. But Gspurning’s pay check was a bit steep and this may have been a cap move.
Gspurning played his way out of Seattle but compared with Dempsey, NOBODY’s paycheck is remotely steep.