Last fall Seattle Sounders midfielder Leighton O’Brien (NWN Coach for Rayos & Allegra) had a tough decision to make.  During his team’s USL-First Division semifinal win over Montreal, he injured his foot.  X-rays showed a stress fracture that required surgery and, even more troubling, doctors told him the fracture would probably completely break if he tried to play on it.  That doesn’t sound like much of a decision, does it?  Just don’t play.  It wasn’t that simple since the Sounders next contest was the league’s championship game.

“I knew regardless of what happened that I would have to have surgery.  We just made the decision I might as well play in the final.  I just went for it,” O’Brien said recently after a team practice.

“The best thing I did that week was not to wait for the final.  I trained that week trying to get it out of my mind.  The first few days I was really worried about it but towards the end of the week I just said ‘forget it’.”

So O’Brien was in the starting lineup for the game.  Head coach Brian Schmetzer knows full well how painful it is to have that exact injury.

“I actually did what Leighton did on both of my feet, so I know the pain he was going through.  We needed him in there.  It was a championship game and he played well throughout the entire game.  That takes some fortitude, some mental toughness to play through that.”

O’Brien played the entire first half without any further injury, so he went out and played the second half as well, helping set up a Sounders goal with a 40-yard free kick that was eventually put in the net by teammate Maykel Galindo.  After ninety minutes, the game was tied 1-1.  That meant extra time. 

O’Brien played thirty more minutes and when the game went to penalty kicks, he was one of four Sounders to convert as Seattle won the game in PK’s 4-3.  All told, that’s 120 minutes of soccer on a broken foot.

“You kind of get this adrenaline rush.  In the game I didn’t really think about it that much.  It was sore as hell afterwards though,” O’Brien admitted. “During the game you are just concentrating on what’s going on.”

O’Brien did have the surgery in the off-season and somewhat reminiscent of Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, there were some complications with his rehab after his heroic performance.

“It was only supposed to be an eight week recovery and it turned into months.  They thought I re-broke it and there were all sorts of complications, but now it’s back to where it should be.”

Now O’Brien’s goal is to once again play at the level that earned him the USL First Division (then the A-League) MVP Award in 2002.  At the age of 30 Leighton is in a different position than many of the players in his league.  Most players have hopes of getting noticed by MLS or European teams; O’Brien has already had that experience.  After his MVP season, he played for two seasons with Boden in the Swedish second division.  That was followed by a fairly unproductive half season in the MLS with Real Salt Lake (no goals, no assists in six games) before he returned to the Sounders last July.  He seems to have a clear understanding that a promotion at this point in his career is not very likely.

“If someone’s going to call I’ll listen, but at my age…playing at the highest level would be nice but I’ve been all over the place.  It’s kind of nice to settle down and if my phone rings, it rings.  I’m here and I enjoy playing for the club.”

Instead of the dream of playing on a bigger stage, it’s O’Brien’s internal drive that motivates him.

“I respect the Seattle club and I like the city, the fans, and the game.  To me, it doesn’t matter what league I’m in; I’m motivated to be the best player I can be and to win every time out.”

An example his coach hopes rubs off on the rest of his teammates.  “I’m just looking forward to getting him for another two or three years,” says Schmetzer.  “He can do what he did for me that first year and the second half of last year, which is be a leader of my team and central midfielder.”

Whether O’Brien finishes his career in Seattle or not, he’s made his mark with this franchise and he’ll always have a couple of reminders of his contributions to the championship season of 2005….a championship ring and a surgical scar on the broken foot he played on.