Don’t let his stature fool you, Seattle Impact FC forward Gordy Gurson can be a scoring dynamo on the field with more than 15 goals scored in the first three indoor soccer games.
“I used to play against him,” said goalkeeper Peter Silwa, who played for the AAC Eagles against Gurson. “I’m like, we need this guy so I just recruited him over.”
Coming out of the Premiere Arena Soccer League and changing to the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) has forced him to make adjustments as he gets used to the differences in the two leagues.
“It’s very different,” said Gurson as the Impact prepares for a game against the Sacramento Surge at 4 p.m. Sunday at the ShoWare Center in Kent. “Guys are bigger, stronger and faster. They’re more organized, you can tell it’s a completely different level between the premier league and the MASL.”
Playing his first season in the MASL, the Chicago native transferred from the Chicago Mustangs to the Impact, disrupting his life and leaving his family and girlfriend behind to pursue his dream of playing professional soccer.
“I didn’t even get my degree yet,” Gurson says, “but I couldn’t really turn down an offer to play professional, that I’ve been working so hard for.”
While he grew up with arena soccer by nature — the harsh Chicago weather isn’t very conducive to outdoor playing — Gurson says he likes both soccer styles equally.
“I’d like to get on an outdoor team as well after the season,” he says. “I figured I’d take the chance in the indoor and hopefully work my way to outdoor after that.”
Playing as an aggressive forward, the key for Gurson is positioning.
“To me it’s just being in the right spots at the right time. Against San Diego people weren’t able to find me as much,” he says. “These guys know where to find me, I’ve been doing my job and they’ve been doing theirs.”
He looks up to players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as inspirations for his playing.
“It’s nice to know that people my size made it, I played basketball and baseball my whole life as well and my parents kept telling me ‘you’re too short, you’re too short’ you’re not gonna make it, so sticking with soccer and seeing guys such as Messi gives me hope.”
His favorite moments in games are when he feels he’s building the team’s morale.
“I love pumping our team up, I love getting everybody going,” he says, “so it’s keeping the team’s heads up and making sure we’re on the same page.”
In one of the Impact’s recent games, Gurson was red carded off the field for throwing the ball at an opposing player. While he regrets the mistake, he wasn’t too worried about it’s impact on the team.
“To be honest with you, it’s part of the game,” he says. “I knew I messed up, I went up to the guys right after the game, shook their hands and apologized.”
He says that that behavior isn’t abnormal in soccer.
“I mean you see the guys last night at the Sounders game (Clint) Dempsey was getting into it,” he says. “It happens all over.”
Gurson has also been attached to the controversy surrounding the Impact as the primary defendants in a class action lawsuit. Gurson has been named in the lawsuit and alleged to have helped owner Dion Earl cover up a sexual assault. He says he’s been trying to simply put the issue out of his head while he plays.
“Whatever people want to say, they can say. Right now to me, it’s all a bunch of he said-she said,” Gurson says.
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