In Brazilian attacker Léo Chú and former Colorado Rapids winger Nicolas Benezet, the Seattle Sounders' pair of deadline day acquisitions arrive in the Pacific Northwest with differing profiles.
Chú, 21, is Seattle's first-ever signing via the league's U22 initiative and joins after playing just 38 games in the Brazilian top flight between his hometown club of Grêmio and a loan stint with Ceará. He's raw and might not have many professional minutes under his belt, but the upside is undeniable, as evidenced by a YouTube highlight-reel that oozes swagger and showcases some of the dynamic traits that caught the eye of Seattle's scouting department.
"By signing Léo Chú, we really added to our stable of young players," Sounders general manager and president of soccer Garth Lagerwey said Thursday. "He's somebody who is athletic, fast, electric, aggressive. But a younger player and a player that's going to need some mentoring."
Benezet, 30, represents the more known MLS commodity. The Frenchman has spent the last three-plus years in the league, first with Toronto FC and then the Rapids before Thursday's trade brought him to Seattle for $50K in General Allocation Money. He played against Seattle at Lumen Field in the 2019 MLS Cup Final during his Toronto tenure.
"We wanted to have some balance, we wanted to add another veteran," Lagerwey explained. "He's a good veteran add. He's coming here for the stretch run and we're really excited to add a player of his pedigree, who's been a starter in the French first division and obviously been a good player in MLS as well.
It's certainly a contrast in age and experience, but Lagerwey said that was all by design as Seattle eye another MLS Cup run and contend with a hectic schedule during the second half of the season. The depth of head coach Brian Schmetzer's team will truly be tested.
"The fixture congestion really hasn't started yet," Lagerwey said. "It really gets daunting now, starting literally our next set of games. I think we only have two midweeks off for the next three months.
"These moves were made with the idea of, we have a really good team. We added pace that we didn't have and we added another veteran piece from a guy who's played in a final, played in the French first division and we think we bolstered ourselves for the stretch run."
The other X-factor, Lagerwey said, is simply getting healthier. Seattle have been hit hard by injuries during the season's first half, with star playmaker Nicolas Lodeiro, stalwart goalkeeper Stefan Frei and breakout defender Nouhou Tolo just some of the key names that have missed extended time. US men's national team winger Jordan Morris also hasn't played this season due to a torn ACL he suffered while on loan overseas with Swansea City.
Seattle have done an admirable job of weathering the storm and enter MLS Week 18 second in the Western Conference standings. But cracks have started to show in recent weeks, as Seattle are 1W-3L-1D in their last five games, including a disappointing string of home results that saw them take just one point from three matches.
Between the arrival of Seattle's two new additions and getting injured pieces back, Lagerwey said he has full confidence in their roster returning to the levels of earlier in the season. The Sounders opened with an MLS-record 13 games unbeaten to start the year.
"We're going to have the best transfer window of any team in MLS, but less to do with signing these two guys and more to do with the five guys that are coming back," Lagerwey said. "It started with Nico last night, hopefully we get Nouhou back, we get Frei back down the stretch. Who knows, maybe we'll even see Jordan in the playoffs or something like that. But getting healthy, getting back up to speed, we're really, really excited about our team. I know we've hit a little bit of a lull, but if anything the lull came later than we thought it might. I think things kind of evened out if we looked at the body of work as a whole.
"Now we need to get the big dogs back and we've added a couple pieces and hopefully it's the right recipe to try and take a run at another championship."
