{"id":239028,"date":"2025-09-19T13:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T13:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239028\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T13:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T13:41:09","slug":"seattle-sounders-star-pedro-de-la-vega-they-called-me-puskas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239028\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Sounders star Pedro de la Vega: \u201cThey called me Pusk\u00e1s!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the type of openness and camaraderie you rarely see spanning the divide between rivals Portland<\/a> and Seattle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Timbers all-time great Diego Valeri chatted one-on-one with in-form Sounders star Pedro de la Vega<\/a> for this week\u2019s edition of \u2018Esto Es MLS<\/a>,\u2019 and the two Argentines went in depth on PDLV\u2019s jaw-dropping Leagues Cup goal<\/a> vs. Cruz Azul, the \u201cnonsense\u201d he saw on Instagram about the contentious scenes after Seattle\u2019s impressive win over Inter Miami<\/a> in the tournament\u2019s final, his gradual adaptation to life in North America and much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re a team that’s a bit of a pain, you know?\u201d de la Vega said of the Rave Green\u2019s 3-0 dispatching<\/a> of Lionel Messi<\/a> \u2013 one of his personal idols \u2013 and Miami, which ended with an ill-tempered altercation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re kind of annoying. And I think against these teams, you know you have to do something more \u2026 because from the point of view of play and quality, perhaps they’re superior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seattle\u2019s organization and intensity carried the day in front of a record crowd<\/a> at Lumen Field. And for all the postgame chatter about his exchange of words with Messi, de la Vega prefers to follow the unwritten code of \u2018what happens on the pitch, stays on the pitch.\u2019 He won\u2019t let the fracas damper the Sounders\u2019 achievements, which include him earning player of the tournament honors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I wanted to be far away from that situation,\u201d he said of the clashes. \u201cBecause for me, as I said before, playing against Messi, [Rodrigo] De Paul, in a final was something incredible for me. And then a bit of tension was generated in the game, in a play that was, ehhh, nothing \u2013 it ended there for me; it was nothing more than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfterward, well, a lot of things were said that obviously got me a little angry, you see? Because I look at Instagram and maybe people tag me in some posts and I say, \u2018What a load of nonsense this is.\u2019 \u2026 I’m left with all the beautiful and positive things from the final, and in fact, at the end, when the mess started, I also went somewhere else because, honestly, it seems to me that it was useless, it was unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n A goal for the ages<\/p>\n

This was not your typical player interview, and with good reason \u2013 these two aren\u2019t just countrymen, but former teammates, having crossed paths at Club Atl\u00e9tico Lan\u00fas during the final months of Valeri\u2019s storied career in 2022.<\/p>\n

Their connection is obvious, even though Valeri jokes that de la Vega wears \u201cthe wrong color of green,\u201d and the Rose City legend is the first to advocate for his younger counterpart\u2019s volleyed golazo against Cruz Azul to be nominated for the Pusk\u00e1s Award, FIFA\u2019s annual prize for the most beautiful goal in world soccer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lucky,\u201d said the unassuming attacker, revealing that his awestruck Sounders teammates \u201ccalled me Pusk\u00e1s\u201d after the stunning 7-0 trouncing<\/a> of the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a> winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn’t even thought about it, right? But seeing it afterwards, it was beautiful. It was a beautiful goal, one of those that’s very difficult to repeat, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Breakout season<\/p>\n

Sounders fans will certainly hope he can reproduce some measure of that excellence in their stretch run this autumn. Last year, the Designated Player\u2019s debut season in MLS was marred by injuries that limited him to just 652 minutes of league action, and de la Vega explained how he had to manage the transition to a wholly new environment, on and off the field, amid sky-high expectations.<\/p>\n

Slotting into his preferred spot as an inverted playmaker on the left flank has helped greatly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played a role that was nothing like what I have to do this year, which I think was mostly adapting to the team and helping out on the defensive end,\u201d he told Valeri. \u201cI think maybe playing on the left helped me a lot on offense too, because I feel more comfortable with the ball, I find space better, and I make better decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith time, patience and listening, with spending more time with my teammates, too, I think that helped me a lot to be better on the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seattle return to action this weekend with a visit to Austin FC<\/a> for a Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire clash at Q2 Stadium (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+<\/a>). De la Vega, who missed (knee) their midweek defeat at Miami, will hope to be available for selection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the type of openness and camaraderie you rarely see spanning the divide between rivals Portland and Seattle.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":239029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[125046,1582,276,2961,224,5337,55901,69871,44204,36219,37638,44203],"class_list":{"0":"post-239028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-atxvssea-09-21-2025","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-national-writer-charles-boehm","15":"tag-pedro-de-la-vega","16":"tag-priority-match","17":"tag-seattle-sounders-fc","18":"tag-sendtonews","19":"tag-sunday-night-soccer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115231253086342224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}