'Best soccer in my career' - Wednesday Convo with Seattle Sounders' Jordan Morris, who is eying spot on USMNT World Cup squad

Morris: “Obviously, it's special for me, being from Seattle, being a hometown kid, you know, going from being a fan to being down on the field playing, and it was a dream of mine for a long time to play for the Sounders. I’ve spent most of my career here, had some success in terms of winning trophies and obviously scoring goals and getting to live out my childhood dream.

"It's been a dream come true, but it's been really cool. It's a very special, special thing that not a lot of people get to experience.”

"I’m a family guy, and my wife, we actually went to high school together, but she's a Seattle girl as well. Our families are here, we just had our first kid last year, and so for me, you know, growing up here, and now my extended family, with my wife and her family, they are here as well.

"Obviously, Seattle is so important for us as a family, and having our kid grow up here now, it's just cool to have all that you know come to fruition, while also playing for the Sounders and the team that I grew up supporting... My parents are still in the same childhood home that I grew up in, so it's cool to juggle back and visit them and kind of relive that childhood a bit. But, yeah, obviously it means a ton to us. It's an amazing place to raise a family."

"It’s the best, honestly. I mean, obviously it comes with work, but we're so blessed. We're so lucky. He's an amazing kid. For me, I think part of, I think my success too, is the freedom that having a kid has brought me, you know, before soccer weighed so heavily on me, and I don't think I did a great job at letting things go.

"I’ve felt this kind of new freedom on the field, because it really puts into perspective what's important in life, and obviously our job is win games, my job is to score goals, and that's still going to be the goal every single time I step on the field, but I play with more freedom now, knowing that I have him back home."

"It was a crazy experience. You know, I wasn't really part of any youth national team, pretty much at all growing up. So I didn't have a ton of experience with the national program. I would say I was a late bloomer. We had a scrimmage against the national team when they came to Stanford to train before the World Cup and I had a good game and kind of caught Jurgen’s eye (Klinsmann).

"It was a pretty interesting way to get my first call up. But, yeah, I got called up to the first camp after the World Cup…What an experience for me to kind of go from nothing, to playing for the full national team, getting to score against Mexico while still in college. I mean, it was obviously incredible."

“I had a chance to go on trial in Germany [with Werder Bremen], and for me, I thought the better decision would be to sign for Seattle and get consistent playing time. And obviously there was some pressure on me coming out of college to perform as a guy that already played for the national team, and so learning to navigate that was something that helped grow my career. And when I look back, I have zero regrets whatsoever. I think I’ve had a great career so far, I have a lot I still want to accomplish, goals to still get back into the national team, but no real regrets.

"I think if I said there was one regret of my career, which I didn't even regret, because it was out of my hands, but my injury when I went to Swansea, like I was really excited for that opportunity and excited to be in the fight to get promoted to the Premier League… but they were in it at the time, and to kind of move over there, have that new experience that I was really excited about and and obviously have it end quickly with a bad injury is my one regret of my career.

"So I think people like to label, like to look at my career say, 'Oh, you only wanted to stay at MLS,' whatever they want to say about it… but I was really excited about that opportunity, and was looking forward to a new challenge, and I still struggle with that at times when I think back on that, it's still pretty painful. So that would be my one regret of my career, even though it was something that was out of my hands.

"The first thing I thought when I got injured was I still have time to make the World Cup team, because that was everything to me, because I obviously had been a big part of the national team at that at that time, I think I had my two best years of my national team career the two years before. So, my whole goal was to make the World Cup even when I got injured.

"The World Cup was pretty much a year and 10 months away, or something like that. So I knew I still had time to get back and recover for that, and that was my whole goal. So I think having that kind of on the horizon was something that helped me so much during my recovery, because that recovery is brutal and to have something like that pushing you, to make sure that you get back to your best and not take shortcuts to get back to where I was before the injury, I think that was the whole motivation. So I think having that World Cup looming and wanting so bad to be part of that was something that pushed me to get back to my best."

"I mean, obviously, a new coach - and no, I haven't spoken to anyone there - but my goal will always to try to be part of the national team. The biggest honor of your career is to represent your country, and being able do that at the biggest stage at the World Cup kind of just makes you hungrier for even more.

"He's an incredible coach and has had an incredible career so far. So I think I'd say exciting, and guys are excited for the future of this team, with all the other qualities that we have and the growth of soccer in this country. But I want to say too, I love Gregg (Berhalter). I thought he did an incredible job. Was a really, really good coach. And, you know, I learned a ton from Gregg about the game, and I think he helped grow a lot of the players. So obviously, grateful to him for everything that he did for myself and the program. I think he helped to push it forward."

"For those (doubters) I don't miss that stuff. I don't really care what people say. Everyone's career is different, and I've grown a lot in MLS and grown as a player, but, yeah, you know, my career has unfortunately been stalled by two bad knee injuries... And I think what people look at is, yeah, I had the opportunity to sign in Germany before coming to Seattle, I just thought the best decision for me at the time was to not go over there, and I didn't think I was quite ready to do that.

"Everything happened pretty quick for me. And I was excited to come back, I was excited to play for the Sounders, that had been my goal for so long. The goal was to maybe go there for a couple years (Seattle), perform well, and then try to try to move over there (Europe), and again, like I said, a couple bad injuries, and I did make the move and got hurt again.

"So, people are going to say whatever they want to say, It doesn't really bother me. I felt that I've had a really good career and have a lot more to accomplish. And that being said, if an opportunity popped up after this season, that may be something that I look at… But obviously, if I’m in Seattle for the rest of my career, whatever that holds, I’m just going to keep trying to grow and keep getting better. I'm super proud of everything that I've accomplished so far, but still hungry for a lot."