For Azriel Gonzalez, it was as if his video games had come to life.
At age 15, the closest he’d gotten to Clint Dempsey and the Sounders had been through the EA Sports FIFA soccer video game. But then, this week, he found himself inside a locker room in Tukwila suiting up alongside one of the more decorated American players in history.
Dempsey spotted a quiet Gonzalez hunched in a corner trying to act invisible. That’s when the former U.S. national team captain walked over and asked him how he was.
“I didn’t even respond,” Gonzalez said.