My View from the 2016 MLS Cup

Seeing the game as a photographer, not a player

Last weekend, I travelled nearly 500 miles to watch Toronto FC host the Seattle Sounders in the final. And instead of bringing soccer boots, I lugged along two Canon DSLR cameras, four L Series lenses and five memory cards.

I wasn’t at BMO Field as a player — I was on assignment for The Players’ Tribune, doing something that has become my second love: photography.

Over the last year people have become more aware of my interest in photography, but I’m still sort of the new guy when it comes to this stuff. So when I got to the stadium it Toronto, the photographers and journalists who know me as a player were surprised and happy to see me at the game in a different role. I think some of the players and former players who were there had to do a double take when they saw me on the sideline with my camera equipment.

Of course, I wish NYCFC could have been one of the clubs in the MLS Cup final, but to have the chance to bring together my love of soccer and my love of photography was an incredible experience. Even standing in the photo wells, I still felt this energy and I still had a job to do.

From the Toronto FC fans marching to the game, to the Sounders fans singing from the nosebleeds, to the 20° cold that froze my hands to the camera, it was an exhilarating challenge to really capture the spirit of this match. Hopefully, the fact that I know exactly what the final meant to the players who were playing — and what it had taken for them to get there — comes through in my photos.

And when the match ended and I was shooting the Seattle locker room celebration, I was just as pumped as the Sounders — because my hard work had got me to that moment as well.