Ian Bridge: Loved then & honored now
by Heather Johnson, WATN Editor
How can anyone not remember Ian Bridge fondly? Stalwart defender, photographer, accordion player, and a clean-cut almost local boy (Victoria, B.C.), his appeal couldn’t have been broader.
Spotted by coach Jimmy Gabriel, the 19-year-old Bridge signed with the Sounders after a one-day tryout in 1979. He might have been young, but he wasn’t without worthy credentials, having a good deal of experience with Canadian National Youth teams. Gabriel’s intuition proved to be dead-on, and Bridge became a key player for the Sounders in their final five seasons. Despite the fact that he played in the era when teams had a quota for getting North Americans on the field, Bridge made the team for his ability, not his citizenship. He had a keen understanding of the game and was a remarkably speedy defender. His height, combined with a strange enthusiasm to head the ball, made him a dangerous offensive threat on Sounder corner kicks.
After the Sounders folded, Bridge returned to Canada to play for the Vancouver Whitecaps for one season, until the NASL folded following the 1984 season. In his all-too-short NASL career, Bridge scored 13 goals, quite a credible sum for a defender who had two of his six seasons interrupted by injury (he tore his ACL late in the 1980 season, and didn’t return until well into the 1981 season) and illness (an emergency appendectomy and complications in 1982 allowed him to only play in 9 games that year). From Vancouver, he went to Switzerland, where he played two more years. He also had brief tours of duty with the Tacoma Stars of the MISL and the Victoria Vistas, Kitchener Kickers, and North York Rockets of the Canadian Soccer League. On the side from all this, he managed to sneak in 33 caps for the Canadian National team, playing in the 1984 Olympics and the 1986 World Cup.
After retirement, Bridge immediately moved into coaching. He briefly coached women’s soccer at the collegiate level, but quickly moved into the Canadian National team realm, as head coach for the Canadian U-19 women, as well as serving as assistant coach for their women’s National team.
Ian is being honored in 2003 with induction into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame (Link below). He also recently received an amazing compliment: his contract with the U-19 Canadian Women's team as head coach was extended to 2008! (Link also below)
Ian Internet Links
Bridge goes into Canadian Hall Of Fame:
http://www.soccer.on.ca/OSN.nsf/0/d604e368c868ca8d85256b06006418f6?OpenDocument
Bridge gets huge contract extension with U-19 Canadian squad:
http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/media/viewArtical.asp?Press_ID=1472
The
Puget Sound On-Line Pro Soccer Museum features Ian in several of the years he played with the Sounders.
