Deep inside the underbelly of CenturyLink Field, in a back room in the hallway between the coaches’ office and the home locker room, the superstar and the owners went through a dry run of the player’s unveiling.



The Sounders had paraded new signings in front of big crowds before, but never on this scale. Never Clint Dempsey, the captain of the U.S. men’s national team, whose return to Major League Soccer was far-fetched right up until the moment it wasn’t.



Joe Roth, standing in that cramped room on the evening of August 3, 2013, couldn’t quite believe his eyes. The flashiest and most ambitious member of Seattle’s ownership group, Roth had essentially dreamt the moment into being. He was the one who pressured co-owner Adrian Hanauer to check in with Dempsey’s agent Lyle Yorks every so often to check on Dempsey’s availability, persevering through years of not-a-chances.



Roth, the Hollywood director and ever the...