It’s tough to find a job after college – but most graduates aren’t Jordan Morris. The young soccer star was already a full US international by the time he graduated from Stanford University last year, and found himself in the rare position of having countless job offers upon graduation. He chose, in the end, to sign with his hometown Seattle Sounders over Werder Bremen – one more thing that helped him become one of the most hyped young players in the history of the American game.

Less than 12 months later, and Morris has handled such a burden better than anyone could have reasonably predicted. His maiden MLS season has seen him finish as Seattle’s top scorer with 14 goals, and on Saturday he will play his in his first MLS Cup. He, more than anyone else, deserves credit for leading the Sounders there.

And yet Morris still divides opinion. Perhaps it’s the unorthodox route he took to the top of the American game. Maybe it’s the fact he plays for the Seattle Sounders, probably the most widely disliked club in MLS. Whatever it is, Morris doesn’t quite get the acclaim he deserves as the brightest young talent the league has seen in at least a decade.

Jozy Altidore remembers the first time he ever encountered Morris, in a closed-doors match for USA against a Stanford select team before the 2014 World Cup. “He was great against us,” recalled the Toronto FC striker. “We beat them like six or seven or eight to one, but he scored the goal, and I remember looking over at [former national team assistant coach] Andi Herzog and saying: ‘Is it too late to bring this guy, bring him along with us to Brazil?” It didn’t take long for Altidore’s suggestion to be heeded, with Morris called up by Jürgen Klinsmann the fall immediately after the World Cup.

The Toronto FC striker will no doubt warn his club team-mates over the danger Morris poses in the run-up to Saturday’s MLS Cup final, having observed him at close quarters with the US national team. And that is perhaps the starkest illustration of how far Morris has come over the course of his rookie season. When Greg Vanney leads TFC’s tactical analysis, he will identify Morris as Seattle’s difference-maker, their matchwinner. Morris, still only 22 and in his rookie season, is already the face of MLS’s biggest club. The Sounders wouldn’t have made it this far without him.

There are certainly still fundamental flaws to Morris’ game that require refinement. He is still much stronger with one foot over the other and attempts to go on his own a little too often. Seattle likely envisaged using him as a channel-runner and pitch-stretcher when they signed him, with his instincts as a natural finisher still not as sharp as they could be. But as a work in progress, Morris has made significant strides over the past 12 months.

You wouldn’t bet against Morris making the difference on Saturday given his knack for big goals in big games. Take his first goal for USA, for instance – an opener against Mexico in front of a sold-out 64,000 strong crowd at the Alamodome. Or the diving header he netted against the Vancouver Whitecaps back in September which kept alive Seattle’s then slim play-off hopes. Or the fact that he has scored more game-winners for the Sounders this season than any other rookie in MLS history (seven). A winner in MLS Cup would provide the perfect summary for Morris’ season.

The US soccer hype machine has chewed up and spat out so many players that Morris must have at one point or another considered the prospect of becoming just another wunderkind who failed to live up to expectations. A nation is waiting for its first transcendental soccer superstar – the American Messi – and Morris was for a time saddled with the pressure that crushed so many before him.

Morris is not that superstar. He is not the savior of American soccer, because nobody is – not even Christian Pulisic. What Morris is, though, is a talent who may well have set a precedent for the college system, proving that an inherently American set-up can produce top-tier players. By lifting MLS Cup on Saturday Morris would finally have something tangible to show for his promise.