Born on this day in 1995, in Santa Cruz, California, is ex-Sunderland player and current Stoke City man Lynden Gooch. Goochy made 247 appearances during his time on Wearside.
From an early age, it was clear Gooch had a lot of potential – and his talent was clear. Whilst still at school, Lynden joined the U.S. Soccer Development Academy club at the Santa Cruz County Breakers Academy, providing him with the much needed push required at such a young and impressionable age.
Gooch's talent attracted the attention of several European scouts , earning him a trial and eventual spot with Sunderland's youth academy, the place where his career started, and ultimately blossomed…
From the age of 10, Gooch travelled to Sunderland regularly from the USA during school holidays for training before finally moving to England and subsequently joining full-time at the age of 16, after signing a two-year scholarship.
Before being loaned to Doncaster, the winger made his professional debut for Sunderland, on August 26th 2015. This was in the League Cup second round match against Exeter City. Gooch stepped onto the pitch as a substitute in the 58th minute, walking off at full time after a successful 6-3 win.
He made his Premier League debut, starting away against Manchester City in Sunderland's first match of the 2016/17 season which unsurprisingly ended in a 2–1 defeat. But despite showing promising signs, Moyes seemingly refused to trust youth and instead preferred Adnan Januzaj and Fabio Borini out wide...
Gooch scored his momentous first goal for the Black Cats on August 22nd 2017 in a 2-1 League Cup win at Carlisle. He said post–match that he had “dreamt of the moment since the age of 10”, a true reminder of the childhood dedication he showed the club he loved most.
Then one month later Gooch recorded his first league goal, a penalty that he won himself to equalize in a 2–1 home loss to Cardiff City in the Championship. Sunderland suffered a second consecutive relegation that season, leaving us hopeful for a swift promotion back to the Championship and beyond...
In our first game in League One, Gooch headed an added-time winner in a 2–1 home victory over Charlton Athletic – this match being the Black Cats' first opening win for eleven years - in what would have been the last season of his contract. At the time the win seemed to represent a new Sunderland team, who would fight until the last minute and play exciting, attacking football under Jack Ross.
One of Lynden's most notable career moments is scoring the only goal against Tranmere Rovers in the Papa John's Trophy. While looking back now it was merely an unnecessary distraction to our promotion campaign, it did provide us with a much needed boost during lockdown.
When we finally won promotion to the Championship, many questioned Gooch's ability to compete at a higher level - particularly in his new position as a right back. But he clearly put in the hard yards during pre-season and instantly looked like a solid Championship-quality fullback. Despite himself suffering a couple of injuries, he came back to play an important role in last season's last minute push into the playoff spots. He notably assisted our equalizer away to West Brom with a wonderful cross to Dennis Cirkin and captained the side for the last three regular league fixtures and in both legs of the play off semi-final.
With our model of bringing in younger players that arguably have a higher ceiling than our current crop of players, the American international was always going to be a strong candidate to depart. When rumors first emerged that Stoke City, then managed by Alex Neil were after him, it's hard to say that that too many were surprised then. Most of our fans were still upset at the though of him departing though, due to his longevity in red and white. It took until deadline day for the transfer to actually be announced, as he joined Ross Stewart as the other player to leave for another team who play in red and white stripes. He has recently become a regular starter for Stoke, unsurprisingly, and scored his first goal for them in a 1-1 draw away to West Brom. It probably wasn't intentional (it was the result of a cross that ended up going goal-bound) but that shouldn't take it away from him.
He'll be remembered fondly on Wearside and I wouldn't be surprised if he returns to Sunderland at some point in the future, probably in some form of non-playing role.
