Sounders Pre-season ...

Sounders Pre-season ...


I was originally planning on not blogging the Hispanic All Star game ... but I jotted down some notes, emailed them to GS-1, and they got posted ... so I decided to put one post together of the notes from the two Seattle Sounders preseason games I attended.

Seattle Sounders 4
Hispanic All Stars 2
Comcast Cup 2008 - March 30, 2008
Pop Keeney Stadium - Bothell, WA

Notes:
Seattle scored 8 minutes in on a a nice goal ... but the 2 starters and 9 subs/trialists gave up a goal a minute later ... nice crack on that HAS goal, but the D left him alone with the ball too long ...

Seattle got one back a while later and should have had a first half third goal but CT tapped a PK softly enough for me to save it from the stands ...

Seattle got a couple other 2nd half goals and the Seattle GK (turned out to be Dragavon) slipped on his @$$ and had a ball simply bounce over his head in the 85th minute ...

Spoke with Puerto Rican International Graham Taylor in line for the Men's Room (weird I know, but I had a serious Q about the whole PR thing and he was gracious enough to answer it) and it turns out he may not be allowed to play for PR in the future due to a protest and the weirdness that is FIFA eligibility ... I still hope he is announced as "Puerto Rican International Graham Taylor" from now on though ...

Hugo showed me something I had never seen from him in Portland and Seattle; he was clearly the best player on the field and controlled the game. Often, I have thought of him as a player that sort of floats in and out and picks his spots, but he was clearly in charge of the field. I liked that.

Oh, and the food was great ... sort of like at the Rose Bowl in 01 when I saw the Galaxy and Earthquakes and ate from the Hispanic concessions ... the roasted corn was nummy ...

http://seattlepitch.tripod.com/matches/2008/mar30.html

Oh, and it was funny to have to hear Mitch do a Comcast Cup promo for the On Demand service after this game.

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Seattle Sounders 4
Seattle University Redhawks 2
April 6, 2008
Everett, WA - Goddard Stadium

Notes:

Starting lineup had the look of "Oh crap, the bosses are here, we better play some starters …" (Roth and Hanauer were sitting near me with Henderson)

When Le Toux was on the field for about 35 minutes in the 2nd half, they were a different team, when he left the field SU scored its second goal ...

When Jackson came on in the 2nd half, Puerto Rican International (and he should be introduced that way from now on but was not on this night) Taylor Graham and Jackson clearly were in control of the D and with Merl and Scott on the field were very, solid … it took changing that lineup and the Le Toux exit to allow SU to score #2 ...

When the ref announced 4 minutes of 2nd half stoppage, I have never seen Schmetzer as openly demonstrative about a referee decision; his entire body convulsed in frustration … there should be no stoppage in a game like that …

Doesn't it seem statistically improbable to have two Kenji's on different pro teams in Seattle?

Memo to SU players … when you are hoping to impress the MLS guys in attendance, fouling is a bad idea, play hard, but play smarter than that … and don't kick the ball away like a U12 player when you are angry about getting a red card ...