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     Seattle, Washington, Quest Field, July 18, 2009 -

Both of my girls played organized recreational soccer from the age of 7 until they were well into High School. As a matter of fact both of my daughters were on Washington State Recreational U-17 State Championship teams, four years apart. It was a truly amazing time. So I spent years developing a love for this sport you probably know as soccer, and the rest of the world knows as football, but is commonly known as the beautiful game.

Seattle has had professional soccer teams since the late '70s. I've attended several matches over the years, but it never really caught my interest. Like most Americans, I found it a little boring. But after years of watching my daughters teams, from the times when they were little girls, until they were young women, years where they gain and honed their skills, and demonstrated that were able to execute those skills to a precision level... Well, I guess I really began to appreciate the skills of the game. In the last year that my youngest daughter, Hilary, played soccer, I began watching English Premier League (EPL) soccer matches on TV (ESPN and ESPN2). The level of play and skills demonstrated simply amazed me. This game we know as soccer, was a very exciting game! I began thinking that maybe I should subscribe to a soccer channel from my cable TV provider. When Hilary finally hung up her cleats, I begged my wife for the Fox Soccer Channel, about $7.00 per month. She gave in to my request!

I chose Chelsea
I didn't know the teams in the English Premier League (EPL) or any other league for that matter. I didn't have a favorite or preference. Two acquaintance of mine who were very much into EPL and soccer in general, one rooted for Arsenal, the other for Manchester United. So true to my personality and wanting to create a rivalry with them for fun, I had to choose a different team. I had seen and heard about this team called Chelsea, so I chose them as my team. I didn't know if they were good or not. Heck, if they were lousy I could always chose a different team, the following year. But that was not going to be necessary. I had chosen well! The first year of watching the Fox Soccer Channel, they won the Premier League title. This year, 2008-2009, they didn't fare as well but it was still an amazing year of great soccer. Go Blues!

Sounders FC
In the summer of 2008,the Major League Soccer association, the North American professional soccer league, FIFA I believe, granted Seattle an expansion team. The whole city exploded with excitement. The organization had a "Name the Team" contest that generated huge interest. TV personality and actor, Drew Carrey, became a minority owner of the team, chief spokesperson, and cheerleader for the team. I'm not sure how, but he definitely helped fuel excitement in the team. The organization based the structure of the team on the model that is used for the Team in Barcelona. For the soccer faithful that was significant! Season ticket sales went through the roof and the first five or six games were sell outs before the team colors were chosen.

I also was excited and planned to attend a game or two. I never entertained the thought of getting season tickets, because I have two college tuition payments to pay each month, but maybe later? Then the sponsor was announced, Microsoft Xbox 360. {sigh!}. I'm a bit of a Anti-Microsoft bigot. I feel they would rather litigate instead of innovate, but that is just me. Then the team colors were announced....WTF!. The best thing you can say was about the colors is, well, they are different and distinctive. Fluorescence green and blue. The organization named the team Seattle Sounders FC, the name taking the name of all the previous versions of professional Seattle Soccer teams. I kept hearing rumors that the team were trying to entice Thiery Henry, "the French David Beckham", to join the team. WOW that would be something! Then they signed Sigi Schmid as head coach. Sigi had just won the league championship with the Columbus team in the prior year. Double WOW! In addition, the organization did a great job of keeping the excitement level in the region high and everyone was ready for the season to begin.

The season started and the Sounders won three of their first four games. No team scored against Casey Keller, our goal tender, in the first three games. The Sounders played like no expansion team I'd ever seen! They were awesome! They were exciting! The talent on the team was very, very, good. I spoke too soon! The next seven games all ended in ties. There were several games in that series where the officiating was suspect and a couple of games where some key players couldn't play due to penalties incurred in previous games. The games were still exciting, but a little disappointing. Hey, Sigi was probably still playing with his talent pool. And the sellouts at the stadium continued (around 40,000/per game).

Tobias Pool, Goal keeper and Sounders Season ticket holder
Tobias, Toby to his friends, is a colleague of mine who also is a rabid soccer fan. He plays in an adult soccer league where he is the goal tender, goalie). Toby is a fan of Manchester United of the English Premier League and since Chelsea is one of their biggest rivals, we developed a friendly rivalry. He also has been tutoring me in all things "Soccer". When the Seattle Sounders became the newest expansion team of the MLS (Major Soccer League - the premier North American league), Toby became a season ticket holder. Toby invited me to a game as his guest. A gracious gesture on his part and of course I eagerly agreed. I had no idea at that time that a match with FC Chelsea was being negotiated. When that match was announced, I hinted to Toby that was the match I would LOVE to see! He made it happen! Thanks Toby!

PreMatch Ritual at Fados - An Irish Pub
Match Day arrives. I'm up at five AM as usual, yes even on weekends. Allison needs a lift to a friends by 8:00 AM and I need to meet Toby by 8:30 AM. We are goyng to a place call Fado's in downtown Seattle, near Pioneer Square. Not knowing what to expect from traffic at this time of day on a Saturday, I end up getting to Toby's place way too early.

Well we get to Fado's by 09:00 and stake out a table for the group of people he was expecting. We ordered Bloody Mary's and I ordered breakfast. Then his friends begin to arrive and by 10:00 AM there are eight of us. I am about 25 years older than Toby and most of the rest at the table. By ten, we have moved on to drinking Jameson's Irish Whiskey and getting prepared for the match. In the pub, nearly everyone is wearing soccer jerseys or regalia of some sort. There is a huge group of Chelsea supporters at the back of the place, while Sounders supporters are in the front.

Eleven o'clock arrives and it is time to head out to the match. It's a little early but we want to pick up scarfs at the team store. Team Scarfs are a uniquely soccer thing, at least for the English Teams. Occidental Park is where the "Sounders March to the Match" begins, ending at Qwest Stadium. This is another pre-game civic ritual. The official "march" has already happened, but there are so many people on the way to the stadium it seems like we are in the march. The streets are packed with people. There are 65,000+ people expected at the match. It is a sea of Sounders fluorescence green with blue. I'm amazed at the number of people wearing "official Sounders Gear", maybe 60% at the stadium. Sixty five thousand fans is often times a larger crowd than the NFL Seahawks draw.

Have I mentioned that it is one of those spectacularly beautiful sunny July days in Seattle. It is an awesome day to be outside. For me that means it is going to be hot. I hope that there will be a breeze. Toby sez "You know those people who say you shouldn't drink before 5 PM,... Well they are Wrong!" I have to agree! We have a great buzz going and the excitement is building.

At Quest Field - Home of Seattle Sounders FC
We get to the stadium and it is already about 1/3 full of people. This is my first time at Qwest Field. I can see why it has been called one of the best venues for for football and soccer. The seats are very close to the field. We head through the concourse. Toby wants to go to a stand near his seating area to get a t-shirt and a commemorative scarf and I want to get one of the blue Sounders FC scarfs (about $20 and it's a quality made woolen scarf). The stand isn't really too crowded but the customers they do have are all buying and they are all buying multiple items. The money is really flowing. Don't these people now that there is a recession happening! Our clerk is new. Obviously they knew with 65,000+ fans in attendance, about 40% more than typical, they were going to be busy and needed to bring on some extra help.

We got our scarves and head to our seats. OMG front row, seats one and two, adjacent to where all the players come on to the field from the locker rooms. Fabulously, unbelievable seats. The flag where corner kicks are taken is only about 8-10 yards away. If I had peanut with an easy underhand lob, I could hit the player taking a corner kick. We are about 8 - 10 feet above the pitch or field. I tell Toby that he needs to put these seats into his will for his heirs. Awesome seats. Section 114, Row A, Seats 13 and 14. I'm on the aisle, Toby is one seat in (toward the North). I think of them as seats 1 and 2!

It is about this time that Toby tells me that we can't sit down during the match. It is fan tradition that the entire 1st level of the stadium stands during the entire 90 minutes of the match. I can hardly believe my ears. How do you build a tradition like this after only about six to ten matches? Oh, Yeah. Fanaticism! This is the place for it. It was actually an awesome thing to behold. [Note: Later I heard that many aspects of the Seattle Sounders FC is based upon some of the same traditions held by the FC Barcelona, including the fans having a say in the head coach selected and other aspects. The idea that the fans are an integral part of the team. What a refreshing concept. How so unAmerican! I love it.]

The players enter the Stadium
The Sounders enter the stadium first. A big rush of people surge into our area. They want autographs from the players. Scarves, programs, ticket stubs, noise making trumpets, whatever they have. Most of the players approach the other side of the entrance. Just as well it is total bedlam because there is about 50 prople pushing, elbowing, and yelling the players names trying to get their attention. Some come over but most just head toward the sidelines and the benches. I recognize about a third of their faces. I've seen all of the televised so it wasn't that difficult.

It is another five or more minutes before the Chelsea players come onto the pitch. I should've expected them, but it caught me off guard. Lots of faces I didn't recognise. Could these be the substitute playes. Wait, there is Frank Lampard, and Michel Ballick. Lots of black faces, not like African American black, but a deep ebony black. Then I see #3's back. That would be Ashley Cole, my favorite Chelsea player's, back. It was then I realised that I wouldn't know Ashley Cole face from Barack Obama. Then Drogba came by. Hey he's not wearing shoes! He's got on some fancy flipflop-like locker room shoes. Maybe he's not going to play?! Som of the players begin throwing t-shirts into the stands. One is heading right to me, so I reach out to snag it, but a fellow in the aisle has the angle on me a snags it! Then Toby snags one. We're both estatic, but when we examine it is must be a child's medium size. There is a kid about ten next to me in the aisle. All of the big people have aced him out of the prizes. He looks to be the right size for the t-shirt. I motion to Toby that if he didn't want the shirt that maybe the kid would. Toby drapped it around the kid's neck. It took the kid a second or two to understand what just happened. He thanked Toby and a few minutes later headed back to his seat, smiling. What a classy thing to do!

Another Pre-Game ritual - The presentation of the Golden Scarf
The Sounders FC has another pre-game ritual they do before each home game. They erect a small, but elaborate stage at mid-field. Then the two beautiful women carry a special long wooden box out to the stage. A member of the community/state community who are either part of the soccer scene or have done remarkable things for society in the state is presented with a special gold scarf. Scarves have come to symbolize the game of soccer, which are raise over ones heads.

On this particular day Dale Chihuly, the world renowen glass artist/sculpter was there to receive the recognition and to present a piece of his work "The Emerald Spire", (shown at left) to the president of FC Chelsea in the spirit of a friendly match. In the images included, the ladies who escourt the box with the "Golden Scarf", were even more beautiful in person than the images allude to. That burns another five to ten minutes. The the two national anthems are played, the tossing of the coin to select which goal to defend is determinded. Chelsea will defend the goal near us in the first half! Toby and I will have excellent chance to watch Petr Cech tend goal. He with the padded helmet. At this point our seats, which have been in the shade, burst into the sun light.

FC Chelsea Verses Sounders FC
     Seattle, Washington, Quest Field, July 18, 2009, Noon PDT -

Someplace along the line, I've begun to become over come with the sights, the sounds, the experiences. I'm having a blast, but I think I'm in sensory overload mode. Chelsea fields nearly all their prime players, including Drogba and their sensational 18 year old whiz kid, who by the way, scores their first goal. The first goal caught the Sounders totally off guard. In the next ten minutes, Chelsea ran the same play several more times and nearly scored on us both times. I thought the Sounders played fairly well and just before the first half ended we spent a fair amount of time knocking the ball near their goal. Cech made several very good saves. Then BAM. They took the ball deep and Anelka pssed the ball back to Lampard at the top of the box, who put it into the back of the net. Pretty and textbook-like. Soon it was half time. The score stands 2-0 Chelsea over the Sounders.

Oh Gawd! Here come the autograph hounds again. Maybe these seats aren't that great! Sacrilige! Most of the players just head for the locker rooms and are ignoring the fans. Casey Keller and Petr Cech come in together sharing a conversation. Drogba comes by his head covered with a towel. He is either hot and tired or since he seems to be dispised by everyone but Chelsea fans and team mates, maybe he hides from the fans. I think Toby has hurling some insults his way as he passed?!?? The players have all left and so the autograph hounds fade away also.

I start people watching. Behind the goal that Chelsea had been defending, is where the fanatics sit. You know the ones I'm talking about. Those with faces painted in team colors. The ones with the gigantic flags that wave thoughout the entire game. The ones with the drum that beats out the cadence for the fans to chear to. I note they have a fan logo of somesort with a skull, wings, and their name. At times during the game the entire section behind the goal are jumping up and down. I mean all together. They are synchronized. Their arms are linked togther and that helps their sychronization. A Whole section! It cracks me up! And it gives me civic pride. Does that make sense? But it does.

It is a bright sun shiny day. Thank God there is a breeze. It is making for a very pleasant day, but a touch on the warm side. Hey, where is the beer vendor! I don't believe we saw one all the first half! Only the beer vendors didn't anticipate the crowd.

The second half begins. Chelsea is playing mostly rookies for this half. To a smaller extent the Sounders are doing the same. The level of play diminishes, a little bit, but it is still exciting plays being made. I could see that two or three of Chelsea's second stringers have awesome skills. The future for them looks very rosey!

The game ends with the same score as it was at half time, 2-0.