Who: Seattle Sounders v Cal FC Where: Starfire Sports Complex, Tukwila, WA When: 7:00 PM, Tuesday, 6/5 Watch: SoundersFC.com and FoxSoccer Channel Listen: -none so far- I am no where near as eloquent as my cohort Yoshou and I will not steal his guaranteed to be wrong thunder. How we got here, the 16 US based MLS sides entered in round 3, a shocking round that saw half of them fall to lower division sides. We emerged unscathed with a thrashing of the Atlanta Silverbacks, meanwhile our opponent Cal FC put on an amazing display of bunkerball, counters, and keeper positioning in defeating a nearly best 11 Timbers squad. It should be noted in doing so Cal FC became the first USASA team to score against an MLS side during the run of play, and became the first USASA side to win against an MLS side without going to PKs. Cal FC was also impressive a couple weeks ago in a 4-0 destruction of the Wilmington Hammerheads (USL Pro). And yes we will most likely be wearing the Super Cyan again, although if Cal FC has only the deep blue kit perhaps we will be forced to wear the normal home colors. Seating is limited at Starfire so if you plan on being there to support the team on their march to a 4th consecutive Open Cup you may want to get tickets now.
Thanks, Ed! I was going to post a game thread this morning, but noticed you had already done so. Woo! With the next regular season being a week and a half after the upcoming USOC game, I really hope Sigi puts out the full starting XI, this includes Gspurning if he is healthy. I'm not sure if the Sounders will need the full starting XI, but if we don't put them out, then we're looking at three weeks between competitive games where the regulars play together and with the Sounders playing style, we can't really afford that, IMHO. With that in mind, here's Yoshou's Guaranteed to be Wrong Predicted Line-up: ------- Johnson --------- Montero ------- Fernandez---Evans/Alonso---Rosales Burch-------Hurtado/Parke-------Scott ----------------Meredith---------------- Yes, I know. I said Gspurning needs to start, but I'm predicting he won't be healthy quite yet.
The Timbers had a ton of chances against Cal FC, they just couldn't get the shots off. I didn't actually see the game, but based on comments in the N&A PBP thread, it sounds like the Timbers were going for field goals over and over again and that if they'd put some of those on frame, they probably would have won. I think it is going to be hard for Cal FC to put up another 90 minutes like the one they did on Wednesday. These guys aren't in the same shape as professional players are, so another 90 with as much intensity as the Timbers game should drain them really quickly. All of that being said, the team is a mixture of former MLS players and youth national team players. A lot has been made about the Timbers losing to a team of amateurs, but these guys aren't your normal pub league and they are treating USOC as job auditions for professional contracts. I'm not sure if they'd be MLS contracts, but I'm sure some USL Pro and NASL teams are giving them hard looks. I'm predicting a beat down for this game and I wouldn't be surprised if the scoring starts early in the game. I'd also hope the scoring happens early simply because the Sounders could fall victim to the "OMG!! Why haven't we scored yet??? Let's just start kicking the ball and hope it goes in!" mentality that the Timbers apparently fell into.
From what I saw everything that was on frame was right at the Cal FC keeper. And yes the Timbers were skying lots of balls.
I hate to underestimate opponents. But, I honestly feel absolutely no apprehension about our chances in this game.
I hope the players don't share your sentiment. The team needs to come out playing like they are playing the best team in MLS and crush them like a bug.
Fortunately for you I'm not one of the players. So I'll take a dangerous mindset. Of course they shouldn't though.
I think the approach any team needs to take when going into these types of games is that they are going to come in, work their asses off and dominate every aspect of the game. They aren't going to take shit and they are going to put the other team in their place, put our boots on their necks and keep the pressure on till the final whistle.
So Sigi kicked off a veritable poop storm this weekend with comments about that the USOC coin flip process could be rigged: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/06/04/usoc-schmid-pans-draw-process-seattle-eye-four-peat Of course, Sunil Gulati responded in not so favorable terms for Sigi: http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2012/06/gulati-schmids-comments-nonsense.html And just for good measure, Hanauer distanced himself from Sigi: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/soundersfcblog/2018353583_us_soccer_president_sounders_g.html
I'm more in Hanauer's box than I'm in Gulati's. I do think Sigi was a bit out of line with the conspiracy theory, but I also don't think that Sigi actually believes everything that he said. Sigi has always been a bit of a complainer, but a lot of it always struck me as more him using his position to draw attention to issues. In this case, it is the lack of transparency in the USOC draw, which is an issue, IMHO, just not to the extent that it is a conspiracy theory that DCU and SKC are on the benefiting end and the Sounders are on the screw you end. That being said, I'm not a fan of Gulati's response that the Sounders hosting the final the last 2 years and the number of home games they've had in the last few years is entirely accurate either. This season USSF instituted a new system for determining who hosts games and you can't compare previous seasons' closed bidding system to this season's closed coin flip system.
Updated TV info per team release. Starfire matches are however a blast so if you can make it, it is worth it.
I'll be standing in the rain with me mate drinking beer and watching my club. Wouldn't really want to be anywhere else.
Not overly pleased with this line-up. I would have liked to see a full spread of starters, but oh well. Sigi knows best, eh? ------ Ochoa ----------- Montero ----- Caskey ----- Rose/Alonso ------ Cato Burch ----- Parke/Hurtado ----- Scott -------------- Meredith -------------- Bench: GK Andrew Weber, D Roger Levesque, D Mike Seamon, M Brad Evans, M Servando Carrasco, M Alvaro Fernandez, F David Estrada.
Very difficult to gauge this half. Our play in the final third has been disappointing, but their keeper did save 3 important shots on goal ( 2 of which were very dangerous). I still think he's a pretty good keeper. Maybe the reason why most of the shots were right at him is because he's that good at positioning, hmm?
F me... Bring in Evans and Flaco.. We're sh*t so far, IMHO. Our passing is crap, our first touch is crap, and we're keeping the ball way too long. Cato has been particularly crappy so far.
Dunno, but a nifty goal by Montero there! I guess Cato helped too... 2-0 this has got to be in the bag now.
I think I'll turn in now - it's an early day tomorrow. Hopefully nothing too eventful happens while I'm gone.
Yeah.. Not that he knew anything about it. Caskey banked the ball off Rose's head. All in all... Crappy first half, much better second half. Once that PK was scored, the only thing left to find out was just how bad Cal FC was going to lose.