Who: Seattle Sounders vs. Vancouver Whitecaps Where: CenturyLink Field, Seattle, WA When: 1:00PM, Saturday 8/18 Watch: KING 5, THIS TV Listen: 97.3 KIRO FM, La Gran D 99.3 FM @#$#$^%!@#$ I had this all typed up earlier but the post disappeared int the ether, so you get a truncated version. Seattle is currently last in the Cascadia Cup with a 0W-1D-1L record, while Vancouver is 2nd (to last) with a 0W-2D-0L record. A win by 2 goals launches the Sounders into first place a draw or loss leaves them hugging the bottom of the table. Vancouver is a much different team from when the Sounders last met them, particularly on offense. Gone are Le Toux (Red Bulls), Hassli (Toronto), and Chiumentio (Switzerland) and in are Dane Richards (Red Bulls), Barry Robson (Middlesborough), and Kenny Miller (Cardiff City). Darren Mattocks did play against the Sounders and was some very poor finishing skills away from putting the game out of reach, but he is much improved now that he's gotten more playing time. On defense the Whitecaps are a middling team (8th in GAA), but they have the potential to be lights out. The Sounders will need to be on top of their game to win this one. Good news is that they have been the last few games, despite the two losses. The good news is that the extended forecast calls for mostly cloudy with a high of 79, so we won't be frying in the sun match.. Well, those of you that aren't on the west side of the stadium won't be. Those of us on the west side will be nice and comy in the shade. Haha.
It's full boat time for the Sounders. Our injury list is a sparse two players long (Zakuani off, hell yeah) and we've got a week rest. As a result, I'm expecting our "ideal" starting lineup in this one. "Ideal" until Mar Mar joins and gives Caskey the boot to the bench. Without further ado, feel the love of Yoshou's Guaranteed to be Wrong Predicted line-up: -------Johnson--------Montero-------- Caskey----Tiffert/Alonso----Rosales Gonzalez---Ianni/Parke---Johansson --------------Gspurning--------------
Oh.. and if you don't have tickets yet, sounds like you won't have any problems with walkups as they are only expecting 50k+ to attend the game... Is it just me, or is it a bit f'd up that I used "only" in that sentence? Damn we rock.
Making the trek across the state to watch my first Sounders game this weekend. Hopefully I'll get to see a win, but it should be a blast regardless. I'm pretty excited.
The last report I read called for possible rain and thunderstorms on Saturday. Hot, humid, wet, and electrifying. Oh joy. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/komo/article/Heat-watch-Seattle-temperatures-expected-to-hit-3788772.php
After watching Dallas kick the balls off Vancouver, I'm shocked that the playoff standings aren't reversed between those two teams. They are a 1-man show-- camilo. He's a great player but he's not that great. 4-1 sounders. Would love, love, love to see Martinez, but we probably won't. I would also love some vitamin Z. One of those wishes will come true.
Remember they were not a one trick show when they were amassing their current table place. Someone needs to tell Kerfoot that winning teams are often disassembled after winning a title, not in the midst of a season . It also took me a while to figure out you were referring to Steve and not the singer/band (?) Vitamin Z .
Vancouver was also missing quite a few players.. Mattocks, Richards, Koffie, and DeMerit were all out. Of those 4, only DeMerit is questionable for Saturday. On the good news front though, Bonjour got a yellow and will be out on Saturday.
Mattocks and Camilo are only 2 players from Vancouver that we need to worry. Lots of their players will be tired and our rested (finally). Daytime game for Sounders always starts slow but finish is good. My prediction is 2:1 for Sounders!
So I believe this will be the first game we see Tiffert out there with all our regular starters. My gut tells me Tiffert and Alonso are going to run over old man Robson and dominate the midfield. Hopefully, it turns into goals.
Assuming that Yoshou's line-up is the one they go with, we're going to put out one hell of a reserve team on Sunday: -------------Ochoa-------Some guy----------- ----Zakuani-----Rose/Carrasco--------Cato ----Burch-------Hurtado/Scott-------Evans -------------------Weber--------------------- or -------------Ochoa-----------Cato------------ Zakuani------Rose/Carrasco---------Evans ----Burch-----Hurtado/Scott-------Some guy ---------------------Weber---------------------------- If Estrada was healthy that would be a quality MLS side
Just got home from the game! Excellent result even when Tifi and Eddie have bad day. Whitecaps did not show anything today. Next game Sigi will put Martinez in lineup for sure.
I arrived left and had to leave just after half, so all I saw was the offensive suck, on both sides. I'll have to watch the replay tonight, but daaaaamn, how did Koffie stay in the game?
Sounders got stronger as the game went on and the VW chances slowly dried up. Good win. EJ is class, stepovers and all!
EJ should score 3 goals today but 1 was enough! We need to start playing better and be ready for playoffs. Hope that M.Martinez can help us playing on left attacking side?! Fans deserve revenge in Portland!
Even in the first few minutes of 2nd half. The only way our offense suddenly went alive was when FM went in.
The header he hit over went off the head of a Vancouver defender first. Had it not it's headed to the side netting. The one where he volleyed it, he should have scored, but those take pretty much perfect timing. He played well regardless of how many finishes he had.
little bit of atmosphere before start and homage to Kathy Goertzen from top SW corner(cellphone camera)