We sing for you, We love you so

Posted by Adrienne on July 7, 2009 under Soccer, Sounders | Be the First to Comment

…and we will follow you wherever you may go! Go Sounders go! Fight Sounders fight!

While “wherever you may go” has not yet included an away match (although we have one planned) we have now seen Sounders at two different venues. We were at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila for Seattle’s US Open Cup Match against Kansas City. It was an interesting, fun and very different experience from what we have so far enjoyed at Qwest Field.

To start, the Starfire Complex is much much much smaller than Qwest Field. A capacity crowd there is a bit more than 4,000 people, compared with 32,000 at Qwest. This meant that it was much easier to hear other sections (mostly the ECS folks, and some people in the beer tent to our right) chant and sing. It also meant that we were kind of squashed into the grandstands, but we got to stand the whole time, so it was all right.

We were about 4 rows up and on the north end of the stadium (just across from the ECS section, if you’ve been before) and we were incredibly close to the pitch. It was brilliant. I felt like I could reach out and touch the players. I really felt like they could hear me shout their names. What a great feeling! There were some great chances at our end in the first half for Sounders, but the lone goal of the match came from a penalty kick taken at the other end of the pitch.

The action at that end was a bit difficult to see, but I did get to see Sebastien Le Toux take the kick and it was a good one (you can see it too, click the link). I could also clearly see the ball bulge the back left corner of the net. There was a split second of silence, and then an ear-shattering roar; it’s hard to believe there were only 4,000 people  (actually, 4,352 people, but who’s counting?) making the noise! After the frustration of seeing a Sounders side mostly in control but squandering chances, I can understand why everyone made so much noise. I certainly did more than my fair share of yelling!

Now the Sounders have a chance to get a trophy. They have a semi-final game against Houston on July 21. They’re going to play it at my new favorite soccer pitch, Starfire. I really hope I can be there to see it!