Where is my cattle prod?

After several days of contemplation on the subject, I have reached the following conclusion; the Sounders didn't disappoint me on Saturday versus the Revolution. Here's why:

1. Montero scored the goal of the week, no question.

2. The team played a solid first half.

3. Keller would've taken on God-like status had he made either save that resulted in the New England goals, and that's a bit too much to ask.

4. The team did not create a bunch of chances we subsequently squandered and I'd much rather watch us play badly and lose than be the better team and lose or tie.

5. Alonso was flat out righteous in his efforts and only needed everyone else on the Sounders to replicate his work ethic to assure a solid performance (no small task, mind you).

6. Should we continue to perform as we did at New England, we will not make the play-offs and I won't have to worry about attending one or more cold and rainy matches at Qwest.

There is my silver lining. Don't call me a pessimist ever again, you meany-pantses.

Maybe we don't have to win...

...if the teams we are battling keep losing.  Last night DC United lost the the lowly Earthquakes 2 -1, with them sitting at 36 points and us at 38 the loss really helps us out.  Right now the only real teams in reach of us are DC, Toroto, and Salt Lake.  Losses by them really help us, and with all of us having played the same amount of games all we really need to do is win one of the next three, most likely. 

With all that said to give us the best seeding we need to keep winning, we still have an outside chance at the top spot in the West even with our recent sad outcomes.  We face Houston and can grab a three points from them (right now they are 5 points away from us).  At any rate start winning an all this takes care of itself, otherwise we could be out.

BTW - Feddy's amazing goal from the New England game is up for goal of the week, go vote - http://web.mlsnet.com/sights/goal_of_the_week/

New England pregame podcast

Troy and I are going to make efforts to have both pre-game and post-game podcasts for each match. While this will certainly be easier for away matches, the ultimate goal will be to post remotely from Qwest prior to home matches (this would require better hardware/software on my part).

As the title suggests, our pre-game for tomorrow's match is available now here: Tribe 131 Sounders Pow Wow. In case you were curious, this podcast features our theme song (getting more moronic with every show).

Let us know what you think.

Renew is in effect

Here is the information about ticket renewal, addition, or upgrade for season tickets.

http://www.soundersfc.com/serenade/

Tribe 131 Sounders Pow Wow Podcast is now up

And as promised, I've done went and posted the first show (in all its messy glory). With a bit of work, the sound quality may improve (although the background noise in the car probably won't).

Please comment here (or there) with suggestions, etc. I have submitted the podcast to iTunes but probably won't get listed there for a week or so.

Here is the link: Tribe 131 Sounders Pow Wow

What if the trend continues?

At what point does a loyal fan (me) give up hope? I'm not suggesting I'm going to stop cheering for the boys, or even bad mouth any part of the squad or coaching decisions but really, shouldn't I lower my expectations?

If I simply stop thinking the Sounders are going to break their home scoring slump, then I can't possibly be disappointed when they don't score a goal at Qwest, right? I should simply take solace in their uncanny ability to find the back of the net other places around the league (including 4 goals in two matches at RFK) and root for a 0-0 draw when Dallas comes to town in October, right? I'll just cheer louder for the back four and Mr. Keller in hopes of preventing a goal we certainly can't equalize.

In other news, I should have the link to the Tribe 131 podcast (which now has a name "Tribe 131 Sounders Pow Wow", thanks Troy) posted later this evening, probably very late. With any luck, we'll be recording another podcast after the New England match and I'll be sure to post here when the new shows hit the interwebs.

And one more thing, New England should beat us by three.

Some Chicken and an Egg

As you all know the Sounders laid an egg against Chivas.  We had all the advantages:  an opponent not interested in playing in the attacking third, a strong need for points, an overly-long home scoreless drought in need of ending, and for about twenty minutes a man advantage.  All of which led to no goals.  A lot of credit goes to Zach Thornton.  I heard that he was offered a hot dog for every save, if true he is in hog heaven.

Again we had a splendid tailgate, mostly thanks to J-Hole as I understand it.  I'm a sucker for pulled pork.  Though Kelly did her SEC-self proud with some breakfast muffins and jell-o shot chasers.  A boy could get drunk early with this crowd.  All I brought was some goat cheese as a method of skewering the Goats prior to the game.  Maybe we should have actually opened it. Next time I may go the Major League route and bring a bucket of chicken.  This home-scoreless business needs to end.  I'm willing to make sacrifices.  By that I mean killing things.  Or eating greasy chicken.

Now, I fear the Sounders will be like the nerdy kid at the playoff party -  on the outside looking in.  Perhaps such expectations were too high and unreasonable for a first year team.  Then again, scoring the occasional goal should not be beyond their abilities.  They did win the U.S. Open Cup so as far as I am concerned this has been a very successful year.  But with their hot start we all had our expectations raised.  Now they are all but dashed, and Jon  has lost all faith. 

I got your Chivas right here...

If you haven't been exploring the Rumor Mill on the web of late, let me summarize what I've read. Sounders FC is content with their roster and didn't feel the need to pick up anyone (or better let anyone go) before the close of the trade window.

That said, Houston chucked Kei Kamara to the curb. Did anyone else notice the defender Houston traded, what three weeks ago, is now starting for DC United? Julius James had a solid (albeit foul-filled) match against our boys last weekend, proving what I said several posts ago, I likey Mr. James. Had the official at the RFK match not let so much contact (and blatant unfair contact) occur, I imagine Julius would have proven just how good a defender he can be. Instead he just beat our guys up. Well, do what you can get away with, that's the way most of us are coached, right?

I want to have on record, prior to the match on Saturday, I don't think there's any way we can beat Chivas. I am expecting another loss for the Sounders, and more likely than not, it will be so embarrassing, several thousand (perhaps 15k) will leave prior to the final whistle. I, however, will be there until the painful conclusion simply so I can throw leaflets at the team with this website address and simply the words, TOLD YOU SO.

The Trail of Cheers

A portion of the tribe was voluntarily resettled to the east coast this past week.  No gub’mint mandated migration this time, though there are some travel tales to tell.  Three hookworms latched onto an airline employee to scavenge cheap seats in order to root for the Sounders against DC United in the US Open Cup final.

 

Dave, Marty and I were led step-by-step by Kelly through a couple of quick flight switches to our nation’s capital.  Our departure to Chicago became a trip to Denver and from there we went to Baltimore rather than getting bumped from a trip to Reagan airport.  Luckily for us she has both connections (pun intended) and an in-depth knowledge of United’s antiquated software.  She took us into a secret bat-cave like room and was able to log into a Commodore 64 to check flight statuses and thus plan our maneuvers.

 

A couple of flights (first class for some of us) and a train or two found us in Virginia – the jumping off spot for the match.  We spent the day sight-seeing and celebrating Dave's birthday.  I won’t bore you with too many details, but I have to share this one.  Marty wanted to take a photo on the steps on the Supreme Court building holding up the Sounders flag in a mock demonstration.  Dave joked that you wouldn’t be able to do that sort of thing in China.  You can’t do it here either.  The security guard kicked us out and said we had to be on the sidewalk (we would have been fine without the flag by the way).  So we tucked out tails and retreated fifteen feet back to where our rights were valid.  I asked another tourist to take a shot of all of us with the flag and we talked to him for just a minute.  Turns out he WAS from China and was amazed that we didn’t have a freedom of expression at the Supreme Court.

 

After that we made our way to the Hawk and Dove (not Haggen Daz as I kept hearing) for the first real meal of the day and the first of quite a few beers.  These were mystery beers however, as the waitress couldn’t remember what we ordered and what she poured.  Two doors down was another bar with a DC United flag and banner so we took a little ribbing from a couple of people walking by.  At least they knew to heckle us and not to think we were rooting for XBOX, since we were all wearing jerseys.  We then met up with the Emerald City Supporters, along with Chris and his friend Joe, at another bar and started learning the songs between chanting at the odd United fan who wandered our way.

 

The game was played at RFK which, as far as I can tell, is a toilet for birds.  The good people of their front office charged us fifty percent more than the home town fans for the pleasure of sitting across the street from the stadium.  That’s not true, if it were I wouldn’t have had to burn my shoes.  They stuck us way, way, way up in the top and in the corner.  There was plenty, plenty of room for us below.  I will give them a small benefit of the doubt in thinking they wanted to separate us in order to avoid conflict amongst the fans.  I doubt it.  They were probably just sticking the knife in as much as possible.  On the plus side, there  were two-dollar beers.  But they were three levels down and tasted like crap.  It was all I could do to drink them.  To further insult us they turned the lights off in the restrooms prior to half-time.  Undaunted I used it anyway.  I may have found the urinal, I don’t know for sure.  But that’s OK, a little pee is nothing compared to what was on our seats and, well everywhere you would have wanted to step.  It’s a good thing we stand during Sounders’ games because the upper level was caked in guano.  It was disgusting.  They place obviously hadn’t been cleaned in a good, long while.  In addition to the droppings there were plants growing in some of the cracks.  I don’t know if they were weeds or trees, but something had taken root and was flourishing.  There was a blogger there from the Washington Post and some of us are quoted by him:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/09/sounders_fans_take_on_dc.html

 

Despite the surroundings the Seattle faithful (about 200 up top with a smattering below) had a great time.  Perhaps it was because the team played its’ best game in about a month.  During the first half there were four or five chances that could very well have been goals.  They did give up a number of fouls about twenty-five yards out, so they were fortunate not to give up a couple as well.  So going into the half the Sounders probably should have been leading.  Marty and I discussed leading the entire group in a conga line to the other end of the stadium so we could have the Sounders coming at us again.  There were plenty of seats available, but we had the feeling the security guards would have squelched that plan.  At the half a DC fan with his face painted came up looking to meet and get a

 photo with some Seattle fans.  The security guard (who was a great guy, I talked to him a couple of times) told the DC fan that he was sorry, but if he didn’t have a ticket for that section he’d have to leave.  By the way, our tickets were never checked so we should have bought one for $12.  Anyway Marty and I told him we’d go out in the hall and take a couple of photos.  He called himself Darth Hooligan and had been written about in the local papers.  Funny guy.  He carried a toy light saber so Marty used his flag pole for a sword fight picture.

 

When the Sounders scored the first goal the enthusiasm manifested itself in fully-clad streak.  Marty grabbed a flag and started a beer-induced “victory lap” around the upper bowl.  Being just as stupid/tipsy, I followed.  As we came down the backstretch I looked down to see hundreds of DC fans giving us the double bird.  We both returned single-handed salutes in the same vein.  Our other hand was holding a flag aloft, and that arm was sore by the time we got back.  At the end of the lap the security guard stopped me.  He shook my hand and told me that he appreciated our exuberance, but not to do it again.  Between wheezes I thanked him and said I wouldn’t be able to, even if I wanted to.  Again, he was a good guy.  He even told me he was impressed with how much our group got the floor bouncing.

 

After the match, make that glorious, cup-claiming win, we were told to stay put because we were going to be escorted out en-masse for our own protection.  That was thoughtful, but unnecessary.  We were yelled at from afar and shown the bird but that’s to be expected.  After the cup was given to the team someone spotted the players hanging out in the corner signing autographs.  So we sherpa’d our way down off the peak and found our way to the players.  Kelly got up close and personal with Freddie Ljungberg, and secured a few signatures.  I found a small  DC United flag abandoned by a shamed-faced local and claimed it as a war trophy.

 

Back from DC with a Cup

A few of us travelled to DC for the US open cup. All I will say for now is that it was a fantastic experience. When I have more time I'll elaborate. For now here is a linkhttp://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/09/sounders_fans_take_on_dc.html

(which Karl may have to do something with) to a blog in the Washington Post. Marty and I are quoted.

Trade thoughts?

Troy and I got into a discussion yesterday centering on who should be traded from the Sounders FC and the reasons why.

I will not speak for Troy, as he has the ability to add a comment to this particular thread and is more than able to elaborate on his thoughts there. However, I will say the conversation started when Troy suggested we trade Brad Evans as we could get something for him. This didn't just fall from the ether, Troy let me know that Dwayne De Rosario was traded to Toronto FC for Julius James, who has now been traded from Houston to DC United for a third round draft pick in 2012. So essentially Toronto got De Rosario for nothing. I however, found Julius James to be a solid defender and worth significantly more than Houston does. I made this point to Troy at the match vs. Houston at Qwest and again at Starfire. I thought Julius James was underrated and apparently Houston thought quite little of him.

This led to Troy's suggestion of trading Evans. I didn't outright disagree but thought perhaps we should have someone on the field with the speed of Zakuani on the right wing, who could perhaps keep up with Stevie Z and be in the area for crosses originating from the left. Oh wait, said I, we already have Sanna Nyassi. Troy countered with Nyassi's poor crossing to date to which I put forth, perhaps if Sanna was allowed to get more experience in match situations, his touch would become better.

We both agreed, on the ongoing thought we should trade Montero for a forward who has a better work rate. Yes, Montero has scored ten goals this season and for that we are grateful (and humbled). However, when 9 of the 11 men on the Sounders run and fight for the ball on almost every play, it is certainly the one that doesn't who sticks out. (Who is number 10 you ask? Well, depending on the week, Keller could be number 10.)

I say, start Nyassi on the right side, tuck Ljungberg under Jaqua up front and try to get Nyassi ready for next year. Le Toux can sub for Zak, Nyassi or Evans depending on who is getting gassed around the 60 - 65 minute mark.

What say you Tribe on the thoughts of trades?