Sounders ticket rep Chris Baretta suits up for England side in All Nations Cup

Chris Baretta (#7, red) in Saturday's England- France All Nations Cup match. (Chris Coulter)

Photos: See a gallery of shots from ANC England - France from Chris Coulter in the slide show below.

Chris Baretta works as a ticket rep for Seattle Sounders FC but his involvement with soccer goes well beyond that. This weekend he was part of the England squad that beat France 1:0 on the opening day of the All Nations Cup.

"I have some friends from the south end who have played on Team England the past few years who contacted me when they heard I moved back from Dallas," says Baretta as to how he got into the tournament. "I chose England as it's a great group of guys and my mom's side is English. My Dad is Canadian so he probably would heckle me 'bout playing with England," he laughingly adds.

So far so good for Chris and England. "Our 1st game today went really well. Our defense was solid and I scored the game winner with 20 minutes left."

If the last name Baretta sounds at all familiar to you in terms of soccer, then maybe you were an indoor fan of the Tacoma Stars. Chris is the son of John Baretta, a famous goalkeeper for Tacoma. "I've been around the game since I could walk. I remember eating dots and popcorn at the Tacoma Dome watching my dad in goal. He played in the old NASL and MISL so soccer has been a big part of my life. He taught me hard work and doing the right things to prevail!"

GOALSeattle.com Extra: Blaise Nkufo watched this match with some of his new Sounders teammates...

"I played high school soccer at Decatur and we won state my senior year. I played club soccer in the south end for FC United, Boca Vera & Solaris. I was offered about 3-4 scholarship options and chose the Univervisty of South Carolina-Spartanburg. The weather was brilliant as well as the "Southern Belles," he says fondly. "The soccer was a great experience. I played four years and played in two NCAA tourneys. I was First Team All Conference and sixth in the nation in assists my sophomore year."

Back in the day Baretta knocked elbows with a few players you have likely heard of. "I played against Oguchi Onyawu, who now plays for the US National team and Brad Guzan of Aston Villa  and the US Team back in college, which was really cool."

Now Chris assists Sounders fans in getting tickets when he's not out still playing soccer. I asked him about Sounders ticket demand. "To be quite honest demand in 2010 has been even higher then 2009," he says.

"We increased our season ticket base from 26,000 in 2009 to 32,000 in 2010. We sell out every match at our pre-determined capacity of 36,500 ish. We have had some ups and downs with results but it's a long season and I'm confident we will get a nice string of wins and get into the playoffs."

"Going on a 6-9 game unbeaten run is plausible in MLS," concludes Baretta. "That was shown last year by my old team, FC Dallas."

Baretta gets behind the French goalkeeper to score England's goal in a 1:0 All Nations Cup victory Saturday July 17 at Starfire. (Chris Coulter)