Sounders FC host Real Salt Lake tonight at Starfire Sports Stadium in a "play-in" match that leads to a possible United States Open Cup berth.
So this is what the other side feels like. After years of valuing the US Open Cup as a way to show Major League Soccer clubs that they could compete with them, the new MLS Sounders FC find themselves asking the same questions that used to draw blank stares from the former USL Seattle club.
One big question: how seriously do you take the competition? Which is the more important match to win this week, tonight or Saturday in Chicago in another league counter? (See poll below) The question is asked because with matches scheduled closely together depth of roster is tested, and if there is one area where Major League Soccer clubs fail, it is having enough money to have numbers and quality at the end of the bench.
So how will MLS Sounders FC approach a match that the USL Sounders would have been sky high for? "You want to win the game," Head Coach Sigi Schmid is quoted in the Seattle P-I. "You've got 24 players on your roster, 24 professionals, and they all should be able to play. ... Guys have a chance to make that statement, 'Hey, look at me, I'm playing well. I deserve another go.' And for some it'll be that first opportunity, and for others it will be a repeated opportunity."
That might well be another way of saying officially we are in it to win it, but not at the expense of Saturday's match by actually playing our full starting line-up. Can't anyway, as Freddie Ljungberg is in Sweden attending the funeral for his recently passed Grandmother.
The Sounders of yesteryear do have plenty of US Open Cup experience, having advanced to the final four in two consecutive years, 2007 and 2008. Now is a different story for a different club, though.
Real Salt Lake are coming off of a brilliant 6-0 win over New England last weekend, and they say that they are thirsty to advance towards cup play.
The match will NOT be on local TV and is already sold out with just around 5,000 fans expected to jam into Starfire Sports Stadium in Tukwila. KALL radio out of Salt Lake will do a live audio broadcast online here.
“Our goal is to be champions," says the Sounders' Chris Eylander in the Olympian this morning." I haven’t noticed a distraction mentality from any of the players at all. I think we’re ready to take it head on.”
The winner of tonight’s game will meet the MLS Colorado Rapids for the right to advance to the round of 16.
Learn more about the US Open Cup at www.USOpenCup.com
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