TUKWILA — After taking a couple of days off, it’s back to work for Sounders FC, and this week that means a new competition, the CONCACAF Champions League, as well as a chance to rebound from a humiliating loss.
Tonight’s game in Panama is Seattle’s first chance to get back on track after falling 7-0 to Manchester United last week, and because Sounders FC didn’t have a game last weekend, the players have had some time to digest that thumping. Now Sounders FC will have to prove, starting with a game against Panama’s San Francisco FC, that there won’t be a hangover from that loss that, while meaningless in the standings, took some of the wind out of the sails of a team that was unbeaten in nine straight.
“We’re going to find out,” goalkeeper Kasey Keller said when asked if the loss could carry over. “That’s always a concern, but for the most part, I think we understand who we played against. There’s Premier League teams that take that number, so it’s not the end of the world, but at the same time, we know we could have done better, so hopefully guys learned from that.”
Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid, who admitted embarrassment at last week’s loss, which featured six Man U goals in the second half, is confident his team will respond well tonight and again this weekend when it resumes MLS play in Houston.
“I think we’re going to show our character when we go down to Panama on Tuesday and when we go into Houston,” Schmid said. “I think we’ll show what we’re made of.”
Today’s game is the first of two play-in games against San Francisco with the winning team advancing to the group stages of the CONCACAF Champions League. Seattle qualified for the tournament, which crowns the champion of North America, Central America and the Caribbean, by winning last year’s U.S. Open Cup. The team with the higher aggregate score after the two games — Seattle plays host to San Francisco in the return leg on Aug. 3 at CenturyLink Field — advances to group D, which features defending champions Monterrey.
In addition to bouncing back from last week’s loss, Seattle hopes to mount a strong run in the tournament after a disappointing showing last year. Playing in its first Champions League tournament, Seattle did get to the group stages, but failed to advance to the knockout stages after finishing last in its group.
“Certainly we’d like to do better in the Champions League than we did last year,” Schmid said. “I think it was a good learning experience for us. I thought that we were a little unfortunate, especially when we got to the group stage — having to play two of our first three on the road. That made it difficult for us. But again, we’ve got to win these play-in games to get into the group stage and then we’ve got to play better than we did last year.”
Of note
Osvaldo Alonso was one of six players named an inactive all star on Monday. The 25-year-old midfielder from Cuba has played every minute of all but one game this season, and in addition to being a dominant defensive midfielder, has increased his offensive productivity with three goals and two assists. Part of the collective bargaining agreement signed last year was that the league name 32 all stars to compensate for the fact that only one team is fielded because the MLS all-star game is contested against a foreign club rather than being a game between two teams of MLS all stars. Alonso and the other inactive all stars were selected by a player vote. Kasey Keller, Seattle’s only active all star, will fly from Panama to New York for Wednesday’s game, and will be available as the third goalkeeper.
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