PRE SEASON BUILD UP: SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC

Chelsea return to the United States once again with multiple memories of successful pre-season campaigns at the land of living in the past decade. Last was in 2009 when we won the World Football Challenge after competing against the likes of Milan giants (AC Milan and Inter Milan) and other great American teams. I may be a little superstitious but I think United States is a great place to start our season considering the success we had there before.

The Champions of Europe are currently scattered across the world. Midfield maestro Super Frankie Lampard is enjoying the holidays with his fiancée. Summer signing Eden Hazard is travelling through Europe. David Luiz is having a great time at his homeland and many of the blue heroes are representing their respective nations at the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine. But they will all meet up once again at Cobham early July. To prepare for the new season. With Roberto Di Matteo confirmed as our permanent manager and a few new signings, we will be nothing but all set for the pre-season campaign. And we look at our first opponent. Seattle Sounders.

Seattle Sounders was established in November 2007 and competes in the Major League Soccer. Despite the club’s young age, they have been enormously successful with numerous trophies in their cabinet. They have won the US Open Cup thrice (2009, 2010 and 2011). And with a MLS Supporters’ Shield in 2011 they have also won many minor trophies. The Seattle based club’s majority owner is Hollywood producer Joe Roth.

As mentioned before, they have been quite successful over the few years. The first trophy they tasted was the US Open Cup in 2009, beating D.C. United. They have literally owned that trophy with winning it three times consecutively in 2009, 2010 and 2011. They won their first MLS Supporters Shield in 2011. They have also won many fan based minor cups namely Heritage Cup (2010, 2011), Community Shield (2011, 2012) and regional Cascadia Cup in 2011. They haven’t yet won the MLS League. But considering the success they had over the few years, one could never write them off from winning it soon.

The Seattle Sounders FC play their home matches at the CenturyLink Field in Seattle. This is also the home of Paul Allen’s Seattle Seahawks. Paul Allen is the owner of the stadium and the Seahawks. He is also a minority owner of the Sounders. That’s why they get the stadium on match days without paying a fee. The stadium is called “The Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field” for Sounders FC’s matches. It is a 67,000 capacity stadium and was designed to play both American Football and soccer. It has an artificial FieldTurf pitch certified by FIFA with a 2 star rating.

They are in contention for three major tournaments this season (four if they qualify for the MLS Play-Offs). They are the MLS League, US Open Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League. They are currently sitting on fourth in the MLS League, 25 points which is 7 points less than the leaders Salt Lake with a game in hand. Their current top scorers are David Estrada (5) and Eddie Johnson and Fredy Montero both with 4. Maury Rosales and Alex Caskey lead the assist table with 3 each. Chelsea should keep an eye on these guys. But nothing our European Heroes cannot handle. They have played 15 games in the MLS league winning 7 of them and losing 4 and drawing 4. Beating Toronto FC 3-1 was their biggest home win and losing to Columbus Crew was their heaviest home defeat. They could be really stubborn at their home. 

Seattle Sounders FC has a strong squad, small but a successful history. I think these guys can give us a fight. But we are Chelsea. We are the European Champions. Lads, I think we’ve got a crunch game to start our pre-season. We take on them on 18^th July 2012 at their home CenturyLink field stadium. Let’s hope we get our transfer market shopping finished and our squad including the new signings jell together as a team before the game. I am hoping for a big win. I will return to bring you about our next opponent Paris Saint Germain soon, but until then KEEP THE BLUE FLAG FLYING HIGH.

By: #LimCFC