Since the Seattle Sonics basketball team was moved to Oklahoma and became the god-awful Thunder, Trevor and I have been fairly luke-warm about sports and sporting events in general. I like to watch golf, believe it or not, but we don't watch any TV except DVDs so my chances to watch are slim. We don't like baseball. Ditto American football.
About the only other sport we do like is soccer.
So it was pretty awesome that a MLS team came to Seattle this season. The Sounders. The fans are very into being fans. A big concert band plays to rile up the crowd and there are many chants and songs everyone sings during the game. And honestly, I've never seen so many jerseys at a game. The crowd was a sea of green. I like the color of the jerseys, but I was disappointed to find out that the words "XBOX 360 LIVE" are written across the chest. I don't like advertising like that, so no jersey for me I guess. I might go as far to crochet myself a green and blue scarf. I really liked that so many people had scarves that they would wave around.
Our friends who scored us the tickets to the game sit in the general admission area that is at the south end of the pitch and is the most raucous area to be in. I don't think they sat down or stopped yelling and chanting the entire time. Our seats were much higher up in the stadium and as a result, in the bloody shade the whole time with cold, cold wind on us, but it was a great view.
The Sounders also have a slighty odd ritual of giving out a "Golden Scarf" before each game. Something or other about honoring the passion of the fans, but I can't quite figure out how they decide to pick someone to give it to. This game, funnily enough, they gave the scarf to Tacoma artist Dale Chihuly. Since I was just at the glass museum, looking at his work only two days before, I thought it was a pretty funny. I don't know what his passion for soccer is, though.
If you squint, you can see that it is Chihuly up on the screen. Quest field was packed; the announcer said over 65,000 people attended the game. Since it was an exhibition game against powerhouse Chelsea FC, they opened up the 3rd level. Normally only the bottom two are open for the matches.
Right before the game started, large amounts of confetti exploded onto the pitch and blew all over the place. And the pitch sparkled the whole game.
Sound Transit ran a special Sounder train for the game from Tacoma to Seattle, which was nice. No sitting in traffic or paying for parking. We are going to another Sounders game next month, I hope the train runs again.
Oh yeah, the Sounders lost 2-0. But that wasn't really important.
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