Results tagged “seattlesounders”

SDOT has just sent us a freaking packed list of weekend events that will result in traffic jams, parking space jams, and closed-street jams. Capitol Hill is basically closed to cars starting tonight, and that's not counting the Greenwood Car Show, Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, Children's Ride, or the Sounders game.

We are sitting in front of the TV watching the Issaquah-Skyline 4A championship game, still working on a heaping plate of leftovers from last weekend. (Does turkey have an expiration date?) This game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but was moved to accommodate Bellevue, who plays Union in the 3A final. Bellevue played a rescheduled game earlier this week after their bus rolled over on the way to last week's game. Here...grab a plate.

• We're going to start with good news, rather than bad today. One guess where the opening game of the coming MLS Season is going to be? That's right, Seattle: the first Sounders MLS game will be the season opener for the whole league. Maybe, just maybe, the Sounders will actually win that game.
• The West Seattle Blog reports a really lovely random act of kindness, with photo evidence. Basically impossible to not feel warm and fuzzy about this story.
• Central District News has what must seem an all too common refrain for parents and teachers of Central District Schools; this time the plea is why T.T. Minor should not be closed.

For local sports fans, March can't come soon enough for two reasons. First, the Seattle Sounders begin their first season of play and the home opener will be March 19 against the NY Red Bulls on national TV.

The Seattle Sounders will announce the signing of Swedish winger Freddie Ljungberg later today at Qwest Field. The 31-year-old is reportedly signing a deal which will pay him $2.5 million a year for two years. Ljungberg will become the Sounders "Designated Player" which by MLS rules, allows each team an exemption from the league's salary cap.

A few years back, we braved a soccer match between two top flight teams in Buenos Aires. A 'super-classico' as they call it. Barbed wire and riot police ringed the field and more than once a cannon was fired. The tension was palpable. Early in the match, the visiting goalkeeper was hit in the head with what the papers later reported was a keychain. Bleeding, the goalkeeper was stitched up on the sidelines and his head was wrapped up Frankenstein style. Later, with the game scoreless, the visiting team was awarded a penalty shot. The coach waved at the goalkeeper, and as the home crowd lost their collective minds, the goalkeeper trotted down, took the shot, scored, then proceeded to jog back to his net, flipping off the crowd the entire length of the field. He spent the rest of the night tucked under his goal, with a big grin, we imagine.

Who is the best quarterback in the state? Matt Hasselbeck? We don't think so. Jake Locker? Sorry Husky fans. You are only half right.

It could be worse. Somehow. We guess SoDo could have been swallowed up in a giant sinkhole. Or the Mariners could keep playing for another three months. Thankfully, their season ended Sunday, bumbling to a 61-101 record, and our long civic nightmare appears to be over, or at least delayed for a few months.

In the 11th grade, we busted our Mom's lava lamp playing soccer in the house. (Yeah, she had a lava lamp. Whatever.) Our seemed-like-a-good-idea solution was to vacuum the two quarts of red oily goo with the family's shiny new Electrolux. About a week later, an odd smell started emanating from the storage closet where the vacuum was kept and we were grounded for two weeks. On Day 9 of the Great Grounding, we had a chance to see Lollapalooza. We begged to get a reprieve. We pleaded. We begged some more. We succeeded. That night we rocked out with Les Claypool and then didn't bother coming home until noon the next day, when there were more groundings.

Soccer's new kids on the block will feature an old, familiar face next year, as veteran goalkeeper and Northwest-native Kasey Keller has signed with Seattle Sounders FC. After a stellar career in Europe, Keller brings a wealth of experience to a team which begins its inaugural season in the MLS in less than eight months. The 38-year-old Keller was born in Lacey, and played at the prestigious University of Portland, before beginning his professional career.

The Seattle Sounders fell to the Charleston Battery tonight in the semifinal of the US Open Cup, succumbing during penalty kicks 4-3. Regulation time ended with a 1-1 tie, and the teams failed to break the deadlock during the extra period. The Battery advance to play DC United in the final on Sept. 3. The Sounders resume USL play on Friday at the Starfire Sports Complex.

Tonight's semifinal US Open Cup match between the Seattle Sounders and the Charleston Battery will be streamed live tonight on USLlive.com and best of all...IT'S FREE! The game is being played in Charleston, and kick-off is 4:30 p.m. Want to watch the game with local fans? Atlantic Crossing Pub is hosting a viewing party for today's game. Atlantic Crossing Pub is located at 6508 Roosevelt Way NE. Atlantic Crossing has agreed to extend their happy hour for anyone who has an ECS scarf, which will be available for $5.

The Seattle Sounders will advance to the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup after defeating the Kansas City Wizards 1-0 in quarterfinal play at Qwest Field Tuesday night. Play was scoreless after regulation time and 30 minutes of extra time, leading to an exciting penalty kick shoot-out, with the Sounders winning 6-5 on Zach Scott's PK conversion. The Sounders now advance to the face USL-squad Charleston Battery on Aug. 12 in a road showdown. The Battery recently defeated the Sounders 1-0 on July 5 in USL action.

SALMAN RUSHDIE: He'll be hitting Town Hall tonight to read from his latest effort, The Enchantress of Florence. According to the press release, it sounds like it's one of those quasi-fictional tales pitting opposites against each other (and, possibly, in the process, showing how opposites attract?). Tickets are available at University Bookstore for $5 a pop, or you can just buy a copy of the novel and use that as your entry.

The first five seasons of Major League Soccer in Seattle will be brought to you by Microsoft and Xbox 360 Live. The team and the Redmond software giant announced the sponsorship today at a press conference. Microsoft has offered the Sounders $20 million for a five year sponsorship. Their sponsorship guarantees that the Sounders' uniforms will have "Xbox 360 Live" stitched across the front in a prominet place. Former Seattlest editor Seth Kolloen got a sneak peak of the uniforms at the press conference today and had this to say about them:

They are lime green, with "XBox 360 Live" across the chest in white, and a "Sounders FC" patch about where you'd put your hand to your heart. There are sea blue accents at waist level. All told, pretty sharp-looking.

Seattle's new Major League Soccer team, Seattle Sounders FC, has signed its first player: Sebastien Le Toux. Le Toux, a 24 year old French national, is a forward. He's not Thierry Henry, but he is a start! Le Toux is not unknown to Sounders staff or fans, he is a member of the current Seattle Sounders team in the United Soccer League, where he has excelled.

Is there any women's sports franchise that's tied to a men's sports franchise in Seattle that has yet to get screwed over by the guys? The Storm--the WNBA contingent of the Super Sonics, and arguably the most passionately-followed team in the city--are dangling on a finer thread than the Sonics themselves under owners who want nothing more than to move the whole franchise to Oklahoma City.

Sometime this week it's going to be announced that Seattle's soccer team the Seattle Sounders will be entering the MLS. GOALSeattle says tomorrow. Our friend in Chicago who knows about these things says it'll be announced at MLS Cup, which isn't until November 18, so we'll discount that and say tomorrow. It seems pointless, by now, to argue whether or not it will be announced. The Sounders aren't selling 2008 season tickets, Paul Allen is involved, Qwest Field, although not a fan favorite as a MLS venue, is ready and willing. It's happening. Tomorrow.

When a Californian real estate developer announced this week that he was determined to bring a Major League Soccer team to the Pacific Northwest it was good news for some and bad news for others. Fans of the game in Seattle and Portland, where Michael Keston is proposing to set up the MLS expansion team, should welcome the chance at entry into the U.S.'s highest league. MLS in Seattle has always been a long-shot with the players we have (Paul Allen, Adrian Hanauer who co-owns the Seattle Sounders) either not interested in or not capable of bringing a team here. This new guy--despite being from out of town, despite being from California, despite being a real estate developer, despite his intentions of handing the team to his son to manage--might be the guy who can get an MLS team into Qwest Field. Good news for soccer fans.

The Seattle Weekly was criticized on various blogs last week for their story on the inner-workings of Seattle's homeless newspaper Real Change. Today on their blog they've started running letters that they received in response to that story.

Initiative 91 is one answer. We just voted against spending public moneys on sports stadiums. Major League Soccer wants all its teams to play in small, soccer-specific stadiums, but we don't currently have one of those laying around and one would be tough to build in the current environment. Too bad, because those are really cool stadiums that have great atmosphere and look sexy on TV and professional soccer at the highest (American) level would be great here. Initiative 91 doesn't actually forbid stadia from getting built with public money, it only cares if there's no return on the investment and since the MLS is largely owned by a bunch of really rich guys who love soccer the ROI tends to be shit.

Overheard while trying to buy a ticket to last night's Real Madrid vs. D.C. United match:

The World Cup is so over that even the most pretentious Europhiles have finally shut up, but Seattlest has some unfinished business. Before the tournament started we set up something called the Seattlest World Cup Challenge over at ESPN and a bunch of you joined, despite our lack of creative naming skills. Some of you joined and forgot about it, only to get the points a monkey flipping coins would have. We doubt we'll see you at the G&D come the new season. Some of you played along for awhile and then dropped out a little later. You may stop by for an FA final or something and we'll see you then. A brave few stuck it out to the end and are just poor guessers. You guys are probably listening to too many American announcers on Fox Sports World. And then there's the guy that won: Capitol Hill Seattle.

There probably aren't too many soccer fans in Seattle who have footage of the Sounders circa 1975 sitting around in the attic. We estimate that description fits maybe one guy. It's likely that there aren't too many people in the city who have the technological knowhow and, more importantly, the desire to upload video of Seattle's soccer team to YouTube either. Again, if we had to guess the size of that group we'd go with one. Luckily, they are the same guy!

The Seahawks finally made the cover of Sports Illustrated. Shaun Alexander, on the verge of breaking the all-time rushing touchdown record, is deemed worthy of the honor. The Dec. 19th edition's cover also has a small pic of Gonzaga star and Spokane native Adam Morrison. Northwest, represent!

One of the most-anticipated, most-discussed and most-watched sporting events of 2005 will be played today. You probably don't know what we're talking about. That's because this event is a soccer match.

When Seahawk Stadium, er, Qwest Field, was erected back in 2002, there was promise of the building hosting more than just football. After seeing Molly Hatchet warm up for Super Bowl XXXIX, Seattlest thought perhaps that Qwest Field might bring the mighty Hatchet to town for a night of unruly southern fried fun. Unfortunately, that will probably never come to fruition. The next best non-Seahawk Qwest field event, however, begins tomorrow when the Seattle A-League soccer team, the Sounders, begin their 2005 season by hosting their I-5 corridor rivals, the Portland Timbers, tomorrow night.