A Sounders Decision



Last Saturday, our friends (both of them) invited us to go with them to a Sounders match. To those of you who don’t know, which would have included me before I Googled it, the Sounders are the professional soccer team in Seattle. We had told our friends earlier that our calendar is rather open and


we wouldn’t be turning down many invitations. They’ve come through for us with multiple fun outings. This one would be breaking new ground, as it is both out of town and a professional sporting event.

The sum total of my experience with soccer is watching part of a game on television about 15 years ago at my neighbor’s house. All that I really remember is that there wasn’t much scoring.

I checked in with a former co-worker who is knowledgeable of all things sports. He shared that soccer is all about ball flow and creativity, with the buildup to the goal being the highlight. He said to expect a maximum of five goals.


We (meaning Seattle) were going to be playing St. Louis, whose team (excuse me, club) name is City, which I found a little confusing. Their mascot is a lab, not the kind you do science in, the yellow kind, that likes to fetch balls. The Sounders mascot is an Orca, not a real Orca like the City's lab, but someone in an Orca suit, in true mascot fashion.

Our friends stopped by a couple of bars before the game. The first was the taproom for Seapine Brewing Company. This was a true beer connoisseur's bar, as it served excellent Seapine beer, and not much else.

The second stop was at the Fast Fashion taproom. This place was considerably quirkier than Seapine, with part of the décor looking like an oddly appointed living room, and parts leaning more toward an arcade in the 80s. But the big bonus: it served food. Ann and I ordered a pizza, choosing Veggie (Samosa). We both kind of ignored the parenthetical word, going for a veggie because we didn’t want something too greasy. We got the pizza, and immediately thought, “Huh, it smells kind of like Indian food.” Then we took a bite, and it tasted like Indian food. I don’t know how that sounds to you, and I can’t say how it would have sounded to me before I tasted it, but it was excellent. We’ve explored the outer edges of the pizza world, and we had never had anything like it. I want to get it again. I want to have one right now, actually.

We then headed up to the game. Seattle turns out very well for their team. They’ve had some time to build up to this, as they entered the professional soccer world over 50 years ago. This club was officially established in 2007, but the original Sounders franchise dates back to 1974. They weren’t seating people in the upper deck, but the lower part of the stadium was very close to being sold out. Not bad, considering the Mariners were also playing at that time, less than a block away.

 My Missouri friend was correct – five goals total, Sounders 4, St. Louis City 1.

I liked the pace of the game – two 45-minute halves and the clock doesn’t stop. You know what you are in for. It’s not like football or baseball, where you could end up spending the rest of your life watching until the end.

I haven’t gotten a Sounders tattoo yet, and I still have a lot to learn about soccer before the World Cup, but we had a great time at our first game.

 https://themasonryseattle.com/fast-fashion/

https://www.seapinebrewing.com/our-story



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