Saturday, April 11

Seattle Sounders (S2) Game

Ben and I got to talking about our upcoming days off.  I mentioned a Mariner game but they were going to be in California on the days we had discussed.  He then brought up going to a Sounders 2 game this weekend.  I asked him, who are the Sounders 2?  They are the reserve team for the Sounders.  Basically they are the Sounders JV team.  Instead of having them just practice and sit on the bench, they created this team to play against other secondary teams in the USL.  S2 was created on October 14, 2014 and they had their inaugural game March 21 against the Sacramento Republic and won 4-2.

I told Ben that we should go because it would be fun.  We planned on going as soon as I got off of work.  He had scheduled a meeting with his tax guy but ended up not going.  I got off work around 4:30 and hurried as fast as I could safely towards Tukwila via Hwy7, 512, 167 to 405.  I had been to Starfire once before back a few years ago with Bob and Bev geocaching, never for soccer.  I met him and we ate dinner near the mall at a Mongolian grill, Ben was craving a teriyaki like meal, and this was the closest with the amount of time we had left before the game.  I had enough to fill me up and he scarfed down two giant plates of food.  I changed my clothes into my Sounders gear.  I followed him to the complex where we should have gotten there sooner and brought cash with us for the parking fee, $5.  We had to turn around and head to the overflow lot where the parking guys let us park there for free.  There's the silver lining for being late, plus we really didn't have to walk that far.


He told me a little bit about the complex and where we were going to sit.  We had to go to will call to get our tickets.  Ben talked to a few people he knew from the Emerald City Supporters.  I saw a photo booth so we had to go take a picture.  We chatted with the guy who was running it.


We didn't know if the complex had food or not or we would have eaten dinner here.  They also served beer.  My bag got checked and our tickets were scanned.  I followed Ben to the far end where the ECS supporters and the flags were.  We found our spot on the bleachers and waited for the game to start.  We were sad we both didn't have enough cash to go buy beer.  Ben said he would go to his car to get some money for beer at half time.



I found an S2 flag on the bleachers so I put it to some good use.  It was just like being at a Sounders game at CenturyLink just at a smaller scale.  The same chants, the same flags, the same crazy Sounders fans were all around us.  It was a good time.  The Timbers scored first on a header.  No one was defending goal side.

At half time Ben went and got some money for us to have a six dollar beer but it was part of the crazy soccer experience.  I thanked him for running out to the car and for the beer.   Just as he was paying for it we shot a penalty kick and it went into the goal.  Game was now tied 1-1.


Five minutes before the game ended (with stoppage time) we scored a really awesome goal.  Right over the Timber's keeper's head.  It was awesome!  The crowd went nuts!  The S2 were still undefeated for the season.  The team was given doughnuts by some fan as they were heading back to the locker room.  The interaction with the players were more intimate at Starfire.  I saw one of the players give a fan his captain arm band.  I tried to find more S2 flags but couldn't find any.  I did managed to grab a program before we left the stands.  We used the restroom before we walked back to the car.

 

We hung out in his car for a while chatting about our upcoming days off and what we were going to do.  He was going to stay in town and hang out with his friend Dion.  I had to go home because I had to work the next day.  I got home around 11:30.  It was a fun evening.  I hope to go to more in the future.

Next Adventure:  TBA

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