Your eyes finally open after a night of tossing and turning in your bed. It hits you: today is Sounders Matchday, the first of the 2015 season.
In a few short hours, you’ll be covered head to toe in Rave Green, singing with 40,000 of your closest friends inside CenturyLink Field for the Sounders FC home opener.
There are few feelings like it.
“It’s always exhilarating,” said Sounders Head Coach Sigi Schmid on being in the stadium on opening day. “We never take it for granted. I know I never do and I don’t think the players ever do as well.”
Seattle has begun each of its previous six seasons in Major League Soccer with a home fixture, posting a 4-2 record in the process. The most recent curtain raiser came on March 8, 2014 when Chad Barrett scored a stoppage-time winner over then-MLS champion Sporting KC.
“You still get the same kind of feelings, especially after such a long break and seeing the crowd…it’s going to be nice,” said forward Lamar Neagle of playing in front of the hometown support. “I’m definitely excited for the game, to be playing again, to get the season underway. I think we expect a lot from ourselves so yeah, it’s exciting.”
It will have been exactly 98 days between the Sounders last home match, the 2-1 victory over the LA Galaxy in the Western Conference Championship, and Sunday’s season opener against the defending MLS Eastern Conference champions New England Revolution, a period that has left many clambering for more soccer, including Schmid.
Entering his seventh season as the Head Coach of the Sounders, Schmid still gets excited to step onto the Xbox Pitch to experience the incredible atmosphere created by the club’s supporters.
“I’m always amazed when I walk out there and see all the people,” said Schmid. “Especially how the stadium fills in between warm-ups and the actual kickoff. It’s just an electric feeling. It’s sort of like, ‘Hey, we’re home again,’ so that’s a great feeling.”
With a sellout crowd expected for Sunday’s match, it should be another event not worth missing. For your viewing pleasure (and a friendly reminder for those who have somehow forgotten), here is a collection of photos of CenturyLink Field full of Sounders supporters.
See you Sunday.
