Sounders FC has gone on the road and given the traveling fans a thrill with each of its first four away matches, going unbeaten at 3-0-1 with three consecutive comeback results.
Now with three straight home matches on the schedule, the club is looking to fill crowds of nearly 40,000 at CenturyLink Field with the same elation felt by the fans that visited Olympic Stadium for a 2-0 win over the Montreal Impact, Providence Park for a 4-4 draw with the Portland Timbers, Toyota Stadium for a 3-2 win over FC Dallas and the StubHub Center for a 2-1 win over Chivas USA.
“Everybody knows that we need to do better at home,” Sounders FC forward Lamar Neagle said. “We want to clean it up at home and show our fans some good times back in Seattle.”
Seattle has always had a great home-field edge and has taken that advantage to the bank with the third-best home record in MLS since 2009 at 46-18-20, behind only Real Salt Lake (53-11-20) and the LA Galaxy (50-17-16).
However, at just 1-2-0 to start the 2014 season, Seattle has a chip on its shoulder and wants to get things right at CenturyLink Field.
“Everybody’s happy to be home for three games. We’ve got something to prove at home,” Seattle midfielder Brad Evans said. “We’ve been very good on the road and now it’s about being good at home. We want to do it for ourselves and do it for the fans as well. Most importantly we want to prove that we can make it a fortress.”
Seattle had a lengthy unbeaten stretch at CenturyLink Field in 2013, going 10-0-4 with seven months between home defeats. Now Sounders FC is looking to rekindle some of that success with home matches against the Colorado Rapids (Saturday), Philadelphia Union (May 3) and FC Dallas (May 7).
Last year, Seattle returned from a three-game road stretch, in which it also went 2-0-1, and promptly won the next two matches at home by scores of 4-2 against FC Dallas and 4-0 against the San Jose Earthquakes. Sounders FC hopes that this last stretch of road matches can do the same thing.
“Hopefully it’s something to build on,” defender Chad Marshall said. “We want to get three wins at home and that would put us in a great place in the standings, for sure.”
Saturday’s match against Colorado is scheduled for a 1 pm PT kickoff with television coverage on Q-13 FOX in the Seattle area and regionally on ROOT Sports.
