Seattle sports fans finally have a reason to get excited – and it is for the beautiful game no less! MLS kicked off the ’09 season last night in Qwest field with the expansion team Seattle Sounders FC dismantling the NY Red Bulls – a team that played in the MLS final last year! Seattle has a great squad, led up front by 21 year-old Colombian phenom Fredy Montero (two goals and one assist) and in the net by 39 year-old captain Kasey Keller, one of USA Soccer’s best goal keepers ever. Former Arsenal star Freddie Ljungberg, certainly one of the best in MLS, is also on the squad but not quite in match form as he recovers from hip surgery.

What was really incredible was the support given the team by the fans. Qwest was roaring like the 4th quarter of a Seahawks game – the crowd a sea of rave green and sounder blue scarves. Everyone from the MLS Commish to the commentators was impressed.

“Having spent my whole career in Europe, I was worried about being let down — why come home for this?” said a beaming Kasey Keller. “But there’s probably not a better atmosphere for soccer in America.

“This team is raising the bar for what our teams could achieve,” Don Garber, MLS commissioner, gushed at halftime.

“This is the most successful launch in MLS history,” Joe Roth, the Hollywood movie producer and part-owner of the team told the crowd. “We proved Seattle is the capital of soccer in this country.”

MLS gets a lot of flack for the play not being up to the level of the Euro leagues. There is a lot of truth in that. But I for one am extremely excited to finally have a team I can fully support. Now just don’t move to Oklahoma.

The Sounders next take on Real Salt Lake a week from Sat. at Qwest. Here are some links:
Art Thiel reports (P-I) — Sounders Home — Sounders $5 T-shirt QFC Promo (someone in NW wanna grab one of these for me – size M pls?)