Boling: All this – and better soccer's ahead, too

Maybe Sigi Schmid isn’t so much a seer as just a good scout and evaluator.

After seeing his team score one puny goal in the last three preseason games, Schmid, the Sounders FC coach, spent much of the last week focusing on creating scoring opportunities. They would be much better when the games started for real, he predicted.

It paid off quickly Thursday in the Sounders’ 2010 opener as the Sounders scored twice in the first half to put away the expansion Philadelphia Union at Xbox Pitch at Qwest Field.

Schmid also predicted that the Union, under coach Peter Nowak, would be a team that featured a very physical style of play. Well, Philadelphia got a yellow card 22 seconds into the game, and lost midfielder Tony Stahl to a red card in the first half, giving the Sounders a man advantage for most of the game.

The easiest prediction Schmid could have made was that his team would again enjoy the boisterous support of another sellout crowd. This time, a crowd of 36,241 (a Sounders record for a regular-season MLS match) sat through almost a full 90 minutes of rain without having spirits notably dampened.

Ah, that’s why they all wear scarves.

The opener drew MLS commissioner Don Garber, who repeated his amazement at the Sounders’ fan base.

Garber praised management and players for their hard work at reaching a new collective-bargaining agreement last weekend that threatened to create a harmful work-stoppage. Without it, 36,000 ticket-buying fans would have been elsewhere Thursday night.

Asked if expansion teams like Philadelphia could use the Sounders as a blueprint for how to build a new franchise, Garber said they not only could, they actually have been. Representatives of the Union had been to Seattle several times scouting the way the Sounders run their operation, and how they connect with their fan base.

“This is a great story for us,” Garber said of the Sounders. “We’ve got to try to replicate it in other markets.”

The Union may have to pick up its game, though. The Sounders were far the more polished team in this one.

Even as the Sounders challenged in the Western Conference last season, goals were hard to come by. If this first exposure of the new Sounders showed anything, it was deft passing and teamwork.

In the 12th minute, Steve Zakuani and Fredy Montero assisted a Brad Evans goal from right in front.

“The first goal was really well-played,” Schmid said. “That was some of the things we were working on.”

That was just the start, too.

Zakuani and Freddie Ljungberg then moved the ball quickly to Roger Levesque for an open shot that went high.

Montero was victimized by a knee in the back that sent Stahl to the showers with the red card. Montero healed quickly and made the Union pay for the indiscretion. Osvaldo Alsonso booted a shot that looked to be heading wide left.

A diving Montero headed the ball into the open corner of the goal.

Montero said it was one of the toughest scores of his professional career as the ball was coming fast and was bouncing, too.

Schmid said that he had some nervousness before the game, and the team felt pressure to sustain the momentum gained last year. And he said that walking out onto the field and feeling the support of the large crowd “is still almost like a dream sometimes.”

Evans said it’s interesting that the Sounders are no longer happy with just getting the win. Now, they want more.

They know they can play better.

Schmid is instilling that in them.

“I know better soccer’s ahead for us,” Schmid said.

Hey, his predictions have been sound so far.

Dave Boling: 253-597-8440

dave.boling@thenewstribune.com