Geared Up For a New Sounders Soccer Season

It was sunny yesterday when I posed for my new Facebook  photo.  We weren't so lucky today, game day.  But we made do.

 It was dry in the Link light rail riding into the city.

It was dry in the Starbucks next to the rail station where we got off to go to the stadium, and where we had lattes and goodies and played with our phones.

We had on enough rain gear to keep us dry as we walked to the stadium and watched the march to the match arrive.

 We usually participate, but I'm not ready for that kind of action yet this season.

And it was dry when we arrived at our new seat location on the covered third tier.

Where we looked down on where we used to sit.

When the pre-match ceremony began, we celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Seattle Sounders.

 The whole lower stadium went blue and green as the Emerald City Supporters deployed a huge tifo banner celebrating the club history.

 The rain made deployment tricky, so it took a while to reveal each layer, and the match was under way so the banner was hurriedly tucked away. Our Jill and Jake were part of the crew.

 We stayed nice and dry and comfortable through the first half and at half time we strolled the upper concourse with views of the rainy city.

The second half was tense, and it wasn't until the final minute of extra time that the Sounders scored, to take the victory over last year's champions, Sporting Kansas City.

We walked around on the lower concourse, staying dry as the crowds thinned out before making our way back to the light rail station. 

It was pretty steamy on the ride home with all of those wet, but happy, Sounders fans.

Today had been my target for being recovered enough to go to the opening match.  I handled it well.

Now we are already setting our clocks ahead an hour.  It has been a full day, and we won't mind missing that hour at all.