The Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League is a lot of things to different teams. To some who qualify for this competition every year, it’s a thorn in the middle of a congested league schedule. To others, it’s a chance to prove they belong on a continental scale. Most view it as a chance to test depth and mettle in unforgiving, sweat-drenched locales south of the border.
For Sounders FC, the recently arrived competition is holding out jumper cables to a season that was as promising after three months as any in recent memory. After a rough patch since mid-June, Seattle’s looking for any glimmer of momentum to cling to and feed from for the final playoff push in August and September. If the CONCACAF Champions League can provide that, all the better.
“It’s fun. Haven’t been apart of it for a few years, so it’s fun to be back in it and compete against the best teams in the region,” centerback Chad Marshall said. “It’s tough with our schedule. A lot of the games are back-loaded, and it’s summer time. It’s hot. You’ve got a midweek game in Honduras, so it’s just about taking care of your body. But it’s an honor to be involved in that tournament, and I know our club wants to do well. We’re focused on it.”
Sounders FC has gradually been adding depth back to the roster after the diaspora of players who’d missed time this summer trickle back into the starting lineup. That’ll be key for August, a grueling stretch that features eight matches, two of them road games in the ever difficult CONCACAF Champions League.
The first of those comes this week in the form of Vancouver Whitecaps FC, the same team that defeated Sounders FC 3-0 last weekend. The quirk there is unique, in that the clubs have both rivalry and fixture proximity when they come together in Vancouver. The fact that the Whitecaps are one of the best teams in MLS only adds to the degree of difficulty, especially considering Seattle has league matches sandwiched just a few days on either side of the Wednesday’s fixture.
Any unforeseen challenges there? Maybe for some. But not for a team with this much veteran know-how. Last year, Seattle drew the LA Galaxy away and then beat them 2-0 at home in back-to-back matches to end the regular season and snap up the Supporters’ Shield trophy. The similarities here are hard to miss.
“It’s just two more games,” Marshall said. “Obviously you’re not used to playing opponents twice back-to-back unless it’s the playoffs or something, but we need to learn from the last game. I’m sure they’ll be pumped up for the tournament, and they’ll be at home. What we did to them last time at home [a 2-0 Sounders FC win], I’m sure they’ll want to get us back for that. It’s going to be a tough game. We need to show up.”
That goes double for the rest of the tournament. Sounders FC has played in BC Place, at the very least. On August 19, Seattle welcomes Honduran outfit C.D. Olimpia before visiting Tegucigalpa a week later for the return group leg. As important as the Vancouver match is to open group play on a high note, those two matches could decide Seattle’s fate in the three-team group.
Olimpia is notable in Honduras as the nation’s club side of record. They’ve won an untouched 29 league titles, and while it isn’t germane to their current group of players, they won this tournament twice in its pre-modern era in 1972 and 1988.
More important to the here and now, Olimpia is a Central American mainstay on the international club scene. And they’re hot. Earlier this year, the Honduran FA reanimated a competition called the Copa Presidente. Dormant since 1998, the Honduran cup, essentially the nation’s answer to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, was brought back just this year with 64 clubs in three divisions taking part. In May, Olimpia won it for a record third time with a 3-1 victory over Platense. The club won the cup’s last iteration in 1998, too.
Olimpia is loaded down with promising young attacking players, namely Anthony Lozano and Romell Quioto, both of whom scored in the cup final. Both are under 24, and MLS fans might remember both names. The Portland Timbers went to Tegucigalpa last year and were smashed by Olimpia 3-1, with Lozano and Quioto combining to score all three goals, including two quick ones for a rapid lead. Quioto’s goal was highlight reel quality, too, as his over-the-head flip goal gave the visitors a rude welcome.
The stadium itself is no joke, either. The Estadio Nacional looks like a Central American version of Barcelona’s Camp Nou with the top half of the stands shorn off. The 34,000-seater sits cradled in the nation’s interior highlands in the midst of a mountain range, which pushes the city up to 3,250 feet. The stadium itself is a bowl that funnels noise downward to the field, which is menacingly ringed by a high fence to separate fans from the field. Meanwhile, amidst the noise and the elevation, the pounding heat and humidity plays havoc on already tired legs. In the midst of that atmosphere, last year’s Timbers-Olimpia match in Honduras featured 31 fouls and 10 yellow cards, seven of which went to the MLS club.
All that to say, this competition will be as difficult, unpredictable and exciting as ever. For Sounders FC, that could well mean a boost at a critical time, and it all starts this week with Vancouver.
“We’ve got to play better than we played Saturday,” Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid said. “Obviously we gave up goals on set pieces. We’ve got to eliminate that.”
