From their Arizona training camp, the Seattle Sounders have watched the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory and championship celebration.
Their takeaway is that it all looks like so much fun that they want to bring another trophy to the Northwest before this calendar year is out.
“We’re hoping that the smell of victory that exists at VMAC (the Seahawks training facility), we’re able to breathe in and bring into our DNA,” coach Sigi Schmid said Thursday in a conference call. “And hopefully we’re able to have another parade in December.”
The Sounders remain based in Tucson this week, going through early preparations for a long soccer season they hope ends with an MLS Cup.
On Thursday, the club continued its run of four friendlies in five days with a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps at Casa Grande, Ariz.
Seattle opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Chad Barrett sent the ball to Fabio Pereira who knocked it inside the far post.
The Sounders doubled their lead in the 17th minute when Dylan Remick crossed to Kevin Parsemain at the top of the box and he finished past Vancouver goalkeeper David Ousted.
The Whitecaps’ lone goal came early in the second half on a half-volley by Erik Hurtado.
For their second game in as many days, the Sounders started goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann, defenders Michael Azira, Zach Scott, Jalil Anibaba and Remick; midfielders Sean Okoli, Andy Rose, Pereira and Stefano Rijssel; and forwards Barrett and Parsemain.
The win pushed the Sounders exhibition record to 2-0, but for now Schmid seems more encouraged by other aspects of Arizona training.
“It’s been good weather for us to train in,” he said. “We’ve got a lot accomplished in training. I think we got a lot of good fitness work in the first week. The guys have really bonded well together as well in this period of time, working for each other every day at training, pushing each other every day at training. So I’ve been really pleased where we’re at right now.”
The Sounders’ numbers grew Thursday as midfielder Brad Evans and defender DeAndre Yedlin arrived from duty with the United States national team. They did not travel to Casa Grande.
Also remaining in Tucson was newly acquired midfielder Marco Pappa, who joined his new team on Monday but isn’t expected to see his first game action until the weekend.
“(Evans and Yedlin) already gone through a very intensive, physically demanding camp with the national team — oftentimes three sessions a day in very hot weather,” Schmid said. “So I’m not concerned with them right now as to where they are fitness-wise. (With Pappa) we wanted to get him some training (with) a little more fitness work at the end. We hope to get him into a game Saturday or Sunday — we don’t know which — but probably only for about 30 minutes, because again you don’t want to put him in and try to do too much too early and result in a setback.”
The Sounders will take a break from friendlies today before returning to action with a 5 p.m. Saturday match against the Portland Timbers.
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