SeaWolves face England’s Port Vale in friendly

No, it won’t quite be Manchester United playing the Seattle Sounders at sold-out CenturyLink Field. But for Snohomish County, it’s pretty good.

The expansion North Sound SeaWolves will play host to England’s Port Vale F.C. in an international friendly at 7 tonight at Goddard Stadium. It will

be the first of four games Port Vale will play in North America as part of its preseason tour.

“First, I want to show our community this level of soccer,” SeaWolves owner/coach Alex Silva said. “Second, I’d like to get our players some experience playing a totally different game that they haven’t experienced yet. It’s going to be unique.

“I’m looking forward to see how our players will react playing against a professional club. Most of the players on Port Vale make more than MLS players so it’s going to be very competitive. I want to see which players are ready to compete at that level.”

Known as the Valients, Port Vale plays in England’s Football League Two, the fourth-highest level of professional soccer in the country. Based in Burslem, Staffordshire in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, the club was formed in 1876 and had its best success in the 1950s. Last season, Port Vale finished 11th in League Two. The team averages about 4,700 fans a game and pop star Robbie Williams is its major stakeholder.

The tour of the Northwest came about when a member of USA Soccer approached Victoria Highlanders general manager Drew Finerty, who approached Silva as well as the Tacoma Tide and Kitsap Pumas about hosting Port Vale. Silva said he was initially unsure.

“There are costs involved and I went back and forth a few times to make sure it was something that was worth it for the team and the community,” he said. “But I thought it was a great idea. My goal was to have at least 1,000 fans but that hasn’t happened for us. Maybe we’ll get a surprise tonight.”

The four clubs are splitting some of the cost of hosting Port Vale, which is spending eight days in Everett before heading up to Victoria to complete the tour. Silva said he’s not sure yet if hosting an international team will be a regular occurrence.

“It depends on the support we get,” Silva said. “If it pays off, if it’s worth it, we’d love to do it again. But if it’s a loss financially, we probably won’t do it again unless we find sponsors ahead of time to support it.”

Port Vale is led by manager Micky Adams, who has had a long career leading clubs at lower levels in his native country. As a player, he’s in the record books as having received the first red card in the history of the English Premier League when he played for Southampton in 1992. As a coach, he has a career 216-185-177 record, including 35-19-27 at Port Vale. He’s best known for leading Leicester to promotion to the EPL in 2002. He managed Port Vale to a solid season in 2009 before taking the job as manager of Sheffield United, which did not go well and so he returned to Port Vale earlier this year.

The Valients feature a solid striker duo up front in captain Marc Richards and Justin Richards (no relation). Marc Richards has led the team in scoring the past three years, has 101 goals in his career including 58 with Port Vale, scored 20 this past season and 22 the season before. Justin Richards has 100 career goals, including 14 this past season. Fellow forward Louis Dodds added seven goals in 2010-11.

The club has a strong defense, including three Port Vale Players of the Year in Gareth Owen, Lee Collins and John McCombe. The midfield features Doug Loft and Gary Roberts and the keeper is well-regarded Stuart Tomlinson.

Silva’s team is reeling from three-straight losses in which it has allowed 15 goals and dropped out of the postseason race in the Premier Development League Northwest Division. He said he’s now in evaluating mode, seeing which players might fit in for next season, and today’s match could be telling.

“They have experience,” Silva said about Port Vale. “They’re bringing a lot of new players for the preseason. They’re very professional. We thought maybe they would be prima donnas but they have very good personalities, seem to be a good group of guys and are also a very technically good team. It’s going to be a great experience for our guys.”