Know your History - May 4, 2002

[TGos]

Shameless plug, but today is an important day in Sounders history

http://www.sounderatheart.com/2017/5/4/ ... -ago-today


May 4, 2002 is an important day in Sounders history.

This date marked the start of the 2002 USL season, and the Sounders had a Saturday-Sunday away-home double header against their long time rival Portland Timbers. The league games doubled as USOC qualifiers. (Welcome to the USL.)

That May 4, 2012 season opener was notable in several ways

• This game marked the beginning of Brian Schmetzer's coaching career with the Sounders
  http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/sounders/breakfast-with-the-enemy-and-four-other-meetings-that-shaped-brian-schmetzers-career/
  
• The Sounders roster featured some of the very best to lace it up for the A-League/USL Sounders: Preston Burpo; Kieran Barton, Scott Jenkins, Ryan Edwards, Nate Daligcon ; Jason Farrell, Leighton O'Brien, Andrew Gregor, Zach Kingsley; Darren Sawatzky, Brian Ching.
  
• The Timbers roster included both former and future Sounders, as well as a certain now-familiar voice: Matt Napoleon; Brent Sancho, Gavin Wilkinson, Scott Benedetti; Keith Costigan, Brian Winters, Sean McAuley, Benji Somoza, Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar; Chugger Adair, McKinley Tennyson.
  
• In the 73rd minute, Coach Schmetzer subbed in a rookie defender only recently discovered at an open tryout, a player who impressed Schmetzer with his tenacity. Thus would begin the career of Sounder legend, Zach Scott
  https://www.soundersfc.com/post/2014/09/25/best-zach-scotts-300-games-sounder
  
• Future U23 coach Darren Sawatzky scored one of the most memorable goals in the rivalry: Farrell to Sawatzky to Ching to Sawatzky to Ching to Sawatzky.

Match reports:
Seattle Pitch http://seattlepitch.tripod.com/matches/2002/may4.html
Timber Rattlers (w pics) (I won't link that here)

So, welcome to the first May 5 without ZSMM on the roster in 15 years.

[futbolgirl]

Such a good post.
Thank you.

[SeattleCalcio]

This is a terrific post, with so much info I didn't know! Thank you!

[Antiei30]

This is great! The posts don't like us.

[FuzzyForeigner]

more of these posts please. seriously more of these.

[TGos]

more of these posts please. seriously more of these.

I will try. My history with the team only goes back to 1998, so other will have to help out before that.

That 2002 season was one of the club's best ever. The Sounders started en fuego, winning their first 8 games and going 14–2–0 , even though 12 of those 16 games were on the road (10 road wins!) Again, welcome to the A-League.

The team finished with a 23–4–1 record, "the second-best record in A-League history", and Schmetzer was named Coach of the Year.

But the ending - ooohhh - the wheels came flying off the axle on that one, to our northern neighbors, no less..


Let me once again thank the efforts of Ron Stickney for his exhaustive game summaries at Seattle Pitch over this time period. For well over a decade he rarely missed a match. These pages are a treasure, and it is easy to lose an afternoon reliving old matches and seasons.

[TGos]

I almost forgot - 2002 also featured the first ever sporting event at Century Link field (then Qwest) - a Sounders game.
On July 28, 2002, the Sounders beat Vancouver 4-1 in front of 25,515. That is still the record for a 2nd div team AFAIK

http://seattlepitch.tripod.com/matches/2002/jul28.html

[martinrcorpus]

Hard to believe we wore red at one point.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[shieldk2]

Great post! Great thread! Sad I'm seeing this a week late.

[TropicSound]

I almost forgot - 2002 also featured the first ever sporting event at Century Link field (then Qwest) - a Sounders game.
On July 28, 2002, the Sounders beat Vancouver 4-1 in front of 25,515. That is still the record for a 2nd div team AFAIK

http://seattlepitch.tripod.com/matches/2002/jul28.html

This was our first match in Seattle.