Last night was the Sounders first league game, another big night under the lights against a decent team. Midweek tonight’s opponents Toronto booked a place in the Champions League last four. They did this by doing something Seattle has yet to manage, beating LA at the Home Depot Center.

Coming off a 6-1 hammering in Mexico Wednesday night there were questions about what Seattle Sounders we would see. We need not have worried; this team was over the Champions League elimination and opened their league season in style.

Last week David Estrada scored against Santos, tonight he got his first league goal. And quickly followed that with two more tonight to complete the routing of Toronto 3-1. It was a very solid performance from Seattle.

The Alonso-Evans-Fernandez-Rosales midfield looked extremely confident and was in control all night. This team played a great game all over the field, at the back JKH was back to his usual steady self after a horrible game in Mexico.

It’s difficult to find any real issues, Montero was perhaps a little quiet and struggled to find space. With Zakuani and Eddie Johnson still to come back from injury, this team really could be special this year. I’m just not sure who moves aside to make way for them.

It was a very solid team performance, play like every week and there is no team they should be scared off. Next up is Houston Friday night.

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Some games are bigger than others, and some losses mean a little more. Seattle getting hammered by a good Santos side feels like a big loss. It was the quarterfinal of a huge tournament, it was big game and Seattle were well beaten on the night.

There is no real way to put a positive spin on the result. JKH had a bad night, Leo Gonzales had no answer for those running at him on the left and they never had any control in the middle of the field.

Coming into the game 2-1 up after the home leg the Sounders lost two early goals, came back and going in at half time the game was level on aggregate. Then Seattle gave up 4 goals in the second half and we saw just how big the gulf between Mexican and MLS sides are.

On any given day MLS teams can compete and win, but when it comes to overall quality there is a huge gulf to overcome. When an MLS team goes to Mexico it’s not a foregone conclusion any more, but it’s still an upset when they win down there. We still expect the good Mexican teams to win, and for good reason, they typically do.

So what were the highlights? Fernandez getting on the end of a perfect cross by Montero shortly before the half is the only obvious one. Coming out at half time Seattle were still in this game, they still had a chance.

Herculez Gomez (somewhat inevitably) grabbed back the lead for Santos shortly after the restart and that was it. The Sounders were forced to look for an equalizer, and left space at the back. Santos was given too much space and they did not miss much.

They were a good side and put away the Sounders with ease.

Seattle now face Toronto at RBP. The visitors have momentum coming into this game, they beat LA over two legs and move into the last four in the Champions League.

Saturday will be a big night under the lights. The noise, a full house and a chance to start the domestic season off in the right way and put the Santos game behind them.
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Related articles

• Sounders top Santos Laguna in CONCACAF Champions League quarters (soccerbyives.net)
• Herculez Deserves Call Up from Klinsmann; MLS Looking Better Than Ever in Champions League? (bigsoccer.com)
• Sounders FC faces history, Santos Laguna (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

A few weeks ago I spoke about a friend whose daughter is getting ready to study in London for a semester. I get quizzed daily about what’s different in England, what does she need to take and so on. It’s like she is preparing her eldest for a trip up Everest rather than to one of the most cosmopolitan and exciting cities on the planet.

Not only that there is indoor plumbing and sealed roads, at least as far north as Manchester. Beyond there lay dragons, but up to then it’s fine.

A large part of the problem is she totally buys into stereotypes, not just a little either, I mean totally. I’ve never even worn a bowler hat, let alone owned one and worn it to work every day like a city banker of 30 years ago. Yet somehow Amanda seemed slightly taken aback by this strange confession.

As I said before, this is a smart, educated woman whose view of the world seems to come from reality TV (dear god…) and the more pulpy romance novels (not the ones my friends in my writing group author, those are can’t-put-down page turners).

She was also a little disappointed that she was not going to run into the Queen picking up some groceries in Fortnum and Mason.

So today I got an instant message from Amanda, as I do most days, this time asking about queuing and why the British are so good about it.  I’ve stopped asking where these things come from, the answer was invariably the BBC news. I made the mistake of saying she should watch it and maybe learn something about the country she was sending her daughter off too.

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For the last few months there has been the twitter hashtag going around “#isitmarchyet”. It’s now march and that means it’s time for a couple of IPA in the Pyramid, a Diablo burger and a lot of laughing at friends wearing the fluorescent third kit (every bit as bad in real life as the photos).  Then 15 minutes before kickoff, the walk to the stadium.

Opening day is special, and a quarter final of the awkwardly named CONCACAF Champions League made this one a little different.

I’ve taken part in plenty of opening days and I think what we have is real. This was a special night and what we share here in Seattle is authentic, every bit as authentic as Highfield Road, Rec Ground, San Siro or White Heart Lane. Really, the atmosphere here is as good as any other stadium in the world.

It can’t be faked.

I love the feeling of walking into the bowl of the stadium. Looking up at the lights, checking out my new seats and on my left the Emerald City Supporters are already pogoing away. Its match day at RBP, and the atmosphere is as good as any other stadium in the world.

Last night was a big game, and the Sounders played to match the occasion. I thought Seattle could come away with a win, but always felt Santos Laguna were favorites.

The result was a credit to the club and staff. Seattle clearly prepared well during the pre-season and from the kickoff too the game to the visitors. The 2-1 win at RBP sets up the second leg wonderfully, everything to play for and clearly Santos Laguna will have to look for the win. It should be a great night and I can hardly wait.

The links at the bottom of the page tell the story of the game better than I can.

I liked what I saw, they were a club able to play a good possession game, hold the ball and then attack quickly. If this is how they play all year, there is no one they should be scared of in MLS.

This could be a special year, and I know every fan talks like that on opening day, but it really could be.
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Related articles

• MLS, Sounders Slowly Winning Respect Of Mexican Opponents (sbnation.com)
• Seattle Sounders Vs. Santos Laguna, 2012 CONCACAF Champions League: Seattle Secures Big 2-1 Victory (sbnation.com)
• Sounders top Santos Laguna in CONCACAF Champions League quarters (soccerbyives.net)

I am a big fan of Hugh MacLeods home on the web (gapingvoid.com, who does not like a daily cartoon in their inbox?) and his first book “Ignore Everybody”. In it Hugh talks about doing things from your heart and putting everything into it.

I was lucky enough to meet him at BlogWorld last November and spend a great five minutes with him. Today I finished his second book Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination. It’s been on my shelf since last summer and I’ve picked from it a few times, but never sat down to really read it before now

It’s a compact book, lots of cartoons and even more great content. It’s about getting out, finding and doing something you love and that really matters to them. It talks about being proactive and deciding what fulfilled looks like for you.

Perhaps his most interesting lesson is that people who do something that they believe in, will certainly have people who disagree with your view and the veracity in which you hold onto what you feel is right. You will have more people that validate you, but having haters is actually confirmation that you are doing something important.

A great read that makes it’s point, and then moves on to the next one.

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There is only one way to describe the last week, brutal. It’s doing something I feel very passionate about, that I believe is important, but long days really beat me up.

One exercise I’ve been doing to help get through weeks like these has been spending ten minutes sitting somewhere quiet and thinking about what I want to be doing in the future, maybe a year, maybe five.

I’ve talked about mediation in and how it’s helps me in the past. It’s a very powerful tool in centering and focusing me. I’m trying not to get too “woo-woo” here, so stay with me.

Imagining my future has been an incredible tool in helping me deal with today and define what my tomorrow holds. I focus on what I really want for myself.. I focus on the function, not the “what can be” and that is so exciting, so energizing. It allows me to pull that energy from my future and use it to define the path to what I want.

And energy is exactly what I need right now. It really is a powerful tool.

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It’s almost March, and that means the Sounders are almost here! And what an opening game we have, Mexican champions Santos Laguna for a place in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League. It could be argued that this is the biggest game this club will play until the playoffs come into view.

This is a huge game, Santos Laguna are in a three way split on top of the Mexican league and can be thought of as real contenders to win the Champions League. Win or loose, it gives the Sounders a chance to set the tone for the rest of the year.

Ten days we take part in that age old tradition and walk to the ground for the first league game of the year, full of optimism and still undefeated. That’s going to be a fun, and rowdy St Patrick’s Day.

There have been a lot of change this year for Seattle, mostly positive and this is a team that’s being built to win this year after another early exit from the playoffs last fall. There were excuses (Zakuani, Rosales and White missed significant games), but ultimately the expectations of the Sounders fan base are rightfully high. The Open Cup win was one of the best moments I’ve experienced as a supporter, but I’d swap it for a playoff win any day.

Going into this off-season I think there were two really big questions. First was who was going to play alongside Montero. Second was who is going to stand between the posts and run the back four after Kasey Keller’s retirement.

The question of whom Montero is going to play with up front was answered with the arrival of Eddie Johnson. If Montero and Johnson work well together things look very bright. Add to that a fit and motivated Rosales and hopefully soon Zakuani and we have an attack that’s as capable as any in the league, including the downright intimidating Donavon/Becks/Keane/Buddle line up in LA.
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Today was one of those rare, but so anticipated winter days in the Northwest. It was cold, not too much above freezing, but clear blue skies and the sun was out. I went out for a hike in the foothills this morning for bout 5 hours this morning, and it was wonderful.

I’ve made lists before, but this one is celebrating my inner geekness. Many involve great science fiction, others are just for fun, while some would be a wonderful way to learn a little about someone and their view of the world.

Some are a personal wishes, perhaps a little esoteric, others refer to movies that might be a little off the mainstream, but here we go.

1. Have George put Star Wars back to the way it was. We all saw Han shoot first.
2. Walk away while an explosion goes off in the background in slow motion
3. Have a glass of rum with Captain Jack Sparrow
4. Fight zombies with a yell of “Yeah-boy”
5. Tell Captain Picard to “Make it so…”
6. Have Jar Jar Binks meet with a very messy end so we can have no doubt he’s gone
7. Drive the cool Batmobile from Batman Begins
8. Understand Vogon poetry
9. Get a real cone of silence
10. Take the Tardis out for a spin
11. Dinner with Terry Pratchett
12. Find that the Serenity 2 movie is going to happen
13. Walk into a casino wearing a tux and order a Martini “shaken, not stirred”
14. Enjoy slow barbequed Ewok, St Louis style.
15. Have a sonic screwdriver in the tool box
16. Sit and listen to Isaac Asimov and Philip K Dick discuss robotics, replicants and the four laws.
17. Re-read the entire Foundation series in order
18. Look good in an Indiana Jones fedora and learn to crack a whip
19. Complete all levels of Angry Birds with three-stars
20. Visit the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley
21. Shoot an original (Buster Crabb) Flash Gordon blaster
22. Burning man
23. Have a “Law” named after me
24. SXSW Interactive
25. Have the Swedish chef cook dinner
26. Car chase through the hills of San Francisco Bullit style
27. Leia, gold bikini and…
28. Listen to the history of the universe as told by R. Daneel Olivaw
29. Work out what the hell was going on in Lost
30. Don powered armour and into the drop-capsule
31. Learn to wield a lightsaber from Yoda
32. The ultimate dinner party: Josh Whedon, Hunter S. Thompson, Stephen Fry, Stan Lee and finally Gene Roddenberry
33. Visit Westworld and take on Yul Brynner, after all the bugs have been worked out
34. Beat the Kobayashi Maru
35. Partner Logan 7 for a day
36. Tour the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough with Nevil Shute
37. Number-5 in the red dress
38. Sit in a cool chair, wearing a collarless shirt and monocle, while stroking a white cat and utter the classic line “No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die”
39. An afternoon on the Holodeck
40. “Beam me up Scotty”
41. Have a Monolith in the front garden
42. Fly through the air firing two guns Hot Fuzz style
43. Watch a live game of Rollerball (“Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan…”)
44. Road trip with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
45. Have HAL ask me “What are you doing Dave”
46. Hear an Avro Vulcan take off on full reheat one more
47. Watch the Killer rabbit take on the Black knight
48. Go hiking with Bill Bryson
49. Get shot out of a launch tube from Galactica
50. Fit a shock collar to George Lucas that goes off everytime he tries to re-edit one of his movies

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I was going to carve out a little time this morning to look at the times from the first F1 pre-season test at Jerez. But then I realized why?

I could put down five or six hundred words about times, but as with every other year no one really has a clue what’s going on.

The headlines are
• Times went down over the test
• The step noses on the cars are ugly
• Ferrari have a lot of work to do, but it’s promising
• Hamilton looked good
• Red Bull were fast
• Torro Rosso, Lotus and Force India did OK
• The step noses on the cars are really ugly

Absolutely nothing there we did not know before the test started and I just saved myself a bunch of time.
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