Another big night at Quest field. Once again not the result I had hoped for, coming away with a 3-2 loss.

Pre-game entertainment this time included the worlds biggest grill! Its not going to fit on my deck, or even the driveway.

Onto the game… DC have the worst record in the league, but after a horrendous start have picked up 13 out of a possible 15 points coming into the game tonight and were on something of a hot streak. Seattle was also looking good and had a lot of momentum after dominating New England Saturday. It looked like a good match up, and other than the score line it was an entertaining game to watch.

The ECS unveiled a huge and very impressive banner of Keller holding up the US Open cup prior to the game. This was the trophy Seattle won last year by beating DC United at RFK. Best titfo so far this year, nice job by the Emerald City Supporters.

The game started out at quite the pace, both teams came out to play good football, the ref was quick to throw a couple of yellow cards and did a good job at keeping control. Seattle certainly had the best of the first half hour, they had long periods in control when they played some very entertaining passing football.A couple of shots on goal, one header from Noonan that went very close, but few other really good chances continue the theme we’ve seen a lot this year.

Unfortunately and not for the first time this year the opponents first goal came against the run of play. I was in the bathroom and missed it, but the noise left no doubt about what had happened.

A few minutes later the second DC goal came via an uncharacteristic fumble by Keller shortly before half time.

Even though they went in at half times 2-0 down, it felt like they had the best of the first half and there seemed to be some optimism for pulling it out in the second half.

This was extinguished when Chris Pontius completed his hat trick with a very pretty lofted header to the far post with about 15 minutes left to play.

Seattle made it exciting by scoring twice in injury time, James Riley got a lucky deflection that gave DCU keeper Troy Perkins no chance. A minute later Fredy Montero added a second. Seattle had one more chance but it was not enough to pull out the win. Troy Perkins had a good game, he made a couple of good saves to keep Seattle scoreless until late in the game.

Seattle had plenty of play and lots of chances, but once again was struggling to actually get shots on goal. The passing was typically good, but following the usual story broke down in the last quarter of the field.

There were exceptions, Ljungberg especially seemed to relish having the ball at his feet and had one of his best individual games. He got into it somewhat with the ref during the second half and collected another booking, but I find it difficult to find fault with his play. Most of the good chances came through him at some point in their build up.

Seattle is off for a couple of weeks now and hopefully once we get back from the World Cup break Nate Jaqua and Osvaldo Alonso will hopefully be back from injury. The addition of Swiss forward Blaise Nkufo sometime after the Swiss are eliminated from the World Cup could be huge.

The other thing to remember is the interest in Montero and Ljungberg shown by European clubs during the last transfer window. The next chance for European clubs to sign players starts in early July. CSKA Moscow were supposed to be interested in Montero, I’ll be interested to see if he’s in green for Seattle’s next home game on July 11^th.

Seen in Guildford.

@sniffpetrol

Dear trees, My car makes the CO2 that helps you to breath. And how do you repay it? By LEAKING SAP onto the paintwork again. You bastards.

It’s Sniff Petrol once again, but quality is quality. I’m not sure how much of a secret it is who is behind Sniffpetrol.com, but loved this one.

While the Daily Mail is not my first choice of paper in the morning they did run a nice interview with Freddie Ljungberg today.

There is the mandatory underwear shot, but he also talks about living in Seattle, the team, his role and hints at what’s next. Freddie feels there are another couple of years of football in him, but I get the feeling that his future may involve a return to Europe at the end of the year.

I thought I was ready. Cross of St George up at work, TV schedule mapped out, British pubs in Seattle area known (I admit, that research started quite a few years ago), Three-Lions on my iPod, traditional wall chart up, England shirt washed, parking at work for my late arrival sorted, Twitter and RSS feeds set up, and so on, and so on…

As I said, I thought I was ready. Then I was sent this…

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/footy/

How could I be so naïve? I have dancing Badgers in England shirts scoring at will… Now I’m ready.

This is what the smart people had in mind when they invented the internet!

There has been something of a shadow over the sounders, before the year started they were tipped by many to win the West and perhaps everything. It’s clear they have not played up to potential so far and good performances have been thin on the ground. Having said that the first half of the year has not been the total disaster and the sky is not falling.

Last night they produced by far and away the best performance of he year so far. Solid everywhere on the pitch. The passing was accurate, the recycling of the ball forward very good as was the use of space. Ljungberg had his best game of the year, and I don’t think that was a coincidence.

Leo Gonzales opened the scoring with a very impressive volley from the edge of the box. Gonzales passed the ball to Zakuani, who could not control it. The ball took a kind bounce back into the path of Gonzales who curled it past the keeper in great style

Seattle’s speed and a good short passing game made life difficult for New England. It was also the debut of the New England keeper Bobby Shuttleworth. He had a pretty good game and there was little he could have done about the three goals. He made hard work of a couple of straightforward back passes, but ultimately it was missed assignments and some questionable decisions from his defenders that led to the goals.

The second goal was another stunner, New England seemed asleep on a long throw in that Evans got to Zakuani who hit it first time from 15 yards out gave the keeper no chance. Another beautifully taken goal in what was a great team performance.

Noonan had a great chance and generally looked very dangerous in the box, did a lot of work for himself and set up the third goal, another good strike this time from Montero.

3-0 up at half time has not been safe in the past, but the second half was full of positive football for Seattle. By the end of the game they out shot NE 19-2, not total domination, but the little things the make a difference, precise passes, runs off the ball and so on are starting to come good. It was fun football to watch, very exciting and very much a team effort.

To put that in perspective, over the last six regular season games the sounders have scored 3 goals and conceded 9. More importantly had taken only four points out of a possible 18.

Thursday they host everyone’s favourite whipping boys DC United, three points there and they are back in the thick of the playoff hunt.

I stopped to get petrol on the way to work this morning and noticed this on the pump. It brought up three immediate questions.

1) Does this really happen often enough to need this warning? I mean do people really drive off with the pump hose still in the car?

2) Do we really need to let warn people that they are responsible for the damage they cause?

3) Someone in the office did not suddenly decide to add these warnings, something was clearly the catalyst for this.

There was then a repeat Q1, seriously what sort of dumb arse drives off like this?

The squad has been announced, the last of the real friendlies are played and we’ve had the usual whines from the goalkeepers about how the match ball flies strangely through the air.

Lets just say I’m excited.

Fabio Capello was employed by England for only one reason, to win the World Cup. That’s why he earns millions as a coach and if England get to a semi-final, or even the final then I think most English people will think he’s earned every penny.

He gave England a huge boost and has removed another potential distraction from the team by committing himself to the national team until after the 2012 European Championship. He’d been openly courted by Inter Milan and before flying to South Africa he signed an amended contract that removes any chance of Capello leaving before Euro 2012.

“Now we can all concentrate on the World Cup and give Fabio and the players our full support.” Said head of Club England Sir Dave Richards.

Capello was clear about his commitment “I am very happy about this and would like to thank Sir David Richards and the FA for their continued support and assurances about my future. I always wanted to stay until the end of my contract. In South Africa we are totally focused on the World Cup.”

After spending years in racing I believe completely in the saying that teams take their tone from whoever is in charge. It was that way at every professional team I’ve been part of, the sheer professionalism of McLaren and the underdog mentality of Minardi both came from the top.

The England squad is no different, under Erickson four years ago results were inconsistent and Sven took the whole jaunt to Germany as a well deserved reward. Capello seems to be treating it all very differently. He’s a professional and is clear England are here to win football games. His goal is very simple, it’s the brief the FA gave him when he took the job.

After a spectacular qualifying run followed by some mixed play in the recent friendlies the first stage is over. It gets serious now.

There is a wonderful story about the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in today’s London Times. The company has been trading as a bell maker since 1570, made both Big Ben (the bell in the clock tower at Westminster) and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia (and a few replicas for people who really do have everything).

The current owner says “I do not regard myself as an owner but more a custodian”. Five hundred and forty years of trading and quite a story.

I was preparing what was going to be a beautiful warm cucumber and tomato salad, and then the blade slipped…

I’m sitting back in the building that I’m way too familiar with, the Providence ER room. This one was rather spectacular, I’m missing a decent part of my finger.

Lessons learned

• When jet lagged don’t cook with super sharp blades
• Finger bleed, a lot especially when you cut 7 or 8 mm off the end
• Stopping to clean up the kitchen before getting into the car is a bad move
• Thinking the bleeding will stop by itself when the flow is pulsing is a pipedream
• Anti-bacterial soap hurts like an MFer when you try to clean the wound
• The ER has a tiled floor to make clean up easy