June 16, 2015 is a day most Sounders fans would just assume forget. Forever.
The Sounders cruised into their ballyhooed U.S. Open Cup match at Starfire Stadium against the Portland Timbers that day brimming with confidence. The most obvious reason? The Sounders had just cratered FC Dallas 3-0 and sat atop the Western Conference as arguably the best team in MLS. The summer held untold promise.
And the Timbers were coming to town. To play at Fortress Starfire, no less.
Since the Sounders played their first match at Starfire Stadium in 2005, the team was 19-0-1 all time there over the intervening 10 years. After going 4-0 at the Tukwila facility in the USL era, the Sounders were 15-0-1 at Starfire as an MLS franchise entering their 2015 U.S. Open Cup meeting with the Timbers. Notably, that included a 2-0-0 record against the Timbers at the time, including a thrilling 3-1 win in 2014 in extra time.
In 2015, for the first time in the modern era, the Sounders played a match at Starfire it did not win. And it was a spectacular loss embossed on just about every Sounders fan’s memory.
Timbers 3, Sounders 1.
That was the last experience the Sounders had with a U.S. Open Cup they’ve fairly dominated since joining MLS. Of course, Seattle’s won the tournament an incredible four times in the last seven years, but the 2015 tournament ended with three red cards, head coach Sigi Schmid leaving the sideline in frustration and a police escort for the embattled referees after calling an incredible divisive and tight match. It was an exceedingly early exit for a club used to playing well into the summer.
Redemption is at hand.
The Sounders have a newfound regional rivalry on their hands in their triumphal return to a U.S. Open Cup competition that feels fairly like something for which it has a partial ownership. Wednesday’s return to the tournament sees Seattle face down the Bremerton-based Kitsap Pumas of the fourth-tier PDL. The Pumas shocked 2014 USL champs Sacramento Republic 3-1 on the road to get to this stage, while Seattle is swinging into 2016 U.S. Open Cup action for the first time.
From Seattle’s perspective, this game represents a dive back through the breach to soothe memories of 2015 that will linger like a phantom limb at the formerly impregnable Starfire Stadium on Wednesday. And the scars are still visible. Schmid and Brad Evans are both suspended for the match after being sent off or censured in the aftermath of the 2015 Timbers fracas, while Dempsey won’t play at all in this year’s USOC after he, well, you know the rest.
Meanwhile, an away match across the country on Sunday in MLS action at the New York Red Bulls could limit the amount of first teamers deployed Wednesday under acting head coach Brian Schmetzer.
Even still, the Sounders will expect a win from this match, and whether or not the strategy involves much scouting of Kitsap, they should get it if the talent on hand plays up to its potential. Plus, the Sounders haven’t played a competitive match in two weeks, when they sent themselves into the Copa America Centenario break with a rousing 2-0 win at D.C. United.
They will certainly be rested, whoever plays.
The Pumas, meanwhile, will take a significantly different tack out of necessity. They scouted Sacramento heavily in their third-round victory, and neutralizing their flank play helped them withstand some early punches and run away with the second half despite heavy periods of Republic dominance. That experience should help them against the Sounders, who will likely deploy at least one or two regular starters and look poised to control the run of play regardless of who starts.
The U.S. Open Cup is an important competition for the Sounders, who’ve always treated it with a degree of reverence typically reserved for larger international cup competitions. The early stages of the event are always a bit less trumpeted as MLS teams attempt to angle past lower division sides en route to a final they’ve won now every year since 1999.
After all, only two teams in the 103-year history of the competition have won more U.S. Open Cup titles than the Sounders, and no MLS team has more. Mix in the desperate desire to reassert its cup dominance at Starfire, and the weight of all that will come to bear on a wild Wednesday night in Tukwila.
