After busy week, time for rival Portland

By Sigi Schmid

It was nice to sleep in our own beds this past week. After all our travel that was an excellent change for us. This week we are at home again before we travel to Portland on Friday.

The win against Chivas was a good one for us. It was our first come-from-behind victory and it was great to see Montero and Johnson combine for the winner. A brilliant pass and a great header worked to perfection. It is difficult now for an opponent to shut us down. If they concentrate on Montero then Johnson is open and if they concentrate on Johnson then Montero is open. A nice place to be.

Our reserve team also won 4-2 on Sunday, so it was a successful weekend. We are now only six points behind San Jose and if they falter we hope to use that to our advantage.

This week we prepare for Portland, our rivals, and the Cascadia Cup game in Portland. We need to make amends for our first game down there. No matter what the records are these rivalry games are always tough. The best U.S. rivalry in soccer is Seattle-Portland.

We will prepare this week, but also take a couple of days off. After the Portland game we have to go seven days straight between games and travel. We also have a reserve game in Portland on Sunday and since we play in Honduras the following Tuesday our team selection for the reserve game will be severely impacted. We need to make sure we are fresh for the CCL game and also for the game against San Jose. The Portland reserve game will be a good test for our Academy players.

Hope to see many of you in Portland on Saturday. Thanks for your support this past weekend.

Take care,
Sigi