Um, I think that's supposed to be a patron saint, not the grim reaper.
Confirmed via various Twitter accounts and this
MLS Rumors report, the Sounders have drawn
San Francisco FC of Panama as their CONCACAF Champions League preliminary opponent.
The first leg, away in Panama, will take place on a day falling between July 26-28. It looks like San Francisco play in a small 3,000 seat stadium. The return leg at Qwest Field will be between August 2-4.
If the Sounders win and advance to the group stages, they will face this year’s champion, Monterrey (Mexico). If you remember, Monterrey was in our group of death last year and are a very, very strong team lead by Humberto Suazo. The group will be rounded out by Comunicaciones (Guatemala) and the winner of Herediano (Costa Rica)/Caribbean Club Championship third-place finisher.
I love these mid-week international fixtures — we’re guaranteed one home and one away international match and I like our chances of advancing past San Francisco into group play. It’s too early to start talking about how much easier (other than Monterrey) this group will be than last year’s….
SBNation has a nice recap of the draw.
Here’s Don Ruiz’s article on the draw, including Sigi’s reaction:
The Sounders will face San Francisco FC of Panama in the preliminary round of the 2011 CONCACAF Champions League. The teams will compete in a two-game aggregate score match. The winner will got into a group including Monterrey of Mexico, Comunicaciones of Guatemala and team to be determined.
“I got excited because I thought we were going to San Francisco. That would be a great trip. That would be a lot closer and a lot easier to get to,” Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said. “No, I don’t know much about them. Obviously Panamanian soccer has gotten much better over the last 10 years or so. I know in qualifying when I had the youth team back in ’99 they were starting to come on. They were much better in 2005. They’ve produced some good players in the past. And it’s a difficult place to play. Their field is oftentimes wet and a little mucky, a little bit like it was in El Salvador last year at this time. So we’ve got to be sure we come through with that. And then obviously we want to advance on and we get a chance to play Monterrey again if that happens. And Comunicaciones from Guatemala will be a welcome opponent. And then I guess we either have a Caribbean team or we would play a team from Costa Rica – Herediano, I think. For us, it’s a situation of focusing on the first task, which is getting past San Francisco of Panama. That’s what we’ve got to focus on.
Contrary to other reports, Schmid said the first leg will be played in Seattle — probably July 26 or 28 (the MLS All-Star game is July 27 in New Jersey — and the second leg will be in Panama at midweek between the July 30 MLS game at Houston and the Aug. 6 league game at Kansas City.
“Our first game is at home in that series and the second game is on the road,” Schmid said. “That second one will make it a difficult one for us because we’re playing in Houston, and then we’ll go down to Panama, and then we go to Kansas City, and then we come home and our reserves go to Vancouver. So it will be some frequent flier miles and some passport stamps.”
General manager Adrian Hanauer said Sounders home games will once again be played at Qwest Field.
