Category Archives: Soccer
Sounders minor league team on the horizon for Olympia?
Will area soccer fans have even more to cheer in the near future?
The MLS and Seattle Sounders FC are currently working with United Soccer Leagues to transform their MLS Reserves squad to a second tier USL Pro team with it’s own city and identity. Tacoma appears to be the front runner after a Mother’s Day game between the Sounders Reserves and Orlando City at Cheney Stadium served as a market and stadium test and drew a respectable 2,174 fans.
Buried in this report from KING 5 News is that Everett and Olympia are also being considered as the home for the team. It seems far-fetched, I know, but could Olympia land the Sounders top minor league team in the next two or three years? I don’t think it is as impossible as it seems.
Sounders owner and general manager Adrian Hanauer admitted in KING 5’s report that Cheney Stadium is not the ideal place for soccer and the Sounders are interested in a soccer specific stadium, something that does not currently exist. So if the Sounders want a soccer specific stadium, they will probably have to build it or work to have it built themselves. The Olympia area has a lot of cheap land currently available with excellent infrastructure, the failed Lacey Gateway Town Center being the most obvious spot with the Nisqually Tribe looking to develop more than 250 acres in the area.
Olympia has no professional sports for a USL Pro team to compete with and if a team based in Olympia were given the right marketing and sales resources by the Sounders, it could easily build that into a big advantage for the club. But even with less competition for sponsorship dollars, the corporate base in Thurston County is extremely weak. A team in a Lacey stadium could be a more regional club drawing interest from companies in south Pierce County, but that is no guarantee.
Obviously, the biggest problem is population. Is Thurston County large enough people to draw between 2,000-3,000 fans a contest even as the only game in town? The USL Pro is based in much larger cities like Orange County (Los Angeles Blues), Rochester, Orlando and Pittsburgh. These are cities more similar to Seattle, maybe Tacoma, but definitely not Olympia. Even I, an ardent cheerleader for sports in Olympia, have my doubts. But again, if the Sounders would allocate the right marketing and sales resources, it’s not out of the question.
The Sounders organization has seen what the Olympia area can do with games at Tumwater Stadium between the Sounders U-23s and Portland Timbers U-23s drawing more than 1,200 fans twice in the past two years despite little to no general marketing efforts outside of partnering with Blackhills FC. That has to be at least a little intriguing.
Whatever the result, and most likely the team will go to Tacoma, at least Olympia is getting some consideration. I don’t think we are too far off until the area gets a professional, semi-professional or developmental team.
Detroit City FC’s Northern Guard supporters group (Facebook)
GoalWA.net has been championing the expansion of the National Professional Soccer League, a national semi-professional league that has seen some success lately with teams in Detroit, Tulsa and Chattanooga. The NPSL wants to expand to the Northwest with multiple teams making up a Northwest conference and Olympia is one of the obvious choices along with Yakima, Tri-Cities, Port Angeles, Wenatchee and Spokane. The league fee and operating costs are reasonable, however the revenue possibilities are a bit limited considering they would have to play at a high school stadium and would not be able to sell quality facility advertising and decent concessions, including alcohol.
The Premier Development League is another option, especially given the success the Sounders U-23s have had at Tumwater Stadium and the established nature of the PDL Northwest Division. But the league fees are much higher than the NPSL and the revenue possibilities are probably equal. Also, the rights to Thurston County might already be owned by the Sounders U-23s, and they might not be willing to give them up.
Bellinghammers SC, Bellingham United’s supporters group (GoalWA.net)
Another option is the Pacific Coast Soccer League, a British Columbia based league that has one Washington club, Bellingham United. Bellingham United has been a success story creating the second most popular men’s team in Washington State in just two years of existence despite playing in a substandard league. League costs are low and they have created a thriving supporters/pub culture that could be replicated in Olympia. However, the drive for every team in the league would be very long, overnight affairs that probably would lead the league to not expand to Olympia without financial assurances or league expansion into other Western Washington cities.
One last option, the Women’s Premier Soccer League, the second or third tier of women’s soccer, would make a lot of sense in Olympia and would bridge the travel gap between the Seattle based teams and Oregon based teams. But again, revenue opportunities are low. They play just 10 games, would play in a high school stadium and might have limited appeal.
One thing is for sure: any startup soccer team, or any sports team for that matter, needs to have proper resources to make it a go here. For a USL Pro team, they need the backing of the Sounders, a new soccer specific stadium and a full-time, professional marketing and sales staff. Other lower level leagues would need to have the resources to have at least one full-time person devoted to sales and someone skilled at marketing and communications. It will take money and effort, but it certainly can be done.
PHOTO GALLERY: Friends of Mia Alumni Soccer Cup
Click on any image to go to the gallery and see large size.
Capital’s young squad of graduates went undefeated and ran away with a 4-0 win over Tumwater in the final game to repeat as Friends of Mia Alumni Soccer Cup champions.
Pictures are from Sunday’s Tumwater/River Ridge, Tumwater/North Thurston and Tumwater/Capital game.
Today (6/16): Friends of Mia tourney crowns a champion
Soccer
Friends of Mia Alumni Soccer Cup – The RAC – 9:00 AM
The Friends of Mia tournament continues with six pool games and the championship game this afternoon. Here is today’s schedule…
River Ridge vs. Tumwater – Field 3 – 9:00 AM
North Thurston vs. Olympia – Field 4 – 9:00 AM
Tumwater vs. River Ridge – Field 3 – 10:15 AM
Capital vs. Olympia – Field 4 – 10:15 AM
North Thurston vs. Tumwater – Field 3 – 11:45 AM
Capital vs. Timberline – Field 4 – 11:45 AM
Championship game – Field 4 – 1:15 PM
Today (6/15): Friends of Mia soccer, Tatunka 7s rugby tournaments; Racing at the Speedway
Soccer
Friends of Mia Alumni Soccer Cup – The RAC – 9:00 AM
The second annual Friends of Mia Alumni Soccer Cup gets underway today with pool play beginning at 9:00 AM on Field 4 at The RAC. Capital, North Thurston, Olympia, River Ridge, Timberline and Tumwater will battle for the title in support of families fighting pediatric cancer at Children’s Hospital in Seattle and pediatric cancer research. Here is today’s tournament schedule…
Tumwater vs. Capital – Field 4 – 9:00 AM
North Thurston vs. River Ridge – Field 3 – 10:15 AM
Olympia vs. Timberline – Field 4 – 10:15 AM
River Ridge vs. Capital – Field 3 – 11:30 AM
Timberline vs. Tumwater – Field 4 – 11:30 AM
Capital vs. North Thurston – Field 3 – 12:45 PM
Olympia vs. Tumwater – Field 4 – 12:45 PM
Timberline vs. North Thurston – Field 3 – 2:00 PM
Olympia vs. River Ridge – Field 4 – 2:00 PM
Following the action today, O’Blarney’s is hosting a post-tournament party beginning at 4:00 PM. O’Blarneys will donate 20% of all tabs opened between 4:00 and 10:00 PM and there will be a variety of items up for auction including a Seattle Sounders jersey signed by the entire team.
The tournament continues on Sunday at 9:00 AM with the championship game getting underway at 1:15 PM.
Rugby
Budd Bay Rugby’s Tatunka 7’s – Evergreen State College – 10:00 AM
The annual Tatunka 7’s rugby tournament hosted by Budd Bay Rugby kicks off the 7s season in the Pacific Northwest. The tournament will feature three divisions – men’s competitive, women’s open and men’s open – and last year featured 22 teams in a double elimination tournament. The Tatunka 7s tourney used to accompany Super Saturday, the celebration on Evergreen’s campus the day after graduation but has stood on it’s own since the funding for Super Saturday was cut.
Auto racing
Street Stocks, Legends, Baby Grands, Bumblebees and Outlaw Compacts – South Sound Speedway – 6:30 PM
Sunday scoreboard: Sounders U-23s fall; Oly Rollers top London late; A’s, Linx, Cards, Silvers win
Soccer
Portland Timbers U-23 1, Sounders U-23 0 – Recap
Roller Derby
Oly Rollers Cosa Nostra Donnas 186, London Rollergirls 175
England’s London Rollergirls opened up a 140-109 lead over the Oly Rollers’ Cosa Nostra Donnas midway through the second half but On’Da Sligh’s jam with 3:55 left to play gave Oly their first lead since the first half at 160-154 and the Cosa Nostra Donnas held on for a hard fought 186-175 win at Skateland! on Sunday night.
Baseball
Olympia Athletics 6, Lacey Saints 5
West Olympia Linx 6, Tumwater Brewers 4
Hawks Prairie Cardinals 9, Nisqually Silvers 4
Nisqually Silvers 4, Thurston County Senators 0
Capital City Bombers 19, Tacoma Cascades 13
Sounders U-23s flip out in 1-0 loss to Portland
Michael Harris in a non-flip moment
In front of a crowd of 1,129 at Tumwater Stadium Sunday afternoon, the Sounders U-23s and Portland Timbers U-23s battled to a scoreless draw for the 83 minutes before the Timbers’ Zack Foxhoven’s gathered a pass in the box from Nick Palodichuk and buried a shot past Sounders goalkeeper Zac Lubin to score the game’s only goal in a 1-o Timbers victory. It was a hard fought game between two of the best teams in the PDL’s Northwest Division but was marred a strange tactic that the Sounders U-23s employed many times throughout the game.
Sounders U-23 midfielder Michael Harris first rolled out his flip throw-in about 15 minutes into the game to the gasp and cheer of the unsuspecting crowd. Harris took the ball, did a forward tumble putting the ball on the ground over his head, tumbling back up and releasing a long throw into the box when he was back upright. It’s a play in soccer that is something to see, something to behold and got the crowd, primarily made up of Blackhills FC players and parents, excited.
But Harris and the Sounders U-23s did it again and again and again and again. In fact, in the first half I counted ten flip throw-ins from Harris and though I stopped counting, I estimate at least another ten in the second half. And while the throw-ins looked cool and sometimes resulted in a throw-in from a better position (inevitably another flip throw-in), most of the time there was nobody on the other end of the throws and the trade off was that the Sounders never kept possession in the midfield for any amount of time. It was an all or nothing strategy that turned out to be nothing in the long run.
It was a strange strategy that felt like a cheesy gimmick after the first few times. Perhaps I’m wrong, but it felt like I was watching Loyola Marymount basketball in the early 90’s or Grinnell College basketball but instead of taking the best shot available every ten seconds, they just lobbed it into traffic in the paint and hoped it would hit off their center’s head and into the basket.
This was the first Sounders U-23s game that I have seen this season so I’m not sure if it is a strategy that head coach Darren Sawatzky has employed in previous games or not, but it struck me as a lack of confidence in the ability of his midfield. I honestly can’t remember even one time when the ball went to the midfield and they strung a handful of passes together or backed it out to the midfield or back to the defense. Everything was over the top passes or long flip throw-ins and that was it. It resulted in 11 shots but nothing particularly tough for Timbers keeper David Meves.
Eventually the pressure of never having possession got to the Sounders and resulted in a 1-0 loss that snapped their three game winning streak and dropped them to 3-3-1 on the season, six points behind the first place Timbers.
Image courtesy of Sounders U-23s Facebook page
Today (6/9): Cascadia soccer rivalry, international derby highlight busy Sunday
Extremely busy and exciting sports Sunday ahead of us today, so let’s get right to it…
Baseball
Olympia Athletics vs. Lacey Saints – The RAC – 10:00 AM
Capital City Bombers vs. Tacoma Cascades – Crandall Field – 11:00 AM
Tumwater Brewers vs. West Olympia Linx – The RAC – 1:00 PM
Hawks Prairie Cardinals vs. Nisqually Silvers – The RAC – 4:00 PM
Thurston County Senators vs. Nisqually Silvers – The RAC – 7:00 PM
Soccer
Sounders U-23s vs. Portland Timbers U-23s – Tumwater Stadium – 2:00 PM
First place in the PDL Northwest Division is on the line this afternoon at Tumwater Stadium when the Sounders U-23s face the Portland Timbers U-23s at 2:00 PM. Tickets are $10 at the door. Read previews of the Timbers U-23s here and the Sounders U-23s here.
Roller Derby
Oly Rollers Cosa Nostra Donnas vs. London Rollergirls – Skateland! – 6:00 PM
The Cosa Nostra Donnas, the varsity squad of the Oly Rollers organization, makes their 2013 debut in this international WFTDA bout. Tickets are $15 at the door.
PREVIEW: Sounders U-23s in Tumwater
Sounders U-23’s Jamael Cox hits the game winner against the Timbers U-23s in 2012.
The Sounders U-23s and Portland Timbers U-23s meet on Sunday at Tumwater Stadium at 2:00 PM in the junior version of the Cascadia Cup. Yesterday we took a look at the PDL Northwest Division leading Timbers, today we preview the Sounders, 1-o winners of last year’s version in the South Sound…
Blake Wise
The Sounders U-23s come into the Tumwater game just three points behind the Timbers U-23s for first place. The Sounders have 10 points at 3-2-1 and are coming off of a 1-0 win over the North Sound Seawolves on Wednesday night in Sumner. Blake Wise scored the game’s only goal midway through the second half. It was the San Diego State senior’s second goal of the season. In the 2012 season for the Aztecs, Wise tallied four goals with five assists in 18 games.
Wise shares the scoring lead for the Sounders with San Diego State alum Miles Byass and University of Akron senior Aodhan Quinn. Wise spent 2011 with the Timbers U-23s before spending 2012 with Orange County Blue Star. Meanwhile, Quinn is in his second season with the Sounders after scoring four goals with three assists for Akron in his junior year. Quinn led the 2012 Sounders with six goals and three assists.
Zac Lubin as a Saint
Three local players are getting minutes for the Sounders this season. Saint Martin’s alum Zac Lubin has made two starts in the PDL season allowing three goals to his former squad, the Kitsap Pumas, in a 3-3 draw on May 24th at Curtis High School and earning the shutout with three saves against North Sound on Wednesday. He also made two starts in the US Open Cup getting the win over Doxa Italia before dropping a 3-0 decision to the USL Pro’s Charlotte Eagles. Lubin spent 2012 with the Pumas making 15 starts posting a 1.034 goals against average.
Capital High School grad and Gonzaga senior defender Josh Phillips has made three appearances and though not credited with an assist, Phillips played a ball in from the corner to Wise who scored a bicycle kick goal in stoppage time to knock off the Washington Crossfire 1-o.
Yelm’s Miguel Gonzalez has made one appearance, playing 17 minutes as a sub against Kitsap. The senior at Seattle University scored four goals with an assist in his junior season with the Redhawks.
Luis Estevez rounds out the goal scoring this season for the Sounders. The native of Rotorua, New Zealand is heading into his sophomore season at the University of Mobile.
Veteran defender Steve Mohn has added two assists in six games and has teamed with fellow University of Washington Husky Chris Brundage and Puyallup’s Mark Lee on the back line.
The Sounders U-23s are coming off of a PDL semifinals run in 2012. The Sounders came into last season’s game in Tumwater with a 2-1-3 record. Including their 1-o win over Portland, the Sounders went 9-1 to finish out the regular season finishing in first place of the Northwest Division. They then beat the Washington Crossfire, FC Tucson and the Ventura County Fusion in the playoffs before falling to Forest City London, the PDL’s eventual champion, in the semifinals.
DeAndre Yedlin in Tumwater with the Sounders U-23s in 2012
Four players from last season’s squad signed professional contracts this season. DeAndre Yedlin has played in 11 MLS games for the Seattle Sounders, Anthony Arena has appeared once for the Houston Dynamo, Doug Herrick signed with the MLS pool but has yet to be signed to a team and Jamael Cox, who scored the game winner in last year’s game in Tumwater, signed with the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
The two teams have met once already this season with Portland taking a 2-o win in the season opener in Portland. They will also meet in Beaverton in the season finale on July 16th.
Tickets for the Sounders U-23s and Portland Timbers U23s on Sunday afternoon at Tumwater Stadium are just $10 and will be available at the gate. First kick is scheduled for 2:00 PM.
Images courtesy of San Diego State and Saint Martin’s athletics. Other photos are Oly Sports originals.
PREVIEW: Portland Timbers U-23s in Tumwater
On Sunday afternoon, the junior version of the Cascadia Cup returns to the South Sound for a second year when the Sounders U-23s and Portland Timbers U-23s meet at Tumwater Stadium at 2:00 PM. Last season, Jamael Cox scored the game’s only goal in stoppage time to give the Sounders U-23s a 1-0 win in front of a crowd of nearly 1,400.
Today we take a look at the Timbers U-23s squad that will travel the 100 miles up to Tumwater to take part in one of Oly Sports’ favorite sporting events of the year.
David Meves
The Timbers U-23s come into Sunday’s game in first place of the Premier Development League’s Northwest Division with 13 points at 4-1-1. The Timbers were undefeated through five games until they fell to Washington Crossfire 1-0 on Wednesday night at Redmond High School.
The Timbers U-23s have allowed just two goals this PDL season, the only other one coming to North Sound on May 18th. Goalkeeper David Meves has four shutouts in six games. The University of Akron alum posted a career goals against average of an astounding 0.50 and finished his four year career for the Zips as the NCAA’s all-time leader in shutouts with 54 including a 1-0 shutout in the 2010 NCAA College Cup championship game.
Clark Phillips
Clark Phillips leads the Timbers with three goals. The junior forward from Gonzaga is in his second season with the club having scored four goals for them in 2012. Phillips started all 19 games for the Zags and scored five goals with two assists. Phillips teams with the University of Memphis’ Mark Sherrod in the front. Sherrod has a pair of assists for the Timbers and scored 12 goals with four assists in his junior season at Memphis.
Creighton junior Eric Miller has scored two goals and an assist for the Timbers after starting all 19 games for the Bluejays including a College Cup semifinal loss to eventual national champion Indiana. However, Miller might not be with the club in Tumwater. He just wrapped up a stint with the US U-20 National Team at the Toulon Tournament in Toulon, France.
The Timbers U-23s and Sounders U-23s have met once already this season, a 2-0 season opening Timbers win on May 16th at Jeld-Wen Field in front of a Thursday afternoon crowd of 3,681. Miller opened the scoring in the 25th minute and Zack Foxhoven, a senior at Louisville, scored in the 65th minute.
Last season, the Timbers finished second to the Sounders U-23s in the Northwest Division and earned a trip to the Western Conference Championships with a 2-1 win over the Kitsap Pumas and current Sounders U-23s goalkeeper Zac Lubin. The Timbers fell to the Ventura County Fusion, 1-0, in Ventura, California to end their season.
The Timbers qualified for the US Open Cup and knocked off the NPSL’s Sacramento Gold, 3-2, at Jeld-Wen Field on May 14th before falling to the USL Pro’s Charleston Battery, 1-0, in Portland on May 21st.
Jim Rilatt is in his fifth season as the head coach of the Timbers. He led them to a 20-0-0 season and a PDL championship in 2010.
Images courtesy of Gonzaga and Creighton athletic departments and the Sounders U-23s.
Oly Sports 