Oly Sports

When the Sounders U23s come to town on Saturday, they will be the home team, and Olympia is certainly Sounders country. But one of the big points of playing this Cascadia rivalry game in Tumwater is to capitalize on the proximity to the Portland area and attract Timbers fans. So let’s take a look at that Portland Timbers U23 squad that will invade Tumwater Stadium’s somewhat neutral field.

Mark Sherrod Cam Vickers – Photo Credit: PortlandTimbers.com

The Sounders U23s will have their hands full with the Timbers U23s on Saturday night. The Timbers are 5-0 this season and lead the PDL’s Northwest Division in goals scored and have allowed just three goals in five games. The Timbers are coming off a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps U23s on Friday afternoon in front of a PDL record 8,174 fans (mostly kids) at Jeld-Wen Field.

The Timbers are led by forward Mark Sherrod. The redshirt junior from the University of Memphis has five goals and an assist in their first five games while Cam Vickers, who spent last season with the Tacoma Tide, has two goals and five assists. The Timbers can beat you in many different ways with seven other players registering goals and University of Washington keeper Spencer Richey has allowed just three goals.

The Timbers are coming off a fourth place finish in 2011, their worst record in their three full seasons in existence. In 2010 the Timbers went 20-0-0 and became the first unbeaten and untied team to win the PDL championship. The Timbers have been coached by Jim Rilatt since their inception and hold a 38-9-6 record all time.

The Timbers U23s’ potent attack faces the Sounders U23s Saturday night at Tumwater Stadium. Tickets for the junior level of the country’s most rabid rivalry are just $10 and can be purchased here or at the gates. First kick is scheduled for 6:00 PM.

Just three more days more days until the Sounders U23s take on the Timbers U23s at Tumwater Stadium. Today Oly Sports takes a look at the Sounders U23 squad who will be in action tonight just a short drive away at Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium in the first soccer game played in the newly renovated stadium. The Sounders U23s open a week of Cascadia rivals when they face the Vancouver Whitecaps U23 at 6:00 PM.

Fernando Monge – Photo credit: Chris Coulter/SoundersPhotos.com

As part of the Seattle Sounders Youth Development Program, the Sounders U23 are coached by the program’s director, Darren Sawatzky. Sawatzky has brought home a whole host of local players that left the area for college including midfielder Fernando Monge, an Eastside Catholic alum that played in every game for national semifinalist UCLA, goalkeeper Doug Herrick, who recorded 10 shutouts en route to the elite eight with Saint Mary’s and Universty of Akron freshman All-American DeAndre Yedlin, also an O’Dea alum.

The Sounders have opened their inaugural season with two wins, one loss and two ties and are third in the PDL’s Northwest Division with eight points behind the undefeated Portland Timbers U23s and the defending PDL champion Kitsap Pumas. The Sounders opened the season with a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps U23s in Burnaby. They suffered their worst loss to the Pumas in Bremerton on May 19th and played to a scoreless tie with the Victoria Highlanders in their only home game so far this season.

Monge leads the Sounders with three goals while former Sounders Academy and Highline Community College striker Darwin Jones, Akron’s Aodhan Quinn and Seattle University grad Sean Morris have each added one goal for the Sounders. Morris, a midfielder that works in the Seattle Sounders FC youth program, has been called up twice to the Sounders Reserves and has made appearances against the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA reserves.

One thing that is striking about the Sounders U23 roster is how many local players, including Sounders Academy players, have left the Northwest to play college soccer. The roster is dotted with University of Washington Huskies but the starting lineup is primarily composed of local players from colleges across the nation. Besides Monge, Herrick and Yedlin, the team includes Two Wake Forest Deamon Deacons – Sean Okoli of Federal Way and Anthony Arena of Kenmore, Bellevue’s Liam Kelly originally went to Creighton before transferring to the University of San Francisco, and Federal Way’s Troy Peterson – a sophomore at the College of Charleston.

DeAndre Yedlin – Photo credit: Chris Coulter/SoundersPhotos.com

Sounders FC U23 takes on Portland Timbers FC U23 on Saturday, June 2nd at Tumwater Stadium. Tickets for this historic Cascadia rivalry game are just $10 and can be purchased in advance here or at the gates. first kick is scheduled for 6:00 PM

We are just four days away from the Cascadia rivalry coming to town when the Sounders FC U23 take on the Portland Timbers U23 at Tumwater Stadium on Saturday night. All week Oly Sports will have previews and stories to help you get ready for the big game. Today, we look at what has changed since the PDL last came to town and the future of soccer in Olympia…

Two years ago the Tacoma Tide teamed up with Blackhills FC and moved their home game against the Abbotsford Mariners to Tumwater Stadium. Tide owner Mike Jennings took it as an opportunity to gauge the interest level of the Olympia area in soccer, to see if the United Soccer League’s Premier Development League, the fourth tier of American soccer and top amateur league, could be successful in Thurston County. Unfortunately, the game was poorly attended, as all Tacoma Tide games were. Neither the team nor Blackhills FC properly promoted the game and the Tide weren’t exactly a draw for the casual (or even hardcore) soccer fans in the area. Soccer at this level, it seemed, was dead for Olympia.

Two years later, Olympia gets a second chance when the Tacoma franchise returns to Tumwater Stadium albeit under very different circumstances. Most importantly this time, the Tide no longer exist. Following years of poor attendance and losing money, Jennings sold the team to two Pierce County businessmen, Lane Smith and Cliff McElroy. The new owners teamed up with the Seattle Sounders and moved the Tide under the umbrella of the Sounders Youth Development Program and changed the team’s name to Sounders FC U23.

So Saturday, when the PDL comes back to town, it doesn’t come back with just any team. It comes back sporting the name of the most popular franchise in American soccer today. And they don’t just play a random team from the Fraser Valley. With the Portland Timbers they bring the most rabid rivalry in all of American soccer to town. Whether that rivalry will trickle down to the junior members of the Sounders and Timbers franchises remains to be seen, but it won’t be your typical PDL match either way.

The game is another tryout for the Olympia area and a good crowd of both Sounders and Timbers fans will ensure that Olympia will see future PDL games. However, that doesn’t mean that Olympia will be getting their own PDL team any time soon regardless of how well the game is attended. The Sounders U23s own the rights to a PDL team in Thurston County and have made a commitment to stay in Pierce County. If anything, the U23s will abandon Pierce County in a few years to play at Starfire in Tukwilla where the Sounders youth program and their sister Sounders Women team are based. That will take an agreement with Washington Crossfire, who hold the rights to King County. But with Crossfire’s PDL team averaging less than 75 fans a game in Issaquah, it wouldn’t be a surprise.

Where does that leave high level soccer in Olympia?

Olympia does have semi-pro soccer. Thurston County Premier FC has a semi-pro team that competes in the American National Soccer League but they are not spectator friendly and are practically a secret organization. There is no schedule of their games online, no roster and almost no information of any kind is available. It is hard to even acknowledge that they exist.

The optimist might look at the model being forged by Bellingham United. The Hammers play in the Pacific Coast Soccer League and have grown a solid following in their inaugural season. But Olympia would be a bit far flung for the otherwise British Columbia based PCSL and would require committed and competent ownership and management to be successful, a skill and requirement that nobody has demonstrated in this town yet at any level.

Sounders FC U23 takes on Portland Timbers FC U23 on Saturday, June 2nd at Tumwater Stadium. Tickets for this historic Cascadia rivalry game are just $10 and can be purchased in advance here or at the gates. first kick is scheduled for 6:00 PM