Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer was just wrapping up his media scrum following Thursday’s workout in Tukwila when I asked him about his team’s mindset heading into Friday’s game against Atlanta United FC. We’ve all heard the comparisons to the high-spending, Arthur Blank-owned expansion franchise doing things first-rate, much as the Sounders did in 2009 in trying to establish a toehold here.
But I wanted to get into things more at field level. The Sounders and Atlanta played an exhibition game last month in Charleston, SC in which United nearly blew Schmetzer’s team off the field in the first half.