Thus begins the holding-pattern portion of the Major League Soccer playoff schedule. Having survived a gauntlet of three postseason games in a week-and-a-half to emerge as a Western Conference finalist, the Sounders must wait more than two weeks to kick off that series against Colorado on Nov. 22 at CenturyLink Field.
This break was a necessary evil to avoid missing players called up for upcoming World Cup qualifiers. The additional bye weekend between the conference finals and MLS Cup is less explicable.
In the meantime, there are plenty of intriguing qualifiers to whet one’s soccer appetite: Brazil-Argentina and Colombia-Chile down in South America, Egypt-Ghana in Africa, U.