This just in: The Sounders truly do plan to take the CONCACAF Champions League tournament very seriously this time around.
Sure, they’ve said that the previous five times they’ve qualified. But now, unlike their prior appearance two years ago when they sent a split-squad to El Salvador to face Santa Tecla FC in their tournament opener, the Sounders seem to actually mean it.
This time, they’re sending their best players.
“When we went to Santa Tecla and we knew that was our opponent, I kind of was going with two teams,’’ Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said Thursday, as his team continued its local phase of training camp ahead of a weekend departure for California.