I'm struggling to come up with some positive spin for the Sounders last night.  All I can think of is this:

"One thing you can say about Barcelona, they may be great players, but they certainly have a horrible fashion sense.  No other team could (or would) wear hot pink.  Perhaps they're making a statement against homophobia so prevalent in professional sports?"

Yeah, that's about as critical as I can get of Barcelona.  As for the Sounders?

Ouch.

Ouch.

90 minutes of ouch, to be exact.



I said we didn't have a chance, but I didn't expect it to be so one sided.

Which is too bad: The irony of these big exhibition games is that they bring lots of attention, but they rarely turn out to be good games. This one was exceptionally bad. They cut through us like cold knives in hot paella.  We melted like La Sagrada Familia . They rendered us as effective as Dalí's clocks. (Thus end my knowledge of Catalunya references)

Hurtado and Riley had a few moments, as did Zakuani (as always) and Montero, the two players with the highest chance of playing in Europe.

Otherwise, we were like ghosts: There on the field, but physically unable to touch the ball. Often it just went right through us. Ljunberg was reduced to nothing. Messi megged Keller!

The second half was just boring.  Both sides played completely different teams.  Barcelona's "Team B" included at least three internationals; Sounders featured Lamar Neagle, in his second pro soccer game ever, and Michael Fucito, in his first.  Not that they're bad, just totally out of their league.

It's just not fair.

At least we got some lessons on how "real" football is played: Lotsa short, quick passes and patterns by players with superhuman powers (Messi is Dash Parr , I swear.)

So, after that reality check, we can get back to the fantasy of our Sounders Total US Soccer Domination. It should be easier now that we're no longer playing the Best Team in the World.

Saturday, we're in Salt Lake City.