Sounders FC eager to face world's best
Friendly with FC Barcelona offers Seattle chance to regroup after loss to Quakes
Seattle coach Sigi Schmid acknowledged that the loss hurt the team's morale heading into the match against last season's UEFA Champions League winner.
"I'd be dishonest if I said the result in San Jose didn't put a damper on things a little bit on our excitement," Schmid said. "You'd always rather be on a roll."
With a match against Real Salt Lake looming for the weekend, Schmid doesn't want to exhaust his players. Like he did against Chelsea, Schmid will try to get all of his players on the field against Barcelona.
"When you look at Barcelona's game with L.A. they basically subbed everybody out at halftime," Schmid said. "They brought a whole new roster in and sort of split their first team between the first group and second group. I imagine they're going to do something similar and we'll probably do something similar."
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Seattle's designated player Freddie Ljungberg is questionable for this match as he recovers from a mild migraine headache suffered after the All Star Game. He will hope to be back on field to face his former teammate from the Swedish national team, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Barcelona's latest signing, who scored 57 goals in 88 league games for Inter Milan, is here with the club after completing a transfer last week. Sixty thousand fans showed up when the Swede was presented to Barcelona's club -- testament to the team's popularity.
FC Barcelona, which defeated Manchester United on May 27 in the UEFA Champions League final, arrived on Sunday and immediately embarked upon a two-a-day training schedule at the University of Washington. Like Everton and Chelsea, who each came through Seattle over the past three weeks, Barcelona is building conditioning for the 2009-10 season. As opposed to Chelsea, Schmid expects FCB to be a bit closer to full match readiness.
The fans at sold-out Qwest Field should also be treated to the fluid, attacking style that saw the Catalan club win three trophies this past season, all of which were on display during a Monday press conference.
"What I think fans will see is a different style of football (from Chelsea)," Schmid said. "The way Chelsea plays which is obviously a high level, but they play a certain way and manner. Barcelona has different characteristics to their game -- their ability to hold the ball, their ability to play in tight spaces, rely on quick one-twos, etcetera.
"It's a different style of football. That's the beauty of our sport is lots of different ways to play well and win games."
Between training sessions, Barcelona has been enjoying their time in the Emerald City. Thierry Henry, Xavi Hernandez and coach Pep Guardiola accepted a commemorative piece of art from world-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly on Monday and Lionel Messi took a trip up the Space Needle on Tuesday.
Andrew Winner is a contributor to MLSnet.com
