TFC VS SEATTLE SOUNDERS

[jenni_blog]

Sunday was a blast, despite the cold wind and rain. I waited a whole year to see the Seattle Sounders in Toronto. Both teams have been overhauled for this season, mostly Toronto, and both teams seemed much different from those of last year. Toronto's has definitely improved. TFC won 2-0. Seattle was much stronger last year, although I think this Sunday's weak performance was down to the travelling time and jet lag...over 3,000 miles from Seattle to Toronto, time zone difference and Sunday's poor weather all being a factor. Toronto was really good...Dwayne DeRosario, Juan DeGuzman, Martin Saric and pretty much all the others did a fantastic job. Stefan Frei the goalkeeper made some great saves, including one hard shot from Fredy Montero. I was disappointed that Fredy did not start. He came on at 20 minutes but it was not enough time to bring Seattle back into the game. They seemed listless. Freddie Ljungberg was really good though...quite a showman...the Toronto Ultras hated him (LOL) but he was a lot of fun to watch. He's very tricky. Anyway, below the cut are my photos and some good professional pics from the match.

Some of my impressions:

The hottest bodies on the pitch belonged to Fredy Montero, Dwayne DeRosario and Martin Saric.
The best, most active and skilled players were (for Toronto) Dwayne DeRosario, Juan DeGuzman, O'Brian White and Martin Saric. (For Seattle) Freddie Ljungberg and Fredy Montero. I was surprised by how little Freddie Ljungberg is...he's tiny, but still very quick. I watched the Seattle boys warming up before the game and was struck by how amiable Fredy Montero is. He was the one doing most of the laughing and joking with the other players...he was always smiling and was very animated. And he is in awesome shape...his body made my jaw drop...he is that fit!

We were seated in a new section of stands, situated above the seating area with the patio tables at the north end right behind the goal. The seats were fantastic, with an awesome view. You can sort of see it in my photos, even though it was raining and therefore the pics are not as good as they could have been.

Here's a teaser (one of the professional photos):

Juan DeGuzman and Freddie Ljunberg after the game was over:





Adrian Cann of Toronto vs Freddie Ljungberg.



Juan DeGuzman vs Osvaldo Alonso.



Dwayne DeRosario vs Freddie Ljungberg.



Dwayne 'DeRo' vs Tyrone Marshall.



'DeRo' vs Peter Vagenas.



Chad Barrett of TFC vs James Riley of Sounders.



Julian DeGuzman in action.



The guy with longish hair for TFC is Maksim Usanov. A new player, and pretty impressive.



Some more pics of Usanov. He really bugged Nathan Sturgis (#12) all night. (Nathan started instead of Fredy Montero.)









Now for Martin Saric. OMG...LOL. You can see from the pics how tough he is. I love him already!











Okay, now for MY snapshots:













Fredy Montero warming up in the corner before he came on!

Comments

[ayres-4.livejournal.com]

He's gorgeous, just like his brother. /shallow comment hehe

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with shallow comments! LOL.
The pictures don't do him justice...not only was he a GREAT player on Sunday, but he was one of the hottest guys on the pitch! And trust me, I have *hot-guy-radar* in full working order! :P

[aglaiya.livejournal.com]

I think you had lots of fun and could forget the rain!

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

We did! We did! We had so much fun! We drank beer (to let the alcohol warm us up), we watched from the patio tables right down by the pitch while the guys were warming up so I got to see Fredy up close, and I even ate forbidden food! A 'chipotle pepper sausage' on a bun with a lovely mustard-pepper sauce that was very much like sauerkraut. It was delicious even though I never eat sausages anymore! The food there is good...they don't serve junk food anymore! It's all made to order.

Besides the food, the game was fun to watch. It was very uplifting to see TFC playing so good! I think the new additions have been excellent.

[aglaiya.livejournal.com]

I go never for the food in a stadium *smiles*

I think you are happy with Fredy now! Good for your team!

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

Usually the stadium food is awful, or overpriced, but it isn't too bad at TFC!

Thanks. I was so happy to have seen the player I have been following for so long! :)

[blueforever10.livejournal.com]

I watched on CBC. Turned out to be a good game, although at the beginning I was scared we were going to go down to 10 with all the hard tackles flying in!! Saric was scaring the shit outta me!!

Looks like the team is starting to gel and hopefully we get more results like this! Hopefully I will get to go to a game or two this summer...

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

It was a pretty hard-hitting game! I know it's early in the season, but I felt that Toronto was trying to show that it can be strong in defense this year. I thought Saric was great, but the type of player who could earn lots of reds!

I do think this is a better, more exciting team than those of previous years, so let's hope they do well. DeRo is sure on a roll!

I'd love to go to more games, but it all depends...I hope you get a chance to go see them!