SEATTLE \u2014<\/strong> Basking the glory of a crucial World Cup qualifying win in front of a huge home crowd in America\u2019s best soccer city in 2013, then-U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati vowed that the USA\u2019s men\u2019s national team would schedule more important games.<\/p>\n “We\u2019d do that again, sure,” a smiling Gulati said moments after that 2013 victory over Panama in Seattle.<\/p>\n They never did.<\/p>\n The U.S. beat Panama 2-0 in 2014 World Cup qualifying on June 11, 2013. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Only a stroke of good fortune brought the national team back the last time it played in Seattle, at the 2016 Copa Am\u00e9rica Centenario, when Costa Rica\u2019s upset of Colombia sent the tournament hosts to the Pacific Northwest rather than New Jersey for its quarterfinal.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a full decade since the Stars and Stripes played a match in Seattle. That changes on Friday on the biggest stage there is, when the Americans meet Australia in their second match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m excited to see what it’s like,” midfielder Weston McKennie \u2014 who was born and briefly lived in Fort Lewis when his father, a former U.S. Air Force staff sergeant, was stationed there \u2014 said before training Thursday morning at the University of Washington. “I\u2019ve never been here with the national team before.”<\/p>\n He\u2019s not alone. None of the 26 players on Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s World Cup squad have represented their country at the 69,000-seat Seattle Stadium, not even 38-year-old Tim Ream.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t know what to expect. Cristian Roldan has made sure of it.<\/p>\n The hugely popular U.S. midfielder captains the Seattle Sounders in MLS, for which he\u2019s played since being drafted out of Washington in 2015.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019ve spoken to \u2018Roldy\u2019 and other people who\u2019ve said how much of a soccer culture Seattle has,” said veteran U.S. defender Antonee “Jedi” Robinson. “I\u2019m really looking forward to experiencing that first hand.”<\/p>\n To be sure, U.S. Soccer\u2019s leadership would love to play in Seattle more often. The national team often struggles to fill NFL venues. When it does, it\u2019s often with fans of the opposing team. That\u2019s not the case here.<\/p>\n Belgium and Egypt kicked off the first of six World Cup matches at Seattle Stadium. (Photo by Jane Gershovich\/ISI Photos\/ISI Photos via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n This moment has been a long time coming for the soccer-crazy metropolis of about 800,000. The original Sounders kicked off in 1974 in the old North American Soccer League and reached two NASL Soccer Bowls, losing the second to the Pel\u00e9-led New York Cosmos almost 30 years before returning as an MLS expansion team in 2009.<\/p>\n “The city is ready,” Roldan said when asked what exactly he\u2019s told his U.S. teammates about what to expect. “The city is energized. We haven’t had a game here in a long time, and we’ve been desperate to host a World Cup game, a U.S. men’s national team game, so they’re going to feel the crowd, feel the energy, and it’s about feeding off it.”<\/p>\n There\u2019s little doubt they will. Pochettino and every U.S. player lauded the heavily pro-USA atmosphere in Los Angeles following last week\u2019s 4-1 World Cup-opening drubbing of Paraguay, crediting them in part for the convincing victory. The Aussies could face an even more hostile, partisan atmosphere on Friday.<\/p>\n “Even before the last game, hearing the fans and the national anthem, and people singing along, it gives you goosebumps,” McKennie said. “You’re like, oh s***, it’s time to go. You’re so fired up, because you know that you have people behind you, people that are supporting you.\u00a0<\/p>\n “That’s always an amazing feeling, and always a boost of confidence. Whenever you’re tired, and you hear them cheering even stronger whenever someone makes a tackle, then it’s like another adrenaline rush. So the fans are very important, and I think they’ve done a good job so far to make it feel like we’re playing at home.<\/p>\n “Hopefully it’s similar” to the last game, McKennie added.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Or better.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY SEATTLE \u2014 Basking the glory of a crucial World Cup qualifying win in front of a huge home crowd in America\u2019s best soccer city in 2013, then-U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati vowed that the USA\u2019s men\u2019s national team would schedule more important games. “We\u2019d do that again, sure,” a smiling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}