Win and move on. Lose and go home. A knockout tournament is not about which team is better, but which is better right now. Tonight's US Open Cup match between the Seattle Sounders FC and the Atlanta Silverbacks will be carried at SoundersFC.com for those unable to be at sunny Starfire in Tukwila, WA.
Seattle's lineup is an "A" in defense featuring regular starters Meredith; Burch, Hurtado, Parke, Scott; and Alonso. The offense is more reserve laden. Eddie Johnson is joined with Sammy Ochoa up top with Cordell Cato, Andy Rose and Alex Caskey in the attacking band. There's serious firepower on the bench with Fredy, David, Brad, Roger and Christian on the bench. Only Servando Carrasco is a pure defesive player. Andrew Weber is the bench keeper.
Atlanta is starting their number two keeper. Yeah, really. Again, their number one hasn' had a great season, but still, that's odd. Rafael Cox is starting at fullback while Ciaron O'Brien looks to be working the point. Their leading scorer is starting at forward.
This will be both a gamethread and a liveblog. I'll tag my observations with the minute.
#Se4ttle.