As World Cup Qualifying closes up in October, Seattle may very well provide US Soccer’s starting forward tandem, a midfielder, and a reserve defender, in addition to former Sounder, DeAndre Yedlin. Seattle won’t provide a home though for one of the final Hex matches. Seattle lost out on hosting September’s match against Costa Rica and the final home Hex match in October against Panama.
US Soccer awarded Red Bull Arena the Costa Rica match and Orlando City’s new stadium the Panama match instead of CenturyLink field. Orlando City Stadium is a brand new work-of-art that makes perfect sense to grab a Hex match at. Red Bull Arena follows the trend of small stadiums, MAPFRE (Columbus), Avaya Stadium (SJ), and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (Colorado) have the three other home matches. Harrison, NJ (New York City) will represent the largest market US Soccer has played a qualifier match in as they close out a tightly contested run for qualification.
The trend appears to be avoiding large stadiums, including denying a chance at playing in the brand new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta when it opens, in order to keep intimate settings and higher prices. Seattle may get a conciliatory friendly at one point but after being snubbed for the Gold Cup and now CONCACAF Hexagonal qualifiers, one has to wonder, when is US Soccer coming back to Seattle?