Preseason for the fans

Players have off-season fitness routines, maybe some film to study, a few have injury recovery or minor surgeries. They come into camp in the best shape of their lives, ready to learn the tweaks to the system and their new teammates. For the players and coaches preseason is a job preparing them for trophies.

For fans, preseason is an opportunity for hope, optimism and planning. Here are some key steps a fan can take during preseason.

Meet the new guys

The Sounders signed Hassani Dotson as a free agent, a mostly defensive midfielder who also plays as a right back or forward or pretty much anywhere. His comps in his last healthy season are similar to Cristian Roldan at the same age. Raised in Federal Way and spending college at Oregon State under Terry Boss, Dotson spent his first years in MLS with Minnesota. Now he's back home.

Seattle took on loan U22 Nikola Petković from Charlotte. The young Serb started his U.S. time with Charlotte's Next Pro team and was dominant. But when leadership changed in Charlotte Petković struggled to see the field as a tweener not seeing much time with either the first or second team. He's more of an 8, with a bit of bite and creative bent. His peak is to be a surging goal threat from a deep line. If he doesn't work out here he's back to Charlotte. If he does work out he's still cheap.

Depth acquisitions included former UW centerback Ryan Sailor who burst into a starting role in year one with Inter Miami, but then became a spare part in their star-studded organization. Sailor will compete with Kim and Hawkins for time as the third CB. They also added Max Anchor, a Canadian Youth National Team keeper who was on waivers from Vancouver Whitecaps. Anchor was quite good with Pacific FC while on loan to the CPL club.

Two Defiance players rose the ranks, extending the annual tradition of restocking from below. Yu Tsukanome is an attacking mid/forward in the mold of modern Ferreira who crushed Defiance scoring records last season. Sebastian Gomez is an attacking/central midfielder who does a bit of everything required when asked. Gomez is an HGP.

Start making transit plans

This may seem early, but Puget Sound is going to have extensive construction both on the roadways and for mass transit in the rush to host the Men's World Cup. Take a gander at the Sounders and Reign schedules (which include trips to alt-home ONE Spokane) to figure out how you'll get to the games.

Then be prepared to adjust that plan. The World Cup is going to impact the spring months in ways we'll learn throughout the year. You should also expect more visitors – tourists of course, but also business leaders, foreign dignitaries, national team staff assessing the area, security personnel and others. SoDo will be crowded as the weeks advance.

Adjust your subscription settings

Maybe there are newsletters you want to get during the season – Sounder at Heart and Ride of the Valkyries give you control of what kind of emails you want. Maybe you want to support the site, maybe you want a magazine. It's up to you. This is your home for Puget Sound pro soccer. Maybe you want to join a wine list.

If you are super passionate and/or travel to games you may want to join ECS and the Royal Guard. I enjoy getting the ECS prematch newsletter for hype every game.

For the Sickos

The tactics will probably be tweaked. Paul Arriola is back and the club may use sets that seem more like a 3-back in defense, or play like a 2-back in the attack with wider bands high.

How will you know? By getting up extremely early to watch preseason games from Portugal and Spain. These matches are usually late morning in Iberia, so around 4 a.m. PT.

Or by reading Sounder at Heart. We'll have sickos up to cover the games and more... you want that more? Subscribe to Sounder at Heart and join the Discord.

Most of all, fandom with hope

The rare times the Seattle Sounders didn't compete for a trophy (final four or two wins off the Shield or qualifying for Champions League/Cup) were 2023, 2018, 2015, and 2013. This is a club that makes the playoffs and usually makes a run, and of course they are strong in non-league play.

For the past season and a half the home games feature an attack where confidence in scoring should be high. There's flair players, speed players and something amazing regularly.

In this chaotic world you can unify with your community behind teams that play a game beautifully while winning. Your community is on the field as well – the homegrowns are from the 206, the 425, the 360. They went to the schools you went to, shop where you shop.

And they win. A lot.

Hay fe.