Seattle has embraced soccer — and Sounders FC

Electricity crackled in the sun outside Qwest Field two hours before kickoff. It seemed everybody in the sea of people was wearing either the rave green of Sounders FC or the light blue of Chelsea.

This was just an exhibition game, a friendly between one of the most storied franchises in sports and one of the best stories in sports. But it was more than merely the debut of '09 Chelsea and a progress report for first-year Sounders FC.

This Saturday felt as rich and sun-kissed as any day in Seattle sports ever. It was a celebration of the growth of soccer, a party that acknowledged that this city is a player in this game.

This is what soccer has become in Seattle: a sold-out house of 65,289, singing and cheering and on its feet for 90 minutes. Sixty-five thousand fans were rooting as if this was the NFL, and it was January instead of July.

Something remarkable is happening in Seattle. The Sounders have tapped into a sports void in this town. They have created an alliance between a franchise and its fans.

An expansion team has turned on this city in a way Seattle hasn't felt since the Seahawks first filled the Kingdome in 1976.

And for a former U.S. national player like John Harkes, even though the Sounders lost 2-0 to one of the top four teams in the world, it was the kind of scene and the kind of day that was heartening and hopeful.

"As an ex-player you look back on the times in your career and the moments that you had and you feel very fortunate," said Harkes, an ESPN analyst and the first American to play in the English Premier League. "But to give up some of the things I gave up in Europe to come back here in 1996 to help establish [Major League Soccer] and to see something like I saw today, it makes me think, 'Wow, it was worth it, so worth it.'

"I mean, there were 65,000 fans here and they were continuously chanting, and in the lower bowl, they never sat down. The stadium itself, the environment, the fans, the relationship the team has with the community, it's fantastic. This is right up there with some of the best in the world, never mind in this country."

For Seattle soccer fans, this game was a rare glimpse at greatness in the same way that an NBA exhibition game can be for European hoop fans. The game meant almost nothing to Chelsea, just a glorified, midsummer training session a month before the start of the EPL.

But its class showed. And it gave the crowd a show.

Chelsea was bigger, stronger, faster, more skilled and more composed than the relentless Sounders.

For the first 74 minutes, with the ball seemingly always on the boot of midfielder Freddie Ljungberg, the Sounders never stopped attacking. This is the attractive style that has won the hearts of their fans. They threw cross after cross at keepers Petr Cech and Henrique Hilario, but couldn't finish.

The Sounders played hard, but Chelsea played with purpose. This was the first game of a new season for the Blues, but they looked remarkably fit and played incredibly together.

In the 35th minute, midfielder Frank Lampard went on one of his lethal runs, stopped to create space for Nicolas Anelka, took Anelka's pass and comfortably knocked his shot past Sounders keeper Kasey Keller for Chelsea's second goal.

And as the crowd groaned its disappointment, it also cheered the greatness it had witnessed.

"This is the best atmosphere, preseason, that I've ever played in, for sure," said Lampard, one of Europe's leading midfielders. "Not only a full crowd, but the way they reacted, the atmosphere they created before the game, during the game, made it very enjoyable to play in.

"I'd heard Seattle were generating the biggest crowds in the MLS. Today I think we've all seen a little bit of that, and the buzz in the city since we've been here has been very good."

But this crowd was different from most MLS crowds. These fans came to watch the Sounders' Ljungberg, Keller, Fredy Montero and Nate Jaqua as much as they came to glimpse Chelsea. Most of these fans were Sounders fans, not Chelsea expats.

"The Sounders are playing against one of the super clubs in the world," said Harkes, who played in the MLS from 1996 to 2002. "Chelsea comes in here and you're expecting to see probably like 50-50 support, the blues versus the greens, but it was 80 percent green."

Maybe the best part of the Sounders' success is that none of it feels artificial. It hasn't been built with canned fan noise and stuffed mascots. It hasn't given us overpriced, underperforming talent. There is something honest in this game and the effort of this team.

Certainly, the Sounders can't beat the best in the world, but they can be competitive. They can be entertaining enough and aggressive enough to make an exhibition game in the summer in Seattle feel as special as the postseason.

"I think they've marketed the sport very well here," longtime ESPN commentator JP Dellacamera said. "They've treated their fan base remarkably well, from selling the season tickets, to promoting it, to creating the [Sounders FC] Alliance. I also think the product on the field is very good. They're a very good team. They're by no means an expansion team."

Saturday's friendly was further evidence that Sounders FC is a team on the come, playing a game on the rise and prepared to take a city of new-and-old soccer fans on a great surprise of a ride.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com