Half an hour before Sounders fans’ traditional march to the match, there are usually hundreds of scarf-wearing soccer fans milling about Occidental Square in buzzy anticipation. On Saturday, there were a few dozen, maybe. A bored-looking security guard marveled that in the three years he’s been staffing these things, it’d never been anywhere close to this slow, this close to kickoff. I concurred; this was as barren as I’d ever seen it in six years covering the team.



This had to have had the highest ratio of apocalyptic preachers to sports fans of any event in Seattle history. You know the type, shouting in megaphones about the almighty’s wrath, wearing homemade placards that say Repent or Perish. I counted at least three doomsayers in and around the square, shouting about how God was angry, ranting about sin and pestilence sent from on high. You had to at least give them credit for timing: this was their cup final.



Saturday...