A couple of injuries to report, apparently Purse went off at half time and McNaughton was withdrawn with a head injury.
Thanks to "gar66" on the messageboard for posting the above info after he attended the match.
Some great pictures and a report here:
http://soundercentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5303
Report from man of the moment (!) Mike Young:
Cardiff Team: Neil Alexander, Kevin McNaughton, Joe Ledley, Riccardo Scimeca,Darren Purse,Glen Loovens, Neil Ardley,Michael Chopra, Steve Thompson, Stephen McPhail, Paul Parry.
Subs used: Jeff Whitely, Malvin Kamara, Kevin Cooper
Venue: Quest Stadium capacity 67,000, Seattle Sounders average attendance 3,000. Game attendance about 5,000 (eighty or so well oiled Cardiff fans who generated about the same amount of noise as the remaining five thousand, though like the team they support they ran out of steam long before the end of the game). The playing surface a new artificial grass placed on a rubberized surface. I walked on the pitch and was very impressed with the surface which did not seem to affect players either on the pre-game High School Championship or the Cardiff match.
Cardiff 1 Seattle 1
Cardiff played in their smart yellow away kit as the Sounders play in blue.
A group of young female City fans fell around laughing at the special smoke effects laden introduction of the Seattle players. It is one thing to do this in a packed Staples Center, but in a near deserted stadium it seemed to somewhat lack impact. Between this and the predilection of the announcer to explain every offside, yellow card and corner kick, together with the occasional commercial lent a strange Orwellian fear of things to come in Sam's new stadium?
Cardiff's new line up had Joe Ledley as an unlikely looking left back, a solid but boring Kevin McNaughton at right back, the familiar Loovens and Purse as center backs, a flat uncreative midfield of Ardley, Scimeca (someone should tell him that he is allowed to pass forward), Paul Parry who started well but faded away and the anonymous StevenMcPhail. Michael Chopra and Steve Thompson played up front.
The game started brightly with slick passing from Cardiff against a team who to all intents and purposes play in a US second division (but with no system in place for promotion to the MLS), their team mainly made up of home grown players with a smattering of MLS rejects. They looked well coached and very fit (a telling factor late in the game). A great ball in from Paul Parry (who has thickened out since I last saw him) was superbly headed home by Michael Chopra.
Soon after Thompson threatened with a powerful header which should have hit the target. It was all Cardiff, men against boys. Chopra looked light weight and might suffer in the more physical first division, he is slight and not exactly an Earnie in terms of pace.
As the first half wore on the game began to become bogged down in mid field. We had no one capable of creative or incisive passing of the ball. All of our mid field played too deep and were content on passing the ball sideways and backwards. Several times we played the ball back from advanced positions to keeper Alexander. Late in the half Alexander's goal started to come under some pressure mostly with crosses from Joe Ledley's side of the field. Ledley looked good going forward and like Bambi on a freeway when defending against a tricky Craig Thompson of the Sounders.
The second half kicked off with no changes to the line up. City seemed content to aimlessly pass the ball about and Seattle began to threaten. Alexander started to make saves one world class, the effort twisting acrobatically in midair left him holding his back. His efforts were in vain when Seattle scored a carbon copy of City's earlier goal a powerful header, a cross from Joe Ledley's side of the field.
This briefly stimulated City into action in the form of a yellow card for Thompson for a blatant push on a Seattle defender followed a few minutes later by a similar action from the same player. In a regular game he would have been sent off, instead manager Jones wisely brought him off. Why he was so Rooneylike in a meaningless milk and water game is a mystery to me? Chopra was joined by Malvin Kamara and Paul Parry replaced by Jeff Whitely.
Chopra was put clean through with just the goalie to beat with a long run in but allowed the Sounders Keeper Ward, to smother the shot. The City fans around me complained that he had several quality chances in the Portland game but failed to take advantage of them. I hope he is a better player than he looked today as he is no replacement for Jerome on this showing.
During the last quarter of play Seattle pounded Cardiff's goal and we were lucky to get away with a draw.
I enjoyed the pre match more than the game itself and did an interview for Cardiff World web site, with Terry of the Echo and met and had my photograph taken with Dave Jones.
Final comment a long hard season without Koumas!
Also this link from the Seattle Sounders website gives a good summary and some great pictures:
http://soundercentral.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=286
The reserves continue their pre-season with a game at Llanelli tonight (kick off 7.30pm).