By BILL SWARTZ
Sports Anchor
710 ESPN/97.3 KIRO FM

710 ESPN/97.3 KIRO FM sports anchor Bill Swartz is in Honduras with the Sounders FC to cover the team's CONCACAF champions league soccer match on Thursday.

Enough hanging around hotels and browsing San Pedro Sula. It's time to get down to business for Seattle Sounders F.C. Tonight is their first group match of the CONCACAF Champions League against Marathon of Honduras. The kick is 7 p.m. on newstalk 97.3 KIRO FM with Thom Buening and Pete Fewing, provided all the wires are hooked up at the Olympic Stadium.

A bit about Marathon soccer club before I give you some of the gamesmanship which took place Wednesday night. First, a group of businessmen in Honduras formed a futbol club in 1925. They needed equipment, so they sent away for futbols from Montgomery Ward. When the boxes arrived they were American footballs with the word Marathon on the side. So, they kept that as the team name. Marathon has an interesting mascot, the Green Monster. Some of the T-shirts and scarves feature a creature resembling Godzilla.

Scouting Marathon: They are very quick and rely on their outside defensive backs to push forward on the wings and attack from the flanks. One of their best players represented Honduras in the World Cup. They normally don't play their home matches in the new Olympic Stadium, which was built about five years ago, but came up with enough rent for this CONCACAF Champions League match.

Last night Sounders FC got to practice in Olympic Stadium. It's a 40,000-seat structure owned by the government and built for the Central America games. There is a moat and barbed wire fence ringing a track to the perimeter of the soccer field. Corners will be almost on top of the track surface. The field itself is a little wider than normal, and features spongy Bermuda grass. Tyrone Marshall is from Jamaica and played a World Cup qualifier in Honduras Olympic stadium two years ago. He likes the surface as long as it's not raining too hard. Marshall doesn't have too many fond memories otherwise. The stadium was packed, and some of the fans threw objects at the Jamaican team as they entered through the main tunnel. We don't expect that sort of treatment tonight. The crowd is not expected to be larger than 7,000.

Last night's session was supposed to be a closed practice until the last 15 minutes. But Coach Sigi Schmid noticed a group of men from Marathon and local reporters sitting in one of the team benches. After requesting they leave, a CONCACAF official replied that the request for a closed practice must be in writing. Schmid was not at all happy with the answer and was forced to change much of the team's practice. He wanted to install some new tactical formations because Sounders FC are missing wing midfielders Sanna Nyassi and Steve Zakuani. The team also changed it's look for corner kicks in case any of the "spies" were taking videos or notes.

Schmid anticipates a wide open, attacking style match tonight, with Marathon trying to control possession and attack with their top center midfielder and outside defensive backs. Seattle is ready for a counterattacking style with either Blaise Nkufo or Fredy Montero getting a quick distribution from Kasey Keller or defenders. Win or lose, Sounders FC will dress quickly at the stadium, where there's no hot water, and take the red-eye back home to arrive Friday morning.