Several blog posts below deal with specific topics of the Sounders’ 2-0 win over Jaguares tonight. Here is a little grab bag of leftover quotes:

SIGI SCHMID
On goalkeeper Michael Gspurning) “I thought he did well. He was solid. I thought his communication was good to the guys. When the balls got played back to him he cleared them when he had to clear them, when he could find people he found people, but I thought he was solid. I didn’t think they had a lot of great looks at him. He came up with one decent save. He …

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Here’s some of what Jaguares had to say after the 2-0 loss to Sounders FC tonight.

Israel Villasenor – Jaguares Goalkeeper
On the game…) “Very good support for a local team. The first thing that caught my attention was the crowd, it also reflects how the US has raised its level of soccer playing. They don’t just give big kicks to the front, they really try to get many players to touch the ball. They played us really closely to stop our play. It was a good match for both teams.”

Edgar Hernandez – Jaguares Goalkeeper
On the game…) “Well it’s a team that plays really well in Seattle. I had not seen it before so it surprised me a little bit, they are a dynamic team. The big change was the first goal, with the first goal they opened the spaces and changed the game. Our team had an opportunity before, but it was a good game for the crowd.”

On the season…) “We are in competition and next Sunday we have a tough game against America so it’s not just to come up and play… but it’s also an opportunity Read more »

Sounders coach Sigi Schmid made no secret of his displeasure over the kind of team Atlante fielded against Seattle last week. However, he expressed appreciation and respect for the team of mostly starters that Jaguares sent out against his club tonight.

“They were a great opponent, and I have a lot of respect for their club and for their coach by putting out the team that they put out,” Schmid said. “That showed a lot of class. Obviously we’d be happy to return the favor any time we can for them, but they were very good about their approach and …

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Tonight, Mauro Rosales took the captain’s armband, which was worn for the past three seasons by Kasey Keller, who retired.

Pesky reporters asked coach Sigi Schmid if it was going to stay that way.

“He was our captain tonight,”Schmid said. “You guys like that captain thing. I think we have five or six leaders on this team and Mauro is wearing the arm band, but there are different guys that can step up and lead and we want different guys to be the guys who speak and ask guys. But Mauro, certainly he’ll be a captain next week as well.”

The Sounders concluded their preseason with a 5-0-2 record. We asked coach Sigi Schmid if that’s meaningful.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Preseason is preseason. What I put more value on is the quality of play, and I think our quality of play is pretty good. … The way we’re trying to play, our connecting of the ball, I think you saw our defenders … how we knocked the ball around the back much better than we did last year. So the way we’re playing is good. So from that standpoint preseason has been good because we’re playing the way …

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The Sounders’ 2-0 win over Chiapas tonight also marked the first game on the new FieldTurf surface at CenturyLink Field.

It also marked a game of exceptionally good and confident passing, and coach Sigi Schmid believes those things were related … he even credited the turf with an assist on the first goal.

“The surface is good,” he said. “It plays a lot more like natural grass would because all the blades are up so the ball slows down. I don’t know if it’s true or not: It seems like maybe the ball was out of bounds less. You saw …

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Here’s some of what new goalkeeper Michael Gspurning had to say after his home debut as a Sounder:

On the home crowd: Great. Thanks for coming to everybody today, because it was just a friendly. We the new players get a first impression of how it is in the stadium, and I’m happy that we did a great job. It’s always important that you have a good performance in your last friendly game before the season starts. If gives you a better feeling. It doesn’t mean nothing, but it gives you a better feeling for the game, and this we …

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Here is coach Sigi Schmid’s overview of tonight’s 2-0 win over Jaguares.

I’ll post more from Schmid and his players later.