By Tony Johnson (a kid myself!) Special to SeattleSounders.net

Because goalies are the most important part of the team, Chris Eylander and Ben Dragavon arrived before anyone else did. Before too long, the rest of the Sounders showed up along with the kid’s day crowd, lured by the excitement of Sounders soccer and free Transformers battle figures. Matt Fischer and Fawzi Bellal, who were supposed to be with the Sounders, got into the spirit and transformed into Tacoma Tide players for the day.

The Sounders started off fast, with three good shots by Mike Morris, Nathan Knox, and Josh Gardner, all in the first five minutes of the game. Knox lobbed a shot into goal in the 15th minute for the Sounders first goal. Greg Howes also had two headers that just missed. Ciaran O'Brien and #17 (he wasn't listed on the roster) had the only shots for Tacoma in the first half. Despite all the chances, the score was only 1-0 Sounders at the half (halves were 30 minutes long).

Halftime was funny, like it usually is at Kid's Day. Coach Brian Schmetzer talked to Colin Rigby about eating a good breakfast, reading 50 pages a night, and getting to bed early, but they didn't exactly agree about bedtime. Then Rigby, Josh Gardner, Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar, and Nathan Knox did some juggling stuff. They juggled balls by themselves, with kids, and with counselors. And *every single kid* beat Sammy the Sounder in the running race. Plus, a bunch of the officials played with the Transformer toys give-away items in the press box.

In the second half, Tacoma only made one substitution but the Sounders made eight substitutions, and after that, the game got a lot faster. Nine minutes into the second half, Sebastien Le Toux put the Sounders up 2-0. Tomlinson made the first shot, but it was Le Toux that tipped the ball into the net.

In the 54th minute, Fischer stopped another Le Toux goal from happening, when he blocked the corner of the goal after Le Toux had dribbled passed Jennings, the Tide goalie. But barely a minute later, Santa Maria Rivera scored a beautiful goal to make the score 3-0 Sounders, and made the kids really happy.

After the game, the players all signed autographs, and kids were able to get Transformer toys on the way out. And then it started to rain, just as everything ended.