While those of us stuck in Cascadia are either watching the snow fall or crossing our fingers in hopes that the flakes will soon start, our favorite soccer teams are off in Arizona and Florida, basking in the sun and having a grand old time of it. In fact, the Seattle Sounders love the sun so much that they've elected to participate in the first-ever Beach Soccer Club World Cup, held March 20-27 in São Paulo, Brazil. Admittedly, I don't understand all that went into putting together a team for this tournament, but I imagine it involved lots of sunny days on beaches somewhere, and that's enough of a reason for it to have formed.
Anyway, there have been quite a few friendlies and exhibition matches already played by the likes of Seattle and Vancouver Whitecaps, with Portland Timbers set to play two this week as well. Due to the number of games and the amount of random news tidbits floating around, I'll go ahead and break these reports into team-specific entries, so check back shortly for the news from throughout Cascadia.