As part of their preparation for their March 7th CONCACAF Champions League match against Santos Laguna, the Seattle Sounders will take on Mexican club Atlante in a closed-door friendly on February 22nd in Cancun. The game is officially being referred to as a "training match" and there is at this time no indication that it will be viewable by the general public.
Though it's difficult to think that the match will feature both teams fielding full-strength lineups for 90 minutes of highly competitive soccer, it will nonetheless give the Sounders a chance to measure themselves against high-level Mexican competition ahead of the crucial home-leg of the two-legged CCL quarterfinal matchup against the 2011 Primera Division Apertura runners-up.
The Sounders have also announced four additional training games to take place in Florida in earlier in the month, and if Ticketmaster's website is to be believed this year's Community Shield match will take place on February 29th at CenturyLink Field. There's been no official word as to who the Sounders opponent might be in this year's edition of the annual charity game, but Joshua Mayers has speculated that it could be another Mexican team. The Community Shield match will also be notable as the first game to take place on the new FieldTurf surface currently being installed at CenturyLink.
The Sounders confirmed pre-season schedule is below:
Orlando City SC, Bradenton, FL February 13th, 1:00 PM Pacific
Columbus Crew, Bradenton, FL; February 15th, 8:00 AM Pacific
U-17 U.S. National Team, Bradenton, FL; February 16th, 7:00 AM Pacific.
University of Gulf Coast, Bradenton, FL; February 19th, 1:00 PM Pacific
Atlante FC, Cancun, Mexico; February 22nd, 4:00 PM Pacific