“The Red Card Wedding, Marcus Hahhneman chugging a beer – the legend of Starfire and the Open Cup goes way, way back,” smiled Andrew Thomas, the young Seattle Sounders goalkeeper who’s penning his own chapter in the little stadium’s big legend.
For those not aware, we’ll clarify. The Red Card Wedding was a Fourth Rounder in 2015 against archrivals Portland Timbers, famous for a frenzy of cards that culminated in Clint Dempsey ripping up the ref’s notebook in an infamous act of dissent that earned the USMNT legend a two-year ban from the Open Cup. Marcus Hahnemann Chugging a Beer is exactly what it sounds like – the beloved goalkeeper, in his last season for his hometown club, was inspired against those same Timbers and, after the game, made an even trade of his jersey for a fan’s full pint of beer. And down it went after a salute to the crowd.
Starfire, that’s the 4000-seat stadium where the Sounders, four-time winners of our Cup, play their early round games each year. It’s south of the city, on the banks of the Green River in Tukwila, Washington. Its thickets of Ponderosa and Lodgepole Pine and the ground’s cozy dimensions, in inverse proportions to the club’s usual home of Lumen Field that can hold 70,000, combine to make a kind of Cup Magic Potion.
“It’s a small field,” added the 25-year-old Thomas, who looks a little like Robin Hood with slicked blonde locks and trimmed mustache, and who plays with the kind of high-volume intensity well suited to the knockout chaos of the Open Cup. “You always know it’s going to be hectic here – it’s just a few thousand fans, but you can really feel them. They let you know they’re there."
Starfire Struggles & Glories in 2024
The energy at Starfire-Sounders games is special. The fans who make the trip down I-5 aren’t tourists, or your day-trip picnickers. They’re the hard-liners – the ones who honor the history of a club born long ago among the flared sideburns and no-shinguard abandon of the NASL of the 1970s.
Before a move to MLS in 2009, humble Starfire was the Sounders’ home when they played in the Division II USL Championship. And it’s against teams from that very league that the two-time MLS Champions have been battling in the Open Cup this year.
