Kasey Keller admits the Seattle Sounders players are excited by the impact their fans have had on soccer in the US. He told the Daily Evergreen: "It's definitely helped. But the cool part about it is that it goes even broader than Seattle It definitely goes down south of Olympia and up north even to Bellingham. We are very excited that the team has really been embraced by the whole Western Washington and, I'm sure, lots of Eastern Washington.
"We knew that we had a strong fan base before we started, but we don't now think anybody could have anticipated just how well the team has been, and that definitely helped as we started the franchise. There was no lull there in the opening few games, that's for sure. We wanted to go and feed off of that fan energy and get the results, not only for ourselves and for the new club but for them (the fans) as well."
On playing at a full Qwest Field, former Tottenham goalkeeper Keller also says: "It is a great place to play. It sure would be nice if it had a beautiful grass field, but we understand it's about as nice an artificial surface you could possibly ask for. But eventually, we would love to get a grass field in there, and that would just make it an ideal soccer stadium."