MIAMI, Florida – While the Round of 16 match-up between the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer (MLS) and Honduran side Motagua will represent the first ever meeting between the two clubs, going up against Honduran opposition is nothing new to the team from the Pacific Northwest.
No team from the United States has appeared in more SCCLs than Seattle, who will play in the competition for the seventh time in 2022. Over the course of the previous six appearances, the Sounders have had their fair share of battles with Catracho clubs.
In two of their first three participations in the SCCL in 2010-11 and 2012-13, respectively, Seattle squared off against CD Marathon on four different occasions.
In the 2010-11 tournament, the sides met twice in the four-team group stage, with Marathon earning a 2-1 win in their group stage opener at home in San Pedro Sula, before Seattle responded in kind with a 2-0 victory at home.
Two years later those two clubs met twice again in the three-team 2012-13 group stage in which the Sounders emerged victorious in both, with a dramatic 3-2 win away in Honduras and a 3-1 win at home.
More Honduran opponents were on the horizon for Seattle, beginning in their fourth SCCL appearance in 2015-16 when they were drawn with Olimpia in their three-team group.
The first meeting is remembered as one of the best SCCL group stage matches ever, as a young Alberth Elis scored early to give the visiting Hondurans a lead, before Seattle struck for two goals in the final six minutes to pocket the three points.
CD Olimpia would avenge that heartbreaking defeat, however, when they met a week later in Tegucigalpa and Elis again would come up big by scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 Olimpia triumph.
Olimpia was the rival for Seattle in the 2020 SCCL Round of 16, and it was no surprise to see that the margins were razor-thin. Seattle appeared in control with a 2-0 second half lead away in the first leg in Honduras, only for a Justin Arboleda brace to earn Olimpia a 2-2 draw.
The Catrachos were staring at elimination with just minutes remaining in the second leg and Seattle ahead 2-1 in the match, until a Carlos Pineda goal in the 86’ evened the match 2-2 and the series on aggregate 4-4. Olimpia would take the penalty shootout, 4-2, serving as a springboard to their historic 2020 SCCL semifinal finish.
Two years later now, Seattle find themselves facing a Honduran opponent in 2021 Scotiabank Concacaf League finalists Motagua. Seattle’s overall record against Honduran opposition is 4W-2D-2L and against Central American clubs it is 9W-4D-7L, with 33 goals and 24 conceded.
Meanwhile, FC Motagua are 0W-2D-4L against MLS clubs, but if there is one staple that the Sounders have learned when playing against Honduran rivals, it is to expect the unexpected.
