Unfortunately, SAFC announced the first game of the pre-season tour, against a Victoria Representative (BC All Stars, allegedly) XI, a few weeks after I'd managed to get the cheapest (non refundable) flights I could find from Toronto to Vancouver, so that was going to be a game that I, and many of the traveling support, would have to miss - as it turned out, only a handful of fans were able to watch the Lads go through their paces, winning the game 1-0 with new boy Martin Woods scoring with a "stunning 30 yard strike".
We arrived into Vancouver on the Friday before the game, fresh from the 30+ degree heat and humidity of Ontario, into a typical British summer day - temperature in the teens, and raining - but once checked into the hotel, we set out to see what Vancouver had to offer. With the mountains hiding behind a pall of drizzle, there wasn't much too impress... but it brightened up on the Saturday, which boded well for the game.

The Swanguard Stadium, home of the Vancouver Whitecaps was just one stop on the Skytrain, and a short walk away. First impression was "How long before someone sings 'My Garden Shed...'?", having just a single stand, with some smaller temporary seating areas on the other 3 sides. There were plenty of Sunderland shirts on display, amounting to 4-500 of the crowd. There were also plenty of other British club shirts on display - Chelsea, Birmingham, ManU, Liverpool, Celtic, Rangers being the usual suspects - although you've got to wonder of the sanity of those wearing Newcastle shirts... plenty of abuse was meted out by passing Mackems. I also managed for meet someone from the BCNA - in the queue for the hotdogs - a Lad from Edmonton, if I remember correctly, but I can't remember much else, to be honest... must have been the excitement of seeing genuine BC Morris Dancers.
The team that started, in a 4-4-2 fashion consisted of Davis, Nosworthy, N. Collins, Caldwell, Arca, Lawrence, Whitehead, Miller, Welsh, Brown, Stead. And so the game kicked off... the first half was pretty scrappy, really, with Davis making a couple of good saves to keep us in the game - you could tell that we had the most class, but Vancouver were obviously fitter and more organised. Nevertheless, we went in at half time all square at 0-0, with most of the entertainment in the opening 45 minutes being provided by the Whitecaps (Duck?) Mascot - who seemed to have issues with some of the Sunderland support at the front of the stand singing "I'd rather be a Muppet than a Duck"... I guess you had to be there. Oh, and "My Garden Shed..." got an airing after a surprisingly long 14 minutes.
There were wholesale changes at half time, with the starting line-up now being - Alnwick, Wright, Nosworthy, Caldwell, Smith, Lawrence, Whitehead, Miller, Piper, Murphy, Stead. The changes certainly had an affect - unfortunately, it was not a good one. The defense looked at sixes-and-sevens, with Nosworthy proving the he's not a Centre Back. Players who had stayed on started to look tired, making critical mistakes and giving up possession and within ten minutes of the restart, we were 2-0 down. The game petered out after that, with the only entertainment being provided by Whitecaps General Manager, Bob Lenarduzzi, who went totally apeshit in the middle of the 2nd half, berating the match officials and anyone within earshot for a good 5 minutes before going off in a sulk (it later transpired that the match officials appeared to have gone back on an agreement as to the number of subs that could be made - Vancouver ended the game having played 3 keepers)... we made further substitutions, with Woods replacing Lawrence and Christensen replacing Nosworthy - Stephen Wright moved into the CB position, and brought a degree of solidity. The Whitecaps wound up the win with a third, in the 83rd minute, while Carl Robinson had the Lads best chance of the game in the last minute, but could only fire straight at the Vancouver keeper. The attendance was a Swanguard record (for a friendly/exhibition match) of 6857.
The post-game was perhaps even more of an anti-climax... having dispatched the wife and kids back to the Hotel, I set out to meet up in another Hotel's bar, with some of the US supporters and some lads from back home. Unfortunately, I got directed towards the wrong hotel, and ended up wandering the streets of Vancouver for the best part of an hour, before giving up and going back to the Hotel myself. The next day, we headed off to catch the Greyhound bus up the beautiful Sea&Sky Highway to Whistler for some r'n'r, intending to drive down to Seattle on the Wednesday for the game.

And set-off, we did. It took a bit longer than expected to get the hire car - for some reason, Hertz in Whistler is located at the top of the mountain (or so it seemed), with no buses running up to the office before 11am. Anyway, we eventually set off, Georgina (eldest daughter) felt sick - we had to stop to find a pharmacy to get some anti-travel sickness tables, we had to take a toilet stop - we got lost, every single road around Vancouver was being dug up - we got lost. The excuses mounted. To cut a long story short, the expected 4 hr drive turned into a 6.5 hour nightmare and we got into Seattle at nearly 5pm - not quite allowing for the sightseeing which we had anticipated. Having got remarkably lost in BC, we managed better on the US side and managed to navigate straight to the ground(s) - with the SeaHawks/Sounders Qwest Stadium being all but next door to the Mariners Safeco Field. Time only really allowed for a quick look around "historic" Pioneer Square, before we found a pub/restaurant at which to grab our first proper meal of the day. We also managed to communicate our location to my wife's cousin, who had come over (via Toronto) for the games - and met up with him to hear tales of daring-do (mainly involving the insides of bars) before heading off to the ground.
As we approached the ground, it was fairly obvious that there might be a reasonable crowd, judging by the number of people queued up to buy/pick up tickets. Appearances, though, can be deceptive... it just seemed that no-one (apart from us) had bought tickets in advance. The Qwest can hold up to 67,000 souls, but the visit of SAFC saw only the lower tier of one side open - don't get me wrong, it was pretty full - but the attendance was only marginally more than that of Vancouver, at 8502. Again, there were a smattering of other "EPL" shirts on display, including an old (Keegan era) Newcastle shirt sat a couple of rows behind us... the kids gave him their best "drop dead" stares. Not having had to queue up for the tickets meant that we got in relatively early, so were able to catch the warm-up, at which point we realised that the game was being played on Astroturf - although it was, apparently, the new-fangled type, incorporating rubber pellets, which allows the ball to bounce at a reasonable height, rather than to the moon and back, as used to happen at Luton, all those years ago. We also got to see the new change shorts (Vancouver had been an all black affair), which might have been "silver" but looked more like a strange stone/khaki colour. The kids also got to rate the local mascot - a killer whale - which scored much worse then Vancouver's Duck, being dismissed as "looking like a fish with a strange bald patch". From the mouths of babes etc. And then they disappeared off to the dressing rooms to get ready for the start.
And then we waited. And waited some more. 7pm, it said on the ticket. Obviously, just a guideline, rather than a hard and fast start time. Still, it gave us time to criticise the architecture of the Stadium - big, covered stands at either side of the pitch, one open area at the South end, joined on to both adjoining stands, and the North end having a strange triangular stand, with a huge scoreboard on top of it, weird - and the rest of the time trying to predict how long it would be between the trains (whose mainline runs at the back of the ground) sounding their horns. It was dull... Sunderland came out, each player being escorted by about 500 kids. Then came what was probably (and I don't mean this in an unkind way) the fattest marching band on earth - you can just about make out the smirks on the faces of the Sunderland players, especially Elliott and Arca (Brown and Whitehead look in shock). Then came each starter for Seattle, accompanied by the obligatory 500 kids, plus a fanfare from the "band". Then came the colour party from the local navy base. Then the National Anthems. Finally, at about 7.45pm, we were ready to start. I'm sure it was all great for those involved, but really, what's the point of going through a warm-up, only to stand around for half an hour? Later reports claimed that the game was delayed for half an hour due to congestion outside the ground... makes you wonder what happens when they have a full house.
Sunderland's starters for the game were Davis; Wright, N. Collins, Caldwell, Smith; Robinson, Whitehead, Arca; Elliott, Murphy, Brown; as Mick McCarthy looked to add a bit of attacking flair with a 4-3-3 formation. No big surprise that Seattle looked sharper at the start of the game - already being used to the surface and well into their league schedule - and once again Kelvin Davis was called upon to keep the Lads in the game. However, as time went on, we started to look a lot more comfortable on the ball, and the passing moves which had broken down in Vancouver now started to come off. Its at this point, I should also like to point out that the match officials, and predominantly the referee were without out doubt, the worst I have ever seen in "professional" football. After Dean Whitehead have been quite clearly been taken out, and lay on the "turf", needing the physio, only to be waved "play-on" and to then be remonstrated with by the referee as he hobbled off for attention; Mick McCarthy could quite clearly be heard shouting - "If you couldn't see that, then you shouldn't be in charge of the game." - even the lovely lady sat in front of me, who apparently plays in a co-ed league, had a better grasp of the rules than this eejit - don't get me wrong, he wasn't a "homer", he was equally bad for both sides. As at Vancouver, the teams went in at the break all square at 0-0.
Only a couple of changes at half-time, this time around, with Caldwell, Smith and Brown being replaced by Nosworthy, Woods and Stead, respectively, with Wright slotting alongside Collins and Nosworthy playing at RB and Arca dropping deep to LB, allowing Woods to play in midfield. The game continued to ebb and flow, with the only real talking point being Stephen Wright booking for dissent in the 53rd minute, when Arca had to raced back to tackle a Seattle forward allowed to race clear, despite being yards offside. The 61st minute saw more substitutions, with Wright, Elliott and Murphy making way for Christensen, Lawrence and Welsh, as we reverted back to a more usual 4-4-2. Really, from that point on, we looked far the better team and only a couple of goal mouth scrambles and some poor finishing kept the game scoreless. However, we had to wait until the 80th minute for the winner - as Liam Lawrence raced clear, onto a perfectly weighted Whitehead pass, to smash a powerful left footed shot off the underside of the bar and in. Or was it? Fortunately, the Russian linesman gave the ref the nod and it was given, to much protest from the home faithful - apparently subsequent video replays did actually show that the ball had crossed the line - perhaps the first time the ref got a decision right all game. The Lads kept up the pressure until the end, passing the ball well, and rarely looking in any danger. All in all, this was much, much better than the display at Vancouver.
No plans to join in the post-match festivities, despite the promise of the Sunderland squad being available to meet the fans in a local "Irish" bar, it was straight back to the car and hit the road for the drive back to Whistler... getting in at a mere 2.30am. Yawn.

Sadly, budget and time off work wouldn't stretch to allow us to see the final game of the tour in Portland, OR. By the sounds of it, the best thing was the reception from the Portland fans - despite an average attendance of only 4,000, the park was swelled by the arrival of the Premiership newboys, with an impressive attendance of 15,370... the game itself, played on the baseball Astroturf pitch, far worse than the Seattle one, and the use by both teams of rolling subs, meant that it was pretty much a non-event, and ended as such, 0-0.