Sounders win 4-1. (Here's my game story.) They will advance to meet the Colorado Rapids sometime (and somewhere) next month, with the winner advancing to the U.S. Open Cup round of 16.

After the game, coach Sigi Schmid was very happy with his depth. Naturally Sebastien Le Toux (two goals, two assists) got much of the attention. But Roger Levesque had three assists. And Schmid also said good things about Stephen King and Patrick Ianni and Sanna Nyassi.

He also said that the few guys who played Saturday against San Jose and a lot again tonight (mostly meaning James Riley and Steve Zakuani)will get some light days of training and will be available on Saturday at Chicago.

And speaking of training, of all the things that Schmid said about depth tonight -- and that's a key issue in the story I wrote for tomorrow -- here's what I found to be maybe the most interesting thing he said on the topic:

"The reason you want to have depth more than any other reason is you want to have good practices. The deeper you are, the more competitive practices are, and the more competitive practices are the better you’re going to be in games. If you just had 11 really good players and the other guys weren’t very much then you wouldn’t be a very good team. So it shows that we have that depth and that’s something I’ve very pleased with. It’s a long season and you need everybody."

Meanwhile, here's the take from a none-too-happy RSL coach Jason Kreis:

“Obviously, we are extremely disappointed with the result and the match. Tonight’s performance is a big letdown after Saturday’s win (a 6-0 victory over New England) back home.

“It’s important for everyone to remember that it is still a young season, we have several games left to accomplish our goals. Tonight we played a lot of guys that hadn’t had extensive minutes in their previous opportunities, and to be honest, tonight they didn’t make the most of this opportunity.

“So now we have to wipe this one from our mind as soon as possible – it’s over, and it is what it is … We have another game Saturday in Colorado, its a big rivalry, and it’ll be a fantastic opportunity to get back on track.”

The stats:

Scoring Summary:
SEA -- Sebastien Le Toux (penalty kick) 24
SEA -- Sanna Nyassi (Sebastien Le Toux, Roger Levesque) 26
RSL -- Will Johnson (unassisted) 32
SEA -- Stephen King (Sebastien Le Toux, Roger Levesque) 53
SEA -- Sebastien Le Toux (Roger Levesque) 55

Real Salt Lake -- Chris Seitz, Tony Beltran, David Horst, Jamison Olave (Nat Borchers 46), Robbie Russell, Ned Grabavoy, Kyle Beckerman (Jean Alexandre 66), Andy Williams, Will Johnson (Raphael Cox 71), Robbie Findley, Luis Miguel Escalada (Yura Movsisyan 57).

Substitutes Not Used: Tino Nunez, Kyle Reynish, Chris Wingert.

TOTAL SHOTS: 11 (Andy Williams 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 3 (Will Johnson 2); FOULS: 14 (Kyle Beckerman 3, Tony Beltran 3); OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 4 (Andy Williams 2); SAVES: 4 (Chris Seitz 4)

Seattle Sounders -- Chris Eylander, James Riley, Taylor Graham, Tyson Wahl, Zach Scott, Sanna Nyassi (Evan Brown 72), Stephen King, Patrick Ianni, Steve Zakuani (Jarrod Smith 65), Roger Levesque, Sebastien Le Toux.

Substitutes Not Used: Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans, Nate Jaqua, Kasey Keller, Fredy Montero.

TOTAL SHOTS: 16 (Sebastien Le Toux 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 8 (3 tied with 2); FOULS: 12 (Patrick Ianni 3, James Riley 3); OFFSIDES: 2 (Sebastien Le Toux 1, Roger Levesque 1); CORNER KICKS: 4 (Sebastien Le Toux 4); SAVES: 2 (Chris Eylander 2)

Misconduct Summary:
SEA -- Patrick Ianni (caution; Reckless Tackle) 19
RSL -- Jamison Olave (caution; Handball) 41
SEA -- Sanna Nyassi (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 71

Referee: Landis Wiley
Referee's Assistants: -Mike Rottersman; Josh Wilkens
4th Official: Soo Hui Um
Attendance: 3,890
Time of Game: 1:51
Weather: Cloudy-and-53-degrees

=> Read more!

With no local TV or radio carrying tonight's Sounders-Real Salt Lake game, and with no more tickets available, I'm going to try fill a little bit of the void by increasing my normal in-game blogging.

I'm going to try to keep more of a running blog going with highlights as they happen. I hope that will help some of you to keep up with the game on a pretty-much real-time basis. And, as always, I also hope you'll hop in with your own comments.

Meanwhile, since you're going to be online anyway, you could also click over to Salt Lake station www.kall700sports.com/, which will be broadcasting game from the RSL point of view.

Kickoff -- and the blogging -- begins at 7 p.m. from Starfire Sports Stadium.

The Sounders and Real Salt Lake meet tonight in a play-in game for the U.S. Open Cup (7 p.m., Starfire, sold out, no local broadcast). Or is it just that a bunch of reserves in Sounders and RSL kits?

I love US Open Cup -- the whole idea of opening the tournament to all levels of the sport is just one of the great things about soccer. However, the US Open Cup is no FA Cup. Especially for MLS teams, who have little to gain lots to lose.

So -- as longtime fans of the USL Sounders know -- not all MLS teams play like they care much about winning.

During the preseason, I had heard that Sounders FC might be an exception. As an expansion team, thoughts of winning the Supporters Shield or MLS Cup or Champions League all seemed overly ambitious. But US Open Cup might in within reach of an MLS team that really wanted to win something for the trophy case.

Then came that 3-0 start and the current 4-2 record, and suddenly Supporters Shield and MLS Cup began seeming within reach. And that's the backdrop against which Sigi Schmid will fill out his lineup card tonight. And that's a little of what I tried to capture in my News Tribune story this morning.

Of course, Real Salt Lake faces the same decision. A story this morning inthe Salt Lake Tribune, seems to indicate that RSL really wants to advance. However, the morning coverage in the Deseret News seems a little more skeptical.

I'll leave the last word to three guys I interviewed this week from three levels of the Sounders organization:

ADRIAN HANAUER: (who is seeing the USOC from the MLS side for the first time after years with the USL point of view): "Organizationally, we want to win every game we play. We want to win every time we step out on the field. If we happen to play some guys who aren’t necessarily starters, it doesn’t mean that we don’t want to win the game and we’re not trying to win equally hard to win the game. At the same time, we’ve got multiple competitions that we have to balance and sometimes if you don’t play the starters, it doesn’t mean that you’re trying less to win. It means that you’re trying to keep their bodies healthy for future games, maybe even future Open Cup games."

On whether the fast start changes anything: "I think organizationally I couldn’t say that there’s been a shift, and personally my opinion hasn’t changed. From Day One, I thought our team could be competitive in MLS. I didn’t know what that meant, whether that meant playoffs, a playoffs championship, other trophies, and Open Cup. But being 3-2 doesn’t change the fact that I still think it would be fantastic to go out and win the Open Cup."

SIGI SCHMID: "I think U.S. Open Cup is good. It doesn’t have the respect of the intrigue that, say, the F.A. Cup does in England. But it’s certainly on old competition. Even an old guy like me has played in the Open Cup way back when. It’s something that I wish would get some more value over a period of time. I wish that it would find its niche in the schedule – and I know we’ve talked about that often as a league, as to what’s the best way to find a niche in the schedule. It is what it is right now, and like I said, it’s going to be a mixed team. It’s going to be an opportunity for some guys who are coming back off injury. It’s going to be an opportunity for some guys who haven’t played as much and some other guys to play also."

GK CHRIS EYLANDER (an Open Cup star last season as a USL Sounder and the likely starter tonight as an MLS Sounder:)"It’s definitely exciting. We aren’t looking at it (as a distraction). These games are an opportunity for some player to play where they wouldn’t notmally have inside the normal MLS regular season games. Our goal is to be champions."

I'm due to submit some suggestions to the North American Soccer Reporters tomorrow for MLS player of the month for April.

If any of you would like to offer any suggestions over the next 24 hours I'll be happy to add your input to the mix.