By Matt Gaschk

Sounders FC has been among the top road teams in Major League Soccer since joining the league in 2009.  At 23-16-19 away from CenturyLink Field, only the LA Galaxy (26-15-18) have a better road record in that time.

The team has pointed to their style of play, but also their incredible road support for helping them to that success.

One constant among that traveling support has been Corey Reidy.  The Federal Way native started an exodus to each road match in 2009 with their first away contest in Toronto and has rarely missed a game away from CenturyLink Field since.

“I decided in 2009 to try to go to as many games as possible to make a fun year out of it,” Reidy said from the front row of Seattle’s 2-1 win over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday.  “Since then, I’ve tried to go to as many games as I could.”

That first season of flights included a trip to Washington, DC, for the US Open Cup final – the highlight of the year for Reidy and the hundreds that sat with him in the upper deck of RFK Stadium to support the Sounders on their way to the first trophy in franchise history.

That day started with about 100 of the fans meeting on the street in front of the White House where they sang and marched up the street to a local bar that had been established as the group’s meeting point.  From there, they continued the march to the subway and sang on the ride to the stadium.

They rooted the team on to a 2-1 win over DC United, then stayed in the upper deck until the whole stadium was cleared after the match ended, celebrating with each other until they were ushered out by security.

Many, including Reidy, went straight to the airport after that to wait for an early-morning flight back to Seattle.

“Sometimes I spend the night in the airport and fly out early in the morning, it depends on the circumstances,” Reidy said.  “Some places it’s just easier to get a hotel room or find a friend’s house to stay at after the match.”

Those friends have become more and more ubiquitous over the years, as Reidy meets Sounders fans in cities all around the league.

Working for an airline, the travel is affordable for Reidy.  He also works to find low-fare deals for his friends and joins them in their travels.  That generally means he gets company in flight, but also led to a complicated flight to Montreal this year.

After finding a cheap flight from Boise, Idaho, to Montreal, he met with friends in Boise to get on a flight that connected through Minneapolis.  When the Boise-leg was delayed three hours, they nearly missed the connection in Minnesota.  But once on the plane, the adventure really began, as a bird flew into the engine, causing an engine failure at takeoff.

Finally, Reidy and his companions landed in Montreal after several more delays and made it to the match to support the team.  It also marked the 17th different team he’d seen on the road – including both Chivas USA and the LA Galaxy at the Home Depot Center.  The only stadium left on his list is Sporting Kansas City’s Livestrong Sporting Park.

But he will scratch that one off the checklist on August 8 when the Sounders face Sporting Kansas City in the US Open Cup final, where Reidy and the rest of the hundreds traveling to Kansas City hope to relive the excitement of the 2009 final.