It’s not Manchester or Chelsea, but it will be almost just as good

Across the greater Seattle area, billboards and buses read, “The world’s game is coming to Seattle.”

In anticipation of the city’s long overdue Major League Soccer franchise, the Seattle Sounders FC, Qwest Field will be hosting an international friendly between Canada and Brazil, FIFA’s No. 2 team, on May 31 at 7:30 p.m.

Although a friendly competition, this event is expected to draw a crowd topping the recent Mexico-China match at Qwest with 56,416 people in attendance. This is the first time Brazil has set foot in Seattle for more than 30 years during the 1976 USA Bicentennial Cup.

Ticket offices are clearly taking advantage of this opportunity, as entrance to the game will cost anywhere between $35-125.

Making it worth every penny — in addition to bringing their signature green-trimmed yellow jerseys that will light up Qwest field and undoubtedly the faces of thousands of soccer-starved fans — the Brazil national team is expected to bring along a number of marquee players, including Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, Robinson de Souza, Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, aka Kaka, and Alexandre Pato. That group alone boasts titles such as the FIFA player of the year (Kaka) as well as the youngest player to score a goal in the history of official FIFA competition (Pato).

Canada will be countering with a team led by Houston Dynamo forward and midfielder Dwayne De Rosario, who last appeared in Seattle just two years ago in the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Both teams will be using this match as a tune-up for their respective World Cup qualifying rounds on June 14 against Paraguay (Brazil) and June 15 against St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Canada) for the 2010 World Cup.

Seattle soccer fans have been waiting long enough for the beautiful game to come to the Emerald City, and with the Sounders FC not set to play until 2009, it looks like Qwest will get to see Brazil’s (and arguably the sport’s) best sooner than expected.