Beach volleyball is an Alki fixture – now, beach soccer has hit the sand. West Seattle photojournalist Matt Durham from mattdurhamphotography.com covered today’s first-ever Sounders FC Beach Blast Tournament for WSB. The event was for amateur, adult players; 30+ teams signed up. Top photo: “Baranoff FC” (in red) threads the needle through two “West Side” (in white) players as sand flies. Next: Rory Sheehan from Buckley, sporting a “soccer mullet” and soccer-ball tattoo. Rory told Matt he’s been an avid soccer fan since childhood and has had the tattoo for 12 years:

The action was fast-paced and high-scoring, with short fields and small goals – here, in green, Seattle team “Synergy,” and in peach, the “What The’s,” also from Seattle:

Members of the same two teams are in this photo, showing the high level of sportsmanship that accompanied the high level of competitive action:

One more photo – captioned by Matt: “West Side launches a tremendous distance, off the sand, to head the ball toward Baranoff’s goal.”

Haven’t found a list of results online yet – send ’em if you have ’em, or else we’ll check with the tournament sponsors tomorrow.