Seattle looked more incisive from the start of the second half, finally finding little gaps in Portland’s defensive midfield and finally making - and rewarding - little runs into central pockets of space. “We had a pile of corner kicks that we couldn’t convert on,” said Schmetzer. Chasing the game from the start in front of an electric crowd of nearly 40,000, the hosts dominated possession in the first half but found themselves continually pushed wide in attack, forced to settle for 18 open-play crosses and eight fruitless corner kicks. We’re going to need to take some time off, and then come back for next year and try to win some more trophies.”Īfter losing the opening leg 2-1, the Sounders entered the match needing a goal to advance, thanks to the away-goals tiebreaker. When you lose and make an exit under those circumstances - I don’t want to say you can accept it, but it’s the one way you say, ‘OK, it was what it was.’ I’m exceptionally proud of my teammates. It’s a do-or-die game, and I think we all treated it that way. “I couldn’t have asked for anything more from my teammates,” said Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei in a nearly empty locker room after the match. More than anything, there was response after response after response from two sides stubbornly refusing to cede the night, scoring five goals in all after the 68th minute. Referee Jair Marrufo managed affairs with the leniency due a match of this magnitude, spending much of the night wagging his you-can’t-fool-me finger or gesticulating for players to stand up and return to play. Sebastian Blanco was a hero and then a goat twice over before converting from the spot in the shootout. Head-scratching gaffes were counterbalanced by moments of brilliance and beauty. The second-leg match offered just about everything you could want: it was a testy, furiously contested, bruising affair. They then went down yet again in early extra time before - you guessed it - equalizing once more to force a penalty shootout. And that’s what I hope for.”Īnd say this for the Sounders, who returned to the playoffs for the 10th time in their 10 year history: it took an epic effort to end their hopes of returning to MLS Cup for the third straight season. The Sounders faced elimination for the first 70 minutes, were through to the next round for a fleeting 10 minutes, and found themselves three minutes from elimination again before forcing extra time deep in stoppage time. If we continue to play like that, we will have many, many more years of success. We’ve always been a big club, always been a winning club. So that’s testament to the mentality that we’re trying to establish in this club. Again, the spirit of that group, the mentality of that group, the never-say-die attitude of that group is what spurred them on to get nine games in a row, what spurred them on to go 14-2-1. “But again, what I would say is that each one of those guys would trade any one of those two records to be continuing to play. So you cannot take that away from that group. They put together, statistically, the best half of a season ever in Major League Soccer history, at 14-2-1. And that team right there put nine games in a row together. More teams are entering, more money is entering. “I know there are some teams that are bottom of table or have their challenges.
“Nothing can take away nine games in a row unbeaten in a league where there is parity,” Schmetzer said. While acknowledging the club fell short of its primary objective, head coach Brian Schmetzer was also quick to tick off a list of his club’s accomplishments after the match. Sitting at 3-9-3 and a mere point out of last place at the end of June, the Sounders posted a best-in-MLS-history 14-2-1 record over the second half of the season, at one point going undefeated over a nine-match stretch and ultimately snagging the second seed in the Western Conference playoffs.īut this season won’t end with another MLS Cup appearance, not after losing a roller-coaster series to the Timbers. For the third straight year, the Sounders rallied from a miserable start to the season to make the playoffs. The Sounders are out of the playoffs after losing in the semifinals to the Portland Timbers, their most bitter rival, on Thursday night. A campaign that began with a gut-punch injury to Jordan Morris ended with a gut-punch loss in one of the most riveting matches in MLS playoff history. SEATTLE – For just the second time since 2013, Major League Soccer will hold a Western Conference finals absent the Seattle Sounders.
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