The Seattle Sounders have to wait until later in the day to see if they will either face Toronto or Montreal in this year’s 2016 MLS Cup Playoff Championship.
RSL lost 2-1 on the last game of the regular season and on a very quick turnaround they played the Western Conference knockout game against Sporting Kansas City, although an extremely tight game, they won 1-0 on a 89th minute header from their opportunistic Paraguayan striker Nelson Valdez.
The next step, MLS Western Conference leaders FC Dallas, who the Sounders met in the same stage of the playoffs last season, this round being the western conference semi-final.
The first leg could not have gone better for Sounders winning 3-0 and putting them in great position for the second leg in the heat of Dallas a week later, for Dallas, it could not have gone worse.
The following Sunday, FC Dallas who had not lost at home all season in all competitions, fielding an attacking lineup but struggling all game to generate chances, only leading 1-0 at halftime on a goal from Canadian Tesho Akindele.
At this point as a die-hard Whitecaps fan, I wanted neither of these teams to make it to the next round because both are rivals of the Caps’ and have been a thorn in Vancouver’s side this season and the past.
In the 2014 playoffs, FC Dallas scored a late controversial penalty to win against Vancouver and ousting Vancouver from the playoffs in the first round again.
Seattle meanwhile have been the Whitecaps rivals since way back in the day, some would say 1974 when the original Whitecaps were inaugurated.
This season the Sounders beat Vancouver in their last 2 meetings of the season including one at home that eliminated Vancouver from playoff contention, that one stung.
Being a season ticketholder this year for the Whitecaps was difficult, we did find success on the road, winning our 1 game of the season away to Seattle, but are still winless in Dallas and Houston.
Seattle have won in Dallas before, but needed to hold on to a 2 goal aggregate lead in the second half against Dallas.
The Sounders did score in the second half, and despite Dallas scoring a late goal, they advanced 4-2 on aggregate.
Now onto the Colorado Rapids, who had 10 more points than Seattle in the regular season and looked like favorites.
And in the first leg in Seattle, the Rapids opened the scored 14 minutes in, a shocker, but Seattle would climb back to win the game 2-1 on some poor defending from Colorado.
The second leg would be all Seattle, as they would get a big first half goal from injured and ill rookie Jordan Morris and hung on in the second half really well to reach their first ever MLS Cup in their 7 year history.
Toronto and Montreal play to see who will decide to host the MLS Cup on December 10th.
Get ready Seattle!
Submitted By: Gideon Hill
