Geoff Baker - 100 Things Sounders Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

For Sounders fans

Contents

Introduction

It was deathly silent inside the cramped locker room at BMO Field as the Sounders dissected their stunning December end to the 2017 season. They had just lost the MLS Cup final 20 to Toronto FC but knew the final score should have been at least double that.

Jordan Morris and Cristian Roldan, two of the teams brightest young stars, were among the last to finish dressing and gathering their things. Roldan would go on to be named the teams Most Valuable Player after a standout third season, but had been shut down completely by Michael Bradley and an unyielding Toronto transition game that never allowed the Sounders more than a few seconds with the ball.

As for Morris, hed gotten on the field in the second half, but his night was as forgettable as his injury-plagued season in moments that didnt involve U.S. Mens National Team heroics. Both Morris and Roldan knew there could be greater moments ahead, with most of the teams lineup poised to return in 2018.

But the Toronto side had exposed shortcomings in the defending champions game. And now, reality was sinking in that the Sounders were no longer on top of the Major League Soccer world.

For the Sounders and their fans, it was a devastating end to a remarkable two-season run atop that MLS universe. As is so often the case in sport, the reign from above had been fleeting. In the Sounders case, their championship in 2016 had been so unexpected it seemed they spent most of the 2017 season having to justify it.

The reality is few teams in any sport make it to back-to-back championship matches. Fewer return to the finals a year after winning it all, the trappings of success so often claiming many top squads early on the following season.

That wasnt the case with the Sounders, who finished 2017 tied for the most points atop the Western Conference standings and then held their playoff opponents without a single goal until the second half of their championship match in Toronto.

For a while, it had seemed that goalkeeper Stefan Frei might duplicate his MLS Cup heroics of the prior year. Hed stood on his head for sixty-plus minutes once again, deepening the panic amongst the sold-out throng at BMO Field fearing their talented-but-snakebit team could again fall victim to its former netminder. Alas, it was not to be as Jozy Altidore, robbed by Frei in extra time a year earlier, put away his breakaway chance this time around for the only goal that would be needed.

The rest of the match was a coronation for the Reds and their hometown fans. The Sounders never got close to equalizing before a late Toronto insurance strike. It was about as dominant and lopsided a finals victory performance as anyone could remember. And not the way the Sounders ever imagined their magical run concluding.

Indeed, it would take time to get over such a defeat. Plenty of soul searching would occur, by players and a self-critical head coach Brian Schmetzer alike. Even general manager Garth Lagerwey, heralded the week preceding the MLS Cup final for his brilliant moves positioning the team for a repeat title run, would come under fire for bringing in relatively few new players in the weeks that ensued. Not until Lagerwey signed Norwegian midfielder Magnus Wolff Eikrem in late January, with 2018 training camp already started, did he quell some of the uneasiness.

Thats to be expected. Of all the people jolted by Torontos dominance in the final, the fans might have been hit the hardest. Where players, coaches, and executives continued to insist they largely hadnt shown up for that championship match, the fans had no way of knowing whether this was true. To many, what the Sounders seemed to be attributing to failed execution was looking more like evidence of a lack of talent relative to the team that dethroned them.

Time will tell.

And over time, once the sting of the finals loss fades, their two-season stretch is one I believe will grow in legend. It will be appreciated ever more by a fan base already treated to 44 years of special moments throughout the franchises MLS history and prior incarnations.

The idea of preserving those moments and portraying them comprehensively against a professional soccer backdrop spanning decades in Seattle is what attracted me most when I was first approached to do this book in July 2017. History means little if not preserved and guardians of Seattle soccermen like Alan Hinton, Jimmy Gabriel, Schmetzer, Adrian Hanauer, Dave Gillett, Pete Fewing, and Frank MacDonaldhave done their utmost to keep spreading the word.

Now, with help from some of those men, my hope is this book preserves that history on a wider scale. The story of the Sounders is about more than the MLS team that began play in 2009. Its also about more than just the players on the pitch. I wanted this book to appeal as much to fans who remember a stunning, last-minute comeback goal by Roger Davies in the 1982 North American Soccer League semifinal as to newcomers who leapt from their seats when Roldans late strike in July 2017 delivered a 43 victory over D.C. United from 30 down.

This book tells the story of Freis save off Altidore in the 2016 MLS Cup final, while at the same time reliving Marcus Hahnemanns penalty round stop of Lenin Steenkamp at Memorial Stadium to deliver the Sounders an A-League title in 1995.

It describes 40-plus years of bonding between the Sounders and their fans. From the magical moments of the 1974 franchise debut to todays Emerald City Supporters and their organized, dedicated passion.

The history of professional sports teams matters little if the stories behind the games and personalities are forgotten. My hope is that much of it is preserved here. And that the two-season run by the Sounders just completed will hold its own within that history regardless of what happens from here on out.

1. Roman Torres Has a Championship at His Feet

Roman Torres was the most unlikely pick to score a championship-winning goal in MLS history. But on a frigid December 2016 night in Toronto, with neither the Sounders nor the hometown Reds able to score in regulation or overtime, it came down to Torres on penalty kicks.

The hulking defender from Panama, captain of that countrys national team, had appeared in only 13 regular season games over two seasons with the Sounders. Hed torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee only weeks after coming over fro m Colombian side Millonarios midway through 2015, ending his seaso n and limiting his play the following year. But his game picked up late in 2016, helping the Sounders make the playoffs and advance through each round with a rock-tight defensive strategy to offset a weakened attack.

That strategy held up in the championship match, with the Sounders keeping things scoreless despite failing to register a single shot on goal in regulation play or overtime. Torres was a monster throughout the match, outmuscling Toronto star Jozy Altidore throughout and limiting him and Sebastian Giovinco to a handful of opportunities. Like all others on the field, Torres was exhausted by the end. But after the teams made it through five rounds of penalty kicks tied 33, Justin Morrow hit the crossbar during the second sudden death round and opened the door for Torres and the Sounders to steal a title.

The Sounders hadnt used Torres among their first five shooters when penalty kicks began. Then, as the sudden death segment began, he didnt know whether hed be called upon.