Seattle won in an amazingly great game. The Sounders have now won the US Cup Championship for three years in a row.
It's been so much fun watching this very young team come together, the intensity of last night's game was so much fun to witness.....it was beautiful soccer, and my voice is hurtin' today.
High-wire act a fitting finish to Open Cup
Finally, in the 78th minute, after Sounders FC had thrown everything but a loose boot and extra shin guard at Chicago keeper Sean Johnson, Fredy Montero again found the ball on his foot in front of the Fire goal.
This is how it went all night. Great chances at both ends. Remarkably entertaining soccer that was almost too good to end too soon. Goalkeepers too frugal to allow anything cheap.
It took almost the entire game for the breakthrough score.
It took a perfectly placed corner kick from Erik Friberg that found the head of Jeff Parke, who launched himself above the Fire defense only to have Johnson make another in a string of one-handed diving stops.
It took a classic, connect-the-dots play, off a set piece that ended on Montero's right foot for the Sounders to score their first goal Tuesday, en route to their third consecutive U.S. Open Cup championship in their third year of existence.
It was an honest goal, in an honest-to-goodness night that was another celebration of the growth of the game in this country.
"Probably the funnest game I've ever played," Friberg said, on the field in front of the Emerald City Supporters. "It was amazing. I think we did it for this crowd."
This is what we expected. This is why 35,615 showed up on a drizzly fall night at CenturyLink Field, why even the stadium's Hawk's Nest was full and loud.
This was the largest crowd ever for an Open Cup match.
Often, Cup finals can be tepid affairs. Teams often play defensively, waiting for that one good chance, a clumsy clear or goalkeeper's muff to get the lone necessary goal.
But don't pay attention to this game's 2-0 final score. This wasn't some kind of cautious Cup final. It wasn't one of those nine-men-in-back-of-the-ball, counterattacking games.
It was tense, but it was never timid.
These two teams flew at each other, up and down the field. They attacked as if they believed the over-under on the game should have been about eight.
Mike Fucito hit the leg of Chicago keeper Johnson in the eighth minute. And Johnson gobbled Brad Evans' cross a couple of minutes later.
There were scoring chances at both ends seemingly every other minute. The Sounders and Fire thundered shots at each other the way Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal fire forehands.
Wave after wave of attacks were thwarted by keepers Johnson and Kasey Keller, who were as sharp as their attackers. It was tsunami soccer.
Chicago's Marco Pappa blasted a shot that deflected off Sounder defender Parke's left boot, forcing Keller to make a save, diving to his left, late in the half.
After the save, Parke nodded to Keller as if to say, "Thanks for picking me up."
And in first-half stoppage time, Montero, a classic poacher who has been on a goal-scoring binge, crushed a shot from just outside the box that beat Johnson, but hit the upright to Johnson's right.
The first half had the pace of a 400-meter relay. No goals were scored, but still, it was thrilling.
These were two teams playing at the tops of their games. The Sounders, who just finished their unsympathetic, Marco Polo-like, 9,000-miles-in-nine-days, three-country journey, had every excuse for playing tired. Instead they looked as if they'd never left home.
If you weren't here, you should have been. This was one of the wildest, most entertaining sporting events in the city this year. It almost looked as if they were playing with a shot clock.
Early in the second half, Fucito had another opportunity, chipping the ball over Johnson's head, beating a trio of Fire players, who seemed resigned to the goal.
But the shot softly kissed off the pole and bounced away. The Sounders' striker grabbed his head in disbelief.
It was an entire night of head-grabbing disbelief. High-wire soccer.
And late in the fifth-plus minute of stoppage time, with the team clinging to its unsafe lead, and the fans standing and cheering, gasping and singing, the Sounders' anchor in midfield, Ozzie Alonso, slalomed through the weary Chicago defense, like he was running a cone drill, and tapped in a celebratory second goal.
The Cup was returning to Seattle.
"Whenever you get a chance to lift a trophy, you know it's a special occasion," Keller said.
The players, wearing white T-shirts proclaiming their championship, stood on a podium and danced and passed around the cup, sharing the victory equally.
They made a victory lap around CenturyLink Field, then posed for pictures in front of their three Open cups.
And the fans stayed and cheered themselves hoarse, too tired and too happy to leave too soon. It was a beautiful night for the beautiful game. |
