Seattle puts stamp on its first 10 years with second MLS title

SEATTLE >> As the week progressed, Adrian Hanauer’s appreciation for what was going on with his club and his city was growing.

Yet it was only in the final moments, when the Seattle Sounders held a threegoal lead in the MLS Cup title game, that Hanauer could look around and really take it all in.

“At 3-nil in stoppage time I was pretty confident,” said Hanauer, the Sounders’ majority owner. “But then they scored the goal and I didn’t know how much stoppage time was left and it was driving me nuts. Yeah, I was able to take some time today and this week to soak it in and appreciate it.”

The Sounders closed out their first decade as an MLS franchise by adding a second star to their crest, the result of a 3-1 win Nov. 10 over Toronto FC to claim the MLS Cup title. Seattle also joined the fraternity of MLS clubs with multiple championships by winning its second title in four years, both coming at Toronto’s expense.

The Sounders weren’t the best team in the regular season this year. Nor were they in 2016, when they won their first title after making the playoffs as the No. 4 seed thanks to a midseason coaching change and furious second-half run.

This year, Seattle was a distant second to Los Angeles FC in the West. But that didn’t matter in the postseason and especially with the league’s new single-game playoff format.

“This team was immensely talented. I think it’s the best Sounders team of all time,” general manager Garth Lagerwey said. “We got through some hiccups by believing in ourselves. When we hit those bumps in the summer, we smoothed it out and kind of remembered, ‘Oh, we’re really good.’ And that’s what we proved.”

The final against Toronto seemed to highlight all that talent Lagerwey has acquired. Goalkeeper Stefan Frei, the star of the

2016 final win, made a critical left-handed save during Seattle’s uneasy first half to keep the game scoreless. The trio of Roman Torres, Kim Kee-hee and Gustav Svensson — from Panama, South Korea and Sweden respectively — managed to shut down Toronto’s offensive attack and keep Frei from facing many risky chances.

Kelvin Leerdam was an unlikely option to score Seattle’s first goal in the final, then again the defender had the Sounders’ first goal of the season in March.

But it was two of Seattle’s highest-paid stars coming through with the clinching strikes.

Victor Rodriguez arrived from Spain with great fanfare because of his upbringing in Barcelona’s academy. But he hasn’t reached that potential because of a string of lingering injuries. The lack of overall impact will be largely forgotten because of his goal in the

76th minute that gave Seattle a 2-0 lead. And then it was Peruvian striker Raul Ruidiaz’s turn to cap it off with his goal in the

90th minute.