Morris’ goal sends Seattle to MLS Cup final
Jordan Morris’ sensational rookie season was in jeopardy when he was sick to his stomach Friday. He’s feeling a lot better after his performance Sunday.
Morris scored in the 56th minute and the Seattle Sounders advanced to their first MLS Cup, beating the host Colorado Rapids 1-0 on Sunday in the second leg of the Western Conference final.
Nelson Haedo Valdez set up the goal to help Seattle take the series 3-1 in aggregate scoring. The Sounders will play Toronto or Montreal on Dec. 10 for the league title.
Toronto hosts Montreal in the second leg of the Eastern final Wednesday night. The Impact won the first leg 3-2 in Montreal. Seattle will host the final if Montreal prevails, but will travel to Toronto if it wins.
A win in the final would cap an improbable turnaround for Seattle, which started 6-12-2 under Sigi Schmid but went 8-2-1 after Brian Schmetzer was named interim head coach.
“It’s funny looking back. Everybody thought we were dead in the water and now we move on,” Morris said. “This team always believed we were good enough to make it and we proved a lot of people wrong.”
Morris led Stanford to the national championship last year, and won the Hermann Trophy as college soccer’s top player.
Named the MLS Rookie of the Year on Nov. 10 after scoring 12 goals, Morris said his stomach was hurting Friday and Saturday but started to feel better Sunday morning when he awoke. He was good enough to deliver the only goal.
“He’s not only strong physically, he’s also strong mentally,” said Schmetzer, who had the interim tag removed Nov. 2.
The Sounders won the first leg of the series in Seattle 2-1 on Tuesday night and needed only a tie to advance. They got more than that with the goal from Morris.
Colorado carried the play for most of the game but Seattle jumped on a great chance. Valdez had the ball above the box and passed to Morris as he got behind a defender. Morris knocked the ball over goalkeeper Zac MacMath as he slid to try to disrupt the shot.
“Nelson got the ball 25 yards out, put the ball through and I kind of took a touch,” Morris said. “It went out wide a little bit and I saw the keeper come off his line, so I tried to chip it over him and fortunately, it went in.”
Morris got the shot off as he was sliding, and MacMath spiked his right leg as both players converged.
The Rapids needed a goal to get even in aggregate scoring and came out inspired from the start. Jermaine Jones had the first real chance on a header in the fifth minute that went wide.
He later knocked a pass from Shkelzen Gashi over the bar.
The best chance for the Rapids came in the 23rd minute. Forward Kevin Doyle had the ball and maneuvered by defender Roman Torres on the left side and had just goalkeeper Stefan Frei in his path. Instead of taking the shot to try to beat the charging Frei, he sent the ball to the front of the net as Sebastien Le Toux came down the middle, but the ball went through and Le Toux didn’t get a shot. NCAA tournament: Foster Langsdorf ’s header in the 106th minute gave fifth-seeded Stanford (12-3-4) a 1-0, two-overtime win over No. 16 Virginia at Cagan Field and a berth in the quarterfinals at 4 p.m. Saturday at No. 4 Louisville. It was the seventh game-winner and 14th goal overall for Langsdorf, the Pac-12 co-Player of the Year. Europe: Hired to revitalize Manchester United, Jose Mourinho is instead turning the clock back and losing his temper in public. A 1-1 draw with West Ham left United 11 points behind leader Chelsea and without a win in four league matches at Old Trafford for the first time since 1990 . ... Lionel Messi scored, but Barcelona failed to end its skid at Real Sociedad on in a 1-1 draw in the Spanish league, its seventh straight visit to Anoeta Stadium without a win . ... Future Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus helped the Sao Paulobased Palmeiras win its first Brazilian championship title in 22 years after a 1-0 home victory over Chapecoense.