Hello all, and welcome back to another update of the Seattle Sounders story! I’ll apologize in advance: this one is going to be a bit on the lengthy side. I got carried away while playing yesterday afternoon, and ended up playing all the way through to the end of the season (I’d planned on doing an August — September and then an October — November post), so there won’t be quite as much detail as usual (I’ll make it up with a video at the end!). When last we left, we’d just been drawn against Joe Public in the CONCACAF Champion’s League, and were doing pretty well in the MLS. Let’s see how the remainder of the year panned out:
August Results:
We began the month of August with two league fixtures: Houston and Chivas USA. Neither team was doing especially well in the league, but Houston had one of the lowest «allowed goals» totals in the league, so I knew I’d be up against a staunch defense. I turned out to be correct as we battled to a very hard fought 1-1 draw against the surprisingly talented Dynamo squad. Chivas provided only marginal resistance, and we walked out easy 1-0 winners in a game where I had the squad playing slow and relaxed.
Next up was our first leg of the NACL Preliminary Round against Joe Public. We were traveling all the way to Trinidad and Tobago (over 7,000 miles away) for the fixture, and I was nervous that we’d be too out of sorts to perform well. We were heavy favorites though, and anytime Fredy Montero takes the pitch I feel confident of a win.
Heartbreak!! A pyrrhic victory if ever there was one, we’d won comfortably but at what cost? The post game physio report delivered dreaded news — Montero had broken his arm and would be out for the better part of 3 months. To make matters even worse, my backup striker (a 35 year old) injured his back in training the very next day and would be out for 4 weeks. I forgot to take a screenshot immediately, but a few weeks later showed this:
Losing our best player and both of our strikers hurt us quite badly, and we saw an immediate drop off in results. Fortunately we were still able to squeak out a win in both of our next two games courtesy of some stellar midfield play from Alvaro Fernandez and John Rooney.
September Results:
Following our 6-0 aggregate win over Joe Public, we were drawn into the NACL Group «D», which consisted of:
-Monterrey (Mexico), Olimpia (Honduras), Vancouver (Canada), and ourselves (America?).
We were seeded third behind Monterrey and Olimpia, but ahead of Vancouver. This was a strong group, and I had no reasonable expectation of advancing out of this group, figuring the only team we were capable of beating would be Vancouver (but without Montero, I wasn’t sure if we could even do that). First up was our opening match against Vancouver:
Yikes! As I’d feared, a Montero-less Seattle was a non-existant Seattle. Despite our being heavily favored to win the game, we allowed the Whitecaps to walk all over us, and we could’ve easily lost the game by 2 or even 3 goals. In fairness, we did get a few quality shots on goal, but just weren’t able to take advantage of our few chances. I hate to say it, but we didn’t deserve to win. We had a short break before we pulled off a 2-1 away win over Columbus in the league, and then we immediately headed home for our first leg match against Olimpia:
Okay, so we deserved that one too. Neither team played especially well, and the media prediction of a hard fought draw rang true. Olimpia looked far more dangerous in the final third than we ever did, but Kasey Keller managed to summon some more magic to see us through and grant us the one point. We immediately jumped on a plane for Chicago, where we were due to face off agains the Fire for the first time all year. The Windy City wasn’t kind to us, and we lost a scrappy 0-1 game. We had no time to dwell on the loss though, as we were once again airborne and on our way to Mexico. Monterrey were heavy favorites in this match, and I was hoping just to keep the result respectable.
Whaaaaaaat!? I could only throw up my hands as the final whistle sounded. Not only had we just beaten the number one seed in the group, we had dominated them. Monterrey never seriously challenged us, and had only a single scary shot on goal in the waning moments. I was ecstatic, but there was still quite a bit of work to be done.
October Results:
I was excited about entering October. October was when Fredy Montero was due back, and we desperately needed his talents if we were to have a realistic chance of advancing out of Group D and challenging for the MLS Title. At the same time I was rather concerned, as we had no fewer than nine matches schedule for the month (including one playoff game), and didn’t have a single break longer than three days.
Well I’d say that went fairly well. Fredy Montero made his triumphant return against Vancouver, and scored the winning goal in the 75th minute as we earned some revenge for our earlier defeat. He followed up the effort with a brace in a thrilling match against Kansas City that saw David Estrada score the winning goal in the 87th minute. We wasted a perfectly good lead against Real Salt Lake, and gave up the tying goal in the 89th before taking out our frustration on Chivas.
The match against Olimpia proved to be a real nail-biter, and we saw ourselves down 2-0 at the half before Estrada and Montero lead a ferocious comeback that allowed us to scrape out a point. An easy win against Houston was followed up with another shocking result against Monterrey. I was stunned at the final Group D table:
We’d finished first! The quarter final draw wasn’t due to go through until December 8th, but we’d managed to achieve our goal of advancing to the knockout stages of the competition! Our excellent October run (and a convenient New York loss) saw us finish top of the table in the MLS and we earned the team’s first ever Supporter’s Shield (awarded to the team with the best record in the MLS):
We were drawn up against the Chicago Fire for the Conference Semi Final, and I was a little nervous about the fixture. Head over to the next page to see how the playoffs unfolded!
Sibo
31 мая, 2011 at 01:44
Unlucky to lose out in the final Jon! I received a very quizzical look from my cat when I shouted NOOOO! at the laptop when you clicked the resign button…oh well, good luck with the new team and I hope you save them from relegation! :D
Stromson
31 мая, 2011 at 12:48
Haha, thanks Sibo. It would’ve just taken way too long to rebuild Seattle, and I didn’t have that commitment to the MLS. >.> Hopefully we’ll pull off a miracle in League 2!
Excessive
31 мая, 2011 at 02:16
I have had no sleep, but I just had to stay up and watch the rest of that video. It was ‘Awesomeeeeee’. That how you say it in American? ;).
One of the best posts that I have read/seen on this site, I kid you not.
Little unlucky with the MLS mate, you were relying heavily on Montero and unfortunately it just didn’t pay off in the end. Still, you have got the consolation that the side you support won it in the end eh? Right decision resigning in my eyes, the points you gave were more than enough of an excuse.
Hereford is going to be tough mate, but I hope that you don’t quit even if you don’t save them from relegation as it would be like the Salisbury story when you first started out, which was brill ;)
Good luck!
Stromson
31 мая, 2011 at 12:54
Thanks Excessive, that means a lot (and yep, «awesommmmeee» is accurate)! I was pretty bummed about losing in the final, but if it had to be anyone, I’m glad it was DC United (wish we could do that in real life again). You’re right that I was leaning too much upon Montero’s incredible talents, but it was a good run regardless.
I’ll admit I gave some thought to picking my Salisbury story back up instead of going forward with Hereford. :)
Darren Smith
31 мая, 2011 at 11:58
Sooo unlucky mate but an excellent and gripping read. The video was also a nice addition. Tbh I am not a fan of the American soccer but really enjoyed your story. Will be nice to see you in the lower leagues again though.
Stromson
31 мая, 2011 at 12:58
Thanks Darren, glad you enjoyed it. :) Despite loving the MLS in real life, it just isn’t very much fun to manage in that league. I’m looking forward to returning to my roots!
CsAtlantis
31 мая, 2011 at 12:08
Poor Montero, he broke a few parts of his body, anyway you gave it a good shot, what happened to the North American Champions League by the way?
Good luck with your new club, hopefully you can improve their fortunes
Stromson
31 мая, 2011 at 13:02
Yeah, Montero’s body just couldn’t hold up to the pressure of being the leading man for a full season. Seattle advanced to the Quarter Finals of the NACL but the match wasn’t to be held until January, after I would’ve lost nearly half my squad.
vikingmarius
31 мая, 2011 at 12:50
It sucks that youhad such injury issues with your best player, and that you had to los the final in extra time it is heart-breaking. Hereford will be interesting I can’t wait to see how you do with such limited resources, you should sign Montero :P but that would be like your entire wage budget so unrealistic :)
Stromson
31 мая, 2011 at 13:08
Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’d have to sell every player on the squad for a substantial profit in order to be able to sign Montero. :-p I’m looking forward to the challenge of trying to keep Hereford afloat!
vaibhavc
31 мая, 2011 at 14:08
Hey Stromson
You were so close to winning, but I guess it just wasn’t to be. I was unhappy that you resigned from Seattle from seeing the comments, but after seeing the video I completely understand your decision. Good luck with Hereford.
Stromson
31 мая, 2011 at 15:10
Thanks Vaibhav! We were painfully close to that title, but losing to DC United lessens the blow substantially.
Ana Garcia
31 мая, 2011 at 14:18
You have as much luck as me in playoff games! So annoying when you beat a team everytime during your season then lose to them in a one off game.
Wierd up and down results in the NACL! Beat the best team and lost to the lesser team, I watched your video (have no sound at the moment unfortunatly) so England it is!
Montero was just to valuable, maybe you could lure him over to your new team!
Good luck! :)
Stromson
31 мая, 2011 at 15:17
Seriously…we coasted through the playoffs and just weren’t able to wrap it up when it really mattered. NACL was rather hilarious, but I wasn’t going to be able to keep my squad intact for the Quarterfinal and decided it was best to leave with my head held high.
Kevin
1 июня, 2011 at 09:38
I see you had a very active Memorial Day then! :)
Really bad luck losing the MLS Final like that after such a wonderful effort throughout the season. I was quite surprised that you left but a very interesting chioce in Hereford. Again love your video insert. Great job
Chris
1 января, 2012 at 03:00
Hi :)
Just wanted to let you know that I appreciate what your trying to do, I’m english, and its good to see you taking an interest in the football over here! I think its great that your going with hereford and if you get the chance, id like to see you manage MK Dons at some point because thats who i support and they are a brand new club with a growing histroy and good facilities!