The Seattle Sounders drew Liga MX’s Club León 1-1 at Estadio León on Thursday night to advance to the Concacaf Champions League semifinal on a 4-1 aggregate score. The Sounders defeated León 3-0 at Lumen Field last Tuesday in the opening leg.
The Sounders found their all-important away goal in the third minute of first-half stoppage time when Fredy Montero buried a penalty kick drawn by João Paulo. The penalty was Montero’s third converted PK in as many matches, including one against León in Leg One.
León’s best chance of the first half came on a Fidel Ambríz header that rattled the crossbar in the 14th minute and then had a couple bona fide opportunities in the second half. The first came in the 83rd minute when Stefan Frei parried away a close-range effort from Santiago Ormeño. Frei then made a kick save on a shot from 12 yards out by Jean Meneses.
León found a consolation goal in the first minute of second-half stoppage time when Ambríz headed home from close range.
Frei made seven saves on the night, with most of them comfortable on shots from distance.
THREE TAKEAWAYS
Chance for History
The Sounders have won plenty of trophies since their entrance to MLS in 2009, but they’ve never won an international competition. The closest they came was last September when they lost the Leagues Cup Final to, coincidentally, Club León. Seattle has reached the CCL semifinals once, in 2013, when it fell to Liga MX’s Santos Laguna 2-1 on aggregate.
All MLS semifinal
The Sounders’ result guarantees that a Major League Soccer team will reach the CCL Final for just the fifth time. Seattle will take on fellow MLS side New York City FC, who defeated Guatemala’s Comunicaciones. The series finished 5-5 with NYCFC advancing on away goals. The winner of Seattle-NYC will take on an all-Liga MX semifinal of Mexico City-based clubs Cruz Azul and Pumas.
Quick turn to MLS Play
Seattle will head to Texas directly from Mexico to take on Austin FC on Sunday (1:30 p.m. PT; FS1, FOX Deportes, 1090 KJR AM, El Rey 1360 AM) in MLS play. The Sounders enter off a 3-2 win over the LA Galaxy last weekend. Austin comes in 2-1-0 after two massive five-goal performances to start the season before losing at the Portland Timbers on Saturday.
