The cathartic release was so immense there was a feeling you could see it from space. It banished so many demons, and was such a boon for a Sounders season that’s defied odds at every turn, that the moment was enshrined in time.
Nelson Valdez scored and set Seattle on fire. And now they affix their attention onto a different but familiar foe.
It’s FC Dallas again.
The Sounders streaked into the playoffs on the back of an incredible final three months of the season in which they lost just two games. It was such a stirring turnaround that by the time they hit the playoffs on Thursday, nobody would’ve batted an eyelash at the Sounders winning. But that didn’t make the task any easier against a Sporting Kansas City side that boasted two wins over the Sounders this year.
They did not get a third. Valdez had played exactly 900 minutes this season without scoring going into the playoffs, a fact that hung over him like a dark cloud. So when he scored the 88th-minute winner to send the Sounders past Sporting KC and into the Western Conference Semifinals for the eighth consecutive year? The catharsis was impossible to miss.
The Sounders’ vengeance tour rolls on. And for the Sounders to walk a step closer to their first MLS Cup, they’ll have to plow through the FC Dallas team that ousted them at this stage in 2015.
The Sounders had two courses in the semis depending on how results went in the Knockout Round. If Real Salt Lake knocked off the LA Galaxy, the Sounders would have the lower-seeded Colorado Rapids. But since the Galaxy ripped RSL 3-1, the Sounders got the higher seed. No. 1 FC Dallas. And paradoxically, it might actually be the better of the two in terms of matchups.
For one, the Rapids’ home field advantage is unquestionably the best in the league this year. Colorado hasn’t lost at home since 2015, and the added bonus of playing at altitude has an even more profound impact in the postseason on legs tired from a full season of work.
That’s not to say FC Dallas is an easy matchup. It just might be the better one from Seattle’s perspective.
The biggest reason involves a major pillar knocked out from under FC Dallas on the eve of the postseason. Creator Mauro Diaz, arguably the best at what he does in the league, tore his achilles in FC Dallas’s 2-1 win over Seattle in Frisco on Oct. 16 and was lost for the season. Diaz was the unquestioned cornerstone of the team’s attack, and the fact they were already plugging the hole left by the midseason of departure of winger Fabian Castillo made it even more difficult.
Now, the team the Sounders face on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at CenturyLink Field could look decisively different than the last one they faced. How different could determine the match and the all-important first leg.
Before his injury, the only game Diaz missed since the start of June was the Sounders’ 5-0 pummeling of FCD on July 13. He played everything else in that period, and so when FCD had to cope without him in their regular season finale against the LA Galaxy on Oct. 23 - a game they needed to at least draw to capture the Supporters' Shield - they were in relatively uncomfortable territory. And it didn’t go so well.
In lieu of the 4-2-3-1 FCD coach Oscar Pareja preferred with Diaz, he switched to a 4-4-2 with Kellyn Acosta and Ryan Hollingshead in the middle. Right midfielder Michael Barrios, perhaps sensing the lack of occupancy in the middle, often swung inside to find the ball. Here’s what the combined pass map of Acosta (23), Hollingshead (12) and Barrios (21) looked like against the Galaxy.
The problem with this is that no one consistently occupied the central space underneath strikers Tesho Akindele and Maxi Urruti. As a result, FCD managed to snap off a respectable 13 shots, but only two of them were on target. Without someone pulling strings, FCD struggled to find substantive opportunities. In a word, they looked listless in the final third.
The sample size is still hopelessly small. After an injury layoff in April, Diaz had only missed two games since the start of May before his injury. In that sense, no one is quite sure how FCD will cope. But it certainly will be without its most dangerous attacking threat on Sunday.
The Sounders, of course, will need an uptick in overall performance from its match against Sporting KC to prevail over two difficult legs. But it’s hard to imagine a team in MLS brimming with more confidence than the Sounders. Cristian Roldan has taken to his role on the right flank in Andreas Ivanschitz’s absence. Nicolas Lodeiro looks as good as he ever has. And Jordan Morris is a dangerman always prowling the final third.
In their current form, nobody wants to play the Sounders right now.
This Sounders team is arguably better than the one that faced FC Dallas in the postseason in 2015. In its current state this FC Dallas team is arguably worse, despite a rollicking regular season that deserves heaps of praise. It’ll take every ounce of power the Sounders can marshal to move into the Western Conference Final, but they can do it.
If the Sporting KC match proved anything, it was that.
