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We watch for games like this. We suffer for games like this. In this game the Seattle Sounders won, beating first-place Vancouver Whitecaps in BC Place in dominating 3-0 fashion, and it felt damn good. This win, combined with some losses by our conference foes, helped Seattle become closer to the top than to the red line. But more than that, Seattle brought back the Cascadia Cup. I'm not entirely sure how you explain that acquisition to US Customs when coming back home, but that's a good problem to have.
The Sounders already have stacks on stacks of trophies. Almost a year ago to the day (September 18th versus September 16th) the Sounders won their fourth US Open Cup, so if you've got a birthday around this time of the year and you're a Sounders fan, you've gotta be feeling pretty spoiled right now. You got to get a trophy, you got to witness Andreas Ivanschitz score his first goal for Seattle, you got to see Gonzalo Pineda score what might be his first run of play goal for Seattle, and you got to see Obafemi Martins score his 41st goal for Seattle in all competitions. Not a bad birthday, you greedy, beautiful bastard.
Before Seattle embarked on their current three-game road trip, in the midst of a 7-match winless-on-the-road streak, knowing they'd have to face red-hot San Jose Earthquakes, top of the table Vancouver Whitecaps, and then always-a-pain-and-employer-of-cheap-tactics Sporting Kansas City, I didn't have the highest of hopes for Seattle. Sure, they were getting important players back, but all three of those teams seemingly always have Seattle's number for one reason or another. Not this year. Not anymore.
We Hay fe'd it.
Three wins in four games, with a draw thrown in there. The dark days are over. Clint Dempsey is setting up goals left and right. Oba can't stop scoring. Nelson Haedo Valdez is proving himself a handful for MLS defenders. Ivanschitz is killing it in the midfield. And most importantly, Sigi Schmid is back.
Non-sequitur: since the start of the summer transfer window, Portland Timbers are 2-4-4 with a -7 goal differential. Real Salt Lake can catch them if the Timbers continue to stumble.
Seattle now has four matches remaining. Sporting Kansas City and Houston on the road, LA Galaxy and Real Salt Lake at home. In order to get a top two seed and a bye in the playoffs, the Sounders would probably need to win at least three of those games, in addition to the teams above them dropping points. It's possible. And it's exciting. And we won the Cascadia Cup. Let's win something else now too, shall we?
Gifs
Okay, this is a huge match. Huge.
If Vancouver think they can still the Cascadia Cup again, they'd better think again.
I know we've been saying it a lot more often lately, but Stefan Frei is amazing.
Ivanschitz scores!
I'm sure there's a pun here somewhere.
We're still winning, but Vancouver has really turned up the pressure this half.
Doesn't matter, Pineda Golazo!
And Oba caps off a magnificent game.
Cascadia Cup is ours, bitches!
Finally after four years it returns to Seattle. Time to go wild!
I'm so pumped to find the Sounders securely in playoff position.
Now let's keep sticking it to those teams ahead of us and keep climbing.
