The two teams played a single regular season match, hosted by Seattle in May, which Toronto won 1–0.
(meta data) TITLE:  Sounders lose MLS Cup rematch 1-0 at home to Toronto FC | The Seattle Times  (meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2017-05-06 13:57:46 12 captures 12 May 2017 - 02 Aug 2021 About this capture COLLECTED BY Organization: Internet Archive These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved. Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors. The goal is to fix all broken links on the web. Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. Collection: Wikipedia Near Real Time (from IRC) This is a collection of web page captures from links added to, or changed on, Wikipedia pages. The idea is to bring a reliability to Wikipedia outlinks so that if the pages referenced by Wikipedia articles are changed, or go away, a reader can permanently find what was originally referred to. This is part of the Internet Archive's attempt to rid the web of broken links. The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20171201132212/https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/sounders/sounders-lose-mls-cup-rematch-1-0-at-home-to-toronto-fc/ Skip to content Log In All Sections All Sections Log In # Sounders lose MLS Cup rematch 1-0 at home to Toronto FC Originally published May 6, 2017 at 1:57 pm Updated May 6, 2017 at 6:14 pm Back to story Restart gallery More Photo Galleries ## Photos: Sounders throttle Houston 3-0, win Western Conference ## Photos: Seattle Sounders beat Houston Dynamo 2-0 ## Photos: Seattle Sounders beat Vancouver Whitecaps 2-0 Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore and Toronto FC got some MLS Cup revenge on the Sounders, defeating them 1-0 at CenturyLink Field on Saturday. The loss snapped a 14-game unbeaten streak at home for the Sounders Geoff Baker Seattle Times staff reporter There were some similarities between last year's MLS Cup final and the rematch the defending champion Sounders played Saturday at home against Toronto FC. For one, the day's lone tally came via a penalty kick in which Roman Torres played a key role. Also, another left-handed stop was made by Sounders keeper Stefan Frei off Toronto striker Jozy Altidore to give his team a fighting chance. Apart from that, though, the Sounders didn't do enough to keep their 14-game unbeaten streak at home from ending in a 1-0 defeat to last year's finalists on a rather lackluster afternoon. "I think overall there's a lot of frustration in that locker room,'' Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said afterward. "We're tired of the same storyline of extended possession and getting a bunch of chances. That storyline is growing old very fast.'' Indeed, the Sounders again controlled the ball more than 63 percent of the time and had a dozen shots — eight of them from inside the 18-yard box. But to the mounting frustration of 41,468 fans at CenturyLink Field, they again struggled to finish. The only time they found the back of the net came in the sixth minute, when Jordan Morris headed a ball in behind Toronto keeper Clint Irwin after a Cristian Roldan free kick. Alas, the play was ruled offside because Gustav Svensson had broken in behind the defenders early, causing a distraction and impacting the play despite never touching the ball. The Sounders' players went ballistic in protesting, as did the incensed crowd. But the call stood. "The linesman was correct, his decision was correct,'' Schmetzer said. "Gustav made a play for the ball and he froze the goalkeeper. I don't have any issues with that. The referees didn't lose the game." But on a team held scoreless at home the first 75 minutes last weekend before salvaging a miracle draw, any goals denied aren't helping the frustration level. The Sounders (2-3-4) have fallen behind in all but two games and wind up having to push players forward while opponents capitalize on counterattacks. Toronto (5-1-4) entered this finals rematch minus key offensive stars Sebastian Giovinco and Victor Vazquez, as well as center back Eriq Zavaleta. But it grabbed the lead in the 23rd minute when Torres — whose goal in the MLS Cup penalty-kick round clinched the championship last December — barreled over Toronto striker Altidore in the box. Altidore was awarded the penalty kick and cleanly beat Frei to his left after the keeper dove right. It was a measure of revenge for Altidore, stopped from in close by Frei's iconic hand save in extra time to keep December's championship scoreless. Much like that stop, Frei on Saturday got his left hand on a 40th minute drive by Altidore and also deflected it over the crossbar to keep things 1-0 entering the half. But unlike last year's title match when the Sounders retreated into a defensive shell, this time it was the Reds doing the same once provided the lead. They dropped players back throughout a chippy-looking second half and limited the Sounders to a handful of chances. "They got their one PK goal and then they put nine or 10 behind the ball the rest of the game,'' Sounders striker Will Bruin said. "You know, when there's a mass of people in the box, it's tough to find things.'' Bruin said he was man-marked all day by Toronto defender Jason Hernandez, who kept "hugging'' him whenever he entered the box. As a result, Bruin had arguably his quietest day yet for a Sounders attack needing more noise. "I think we've got to have possession with purpose,'' Bruin said. "I think sometimes possession is good and we're slinging it around. But when we go, we've got to go with conviction. We've got to go with speed … at times, we go too slow.'' Frei had warned heading in that his team had to focus on present goals and not get caught up in MLS Cup rematch hype. He insisted afterward the team continues to show signs of regaining a championship level, except for the whole finishing part. "We need to keep working hard,'' Frei said. "That always has to be a given. We've shown that in our darkest moments last year, we could keep working hard in the belief good things would start to come around.'' And with two more road games upcoming, they'll need to show that resolve again. Preferably sooner, rather than later. Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @GeoffBakerTimes. Geoff Baker covers the Sounders and is a sports enterprise and investigative reporter for The Seattle Times who writes a column on sports business. 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MLS Cup 2017
Road to the final.
The MLS Cup is the post-season championship of Major League Soccer (MLS), a professional club soccer league in the United States and Canada. The 2017 season was the 22nd in MLS history, and was contested by 22 teams in two conferences in the east and west. Each club played 34 matches during the regular season from March to October, facing each team in the same conference at least twice and teams in the other conference at least once. The playoffs, running from October to December, were contested between the top six clubs in each conference and included four rounds: a one-match knockout round for the lowest-seeded teams, two rounds of home-and-away series, and the one-match final. 
 The two finalists, Toronto and Seattle, faced each other in the 2016 cup, which was won by Seattle in a penalty shootout. It was the third in league history to feature a rematch of the previous year, the other two being the 2006 and 2007 wins by Houston Dynamo and the 2011 and 2012 wins by LA Galaxy. The 2017 cup was also the first to see both of the higher-seeded sides advance from the conference finals since it was changed to a home-and-away series, in 2012.