considered by Opta<\/a> to be the best team outside of Europe at the time. (Cruz Azul, by the way, is currently 4-0-2 in Liga MX play.) The Sounders then took care of business against Liga MX sides Santos Laguna, Club Tijuana and Club Puebla. They outscored those four teams 11-2 to send them into the semifinals against the Galaxy.<\/p>\nThe Galaxy have been mostly pretty bad this year, but had actually been quite good in Leagues Cup. In their first four games, they outscored their opponents 13-4 and did not lose a game in regulation.<\/p>\n
But the Sounders had the Galaxy on their back foot almost immediately and opened the scoring in the 7th minute when Pedro de la Vega slammed in a rebound. It was de la Vega\u2019s third goal of the tournament and his ninth goal across all competitions this year.<\/p>\n
The Sounders seemed content to let the Galaxy dominate possession from that point forward but consistently were able to generate the more dangerous scoring chances. The best of those came in the 51st minute when Jes\u00fas Ferreira sent a ball forward to de la Vega near midfield. He then touched the ball into space where Osaze De Rosario picked it up after making a 50-yard run. De Rosario had a 1v1 chance with the goalkeeper and although his shot was saved, it illustrated how dangerous the Sounders could be in transition.<\/p>\n
De Rosario then made up for that miss about six minutes later when he scored they type of goal that will be on highlight reels for years to come. Off a throw-in deep in the Galaxy end, De Rosario chested the ball away from goal and with a defender on his back, sombrero\u2019d the ball back toward goal, split two defenders, took the ball off his hip and then poked it inside the near post.<\/p>\n
The goal was a good example of how the Sounders have put themselves in this position. De Rosario was only starting \u2014 and will surely start again in the final \u2014 because Danny Musovski had gotten himself suspended after picking up a red card in the semifinals. Musovski had only been starting because Jordan Morris has been hurt for much of the year. Most MLS teams struggle to score with backup strikers, let alone third-stringers. But the Sounders have truly embraced head coach Schmetzer\u2019s \u201cnext man up\u201d ethos, continuing to perform at a high level despite injuries up and down the roster.<\/p>\n
Asked by sideline reporter Michele Giannone what Schmetzer asks him to do, De Rosario responded, \u201cStay in my office, stay in the box and work hard for the team. I understand I\u2019m working for the club and playing for the club, and that\u2019s understood all around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cheesy as it may sound, the Sounders have shown a level of collective strength that is rare. They will go into Sunday\u2019s final missing at least three players who would have likely started and five others who would have likely contributed. Somehow, they don\u2019t feel like underdogs. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s at least partly because they\u2019ve got plenty of experience in these types of situations. This is a group who knows how to win, who has already faced some of the best teams in the world this year and who believes they have unfinished business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a great summer, I\u2019m hoping to make it an even better summer,\u201d Schmetzer said. \u201cWith the way the team is playing, with what they believe, maybe a deep playoff run as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than anything else, the Seattle Sounders have become a team that defines itself by winning. It\u2019s an…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":184554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-184553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115112061681547464","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a><\/p>\n