LAFC’s dreams of a third consecutive MLS Cup trip ended cruelly on Saturday, when Jordan Morris scored four minutes into a second overtime period to give the Seattle Sounders a 2-1 win in the Western Conference semifinals before a sellout crowd of 22,301 on a cold winter day. autumn evening in the BMO Stadium.
LAFC, which has played in the last two MLS championship games, was bidding to become the first team in 17 years to play for the title in three consecutive seasons. But those hopes were dashed by a sloppy Seattle team that was outplayed but never quit, riding a stellar night of nine saves from goalkeeper Stefan Frei to its first win over LAFC in 11 meetings.
The Sounders, whose only other win in Los Angeles came in the 2019 Western Conference semifinals, got their other first score from LAFC defenseman Maxime Chanot on an own goal midway through the second half.
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Ryan Hollingshead was responsible for the black and gold’s only score in the 50th minute.
Seattle will meet the winner of the second conference semifinal between the Galaxy and Minnesota United in the Western Conference finals next week.
Although LAFC was playing for the 50th time this season, Saturday’s match was its first in 15 days, a play-off break necessitated by FIFA’s international break, while Seattle had been off since November 3. But while some LAFC players complained, the long break robbed them of momentum and rhythm, the Sounders embraced it as it allowed Morris and Albert Rusnak, the team’s two top scorers, to return from injury.
Morris left Seattle’s playoff opener after 52 minutes last month due to a hamstring injury. But his return hardly completed the Sounders. Nouhou, the team’s regular outside back, did not return from international duty with Cameroon after falling ill while midfielder Paul Rothrock was absent due to a quadriceps injury. They were replaced on the left by defender Jonathan Bell and teenage midfielder Reed Baker-Whiting, who had two minutes of playing time between them in the first round of the play-offs.
LAFC was unable to exploit that inexperience during a scoreless first half, in which they failed to get a shot on target. It was the fourth time in four games that LAFC did not score in the first 45 minutes.
The second half was a different story, with seven of LAFC’s last nine goals coming after the break. Hollingshead got the last of those on Saturday, waving his right arm to attract the attention of Mateusz Bogusz, then running through to a neat feed in the center of the box before slotting in a right-footed shot from Frei.
That was the only shot LAFC got from Frei as the short Sounders, playing in the conference semifinals for the 14th time in 16 seasons, refused to wither. And Chanot got them back into the game nine minutes later, crossing his right foot in front of an Obed Vargas cross that was aimed at no one in particular and deflected into his own goal to score the goal with half an hour to play. to equalize the score.
LAFC then turned up the pressure again, bouncing a pair of shots on target four minutes apart, neither of which really troubled Frei. However, the Seattle goalkeeper was called upon to make an extended one-handed stop of an Aaron Long attempt in the 87th minute to keep the score level.
LAFC did not give up in extra time, putting three more attempts on Frei in the opening twelve minutes and pushing another two just wide of the left post. But once again the Sounders, who played defense most of the night and spent more than an hour without a shot on goal, stooped without breaking to set up Morris’ game winner.
The decisive score came after LAFC’s Ilie Sánchez headed a corner kick into the top of the penalty area. Seattle’s Cristian Roldan knocked the ball back into the box, where LAFC’s Kei Kamara fought in vain against a Seattle defender for the ball, which bounced towards Morris. The Seattle forward turned left to set up his shot before driving a right-footed try just inside the far post, keeping the Sounders undefeated in their last 10 games and sending them to the conference finals for the first time since 2020.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
