Season Finale – Seattle Sounders 2-0 LA Galaxy
In front of an energized crowd of 57,673 at CenturyLink Field, Seattle Sounders FC (20-10-4, 64 points) topped the Los Angeles Galaxy (18-9-14, 61 points) by a score of 2-0 to claim the 2014 MLS Supporters’ Shield. The Supporters’ Shield, introduced by organized fan groups, is awarded annually to the supporters of the team with the best regular-season record in MLS.
LA Galaxy – Landon Donovan: “We can’t play a whole lot better than that. If I’m not mistaken, I think they had three shots? Four? Up until the goal [by Marco Pappa in the 85th minute], you would have thought that they were never going to score”.
“Give them credit. They made a play that made the difference, but I think we’re OK with the way we played,” he continued. “We just needed to find a goal, and that let us down today. Overall, an excellent performance, and, obviously, results matter — it’s hard to lose — but I think we can be confident with how we’re playing going forward.”
But that being said, we played very well tonight, and if we play like that in the playoffs, there’s a good chance we’re going to be holding the trophy by the end.”
Seattle Sounders – Clint Dempsey:“To me, if you look around at other leagues, when you win the league it’s a big deal. And that’s how we’re going to treat it, as a big deal. No matter what the public thinks of it, we were the best team throughout the course of the year.”
“Our mantra for this season was that we were going to try and be greedy. “We have one more thing [the MLS Cup] to be the ultimate greedy people. We’ll enjoy it today and tomorrow. Then it’s back to work.”
Seattle coach Schmid:“The Shield is another feather in the cap of our organization. People forget that we’re still a very young organization. We’re six years in and we’ve won four Open Cups and a Supporters’ Shield.”
Thanks to two late goals from substitute Marco Pappa, Seattle wrapped-up the Supporters’ Shield with a home record of 12-4-1 throughout 2014. Sounders FC’s first strike came in the 85th minute, as Obafemi Martins received a give-and-go pass from Clint Dempsey off a quick free-kick, drawing two Galaxy defenders at the top of the 18-yard-box. Martins passed a through ball down the left side, which was handled by a streaking Pappa and placed into the back of LA’s net.
With his 13th assist of 2014, Martins has now tied the club’s single-season assist record. Martins’ 13 helpers combine with his club-record 17 goals in a single campaign, as the Nigerian continues to make his case for the 2014 Volkswagen MLS Most Valuable Player Award. Sounders FC is 14-2-3 in matches when Martins records either a goal or an assist.
Pappa completed his brace in the 90th minute, finishing a loose ball past Galaxy goalkeeper Jaime Penedo to seal the victory in front of Seattle’s raucous home support. The strike was Pappa’s sixth goal of the season.
LA Galaxy outshot Sounders FC 13-4, as Seattle’s goalkeeper Stefan Frei tallied four saves. The physical match included 40 fouls (21 conceded by LA Galaxy, 19 conceded by Sounders FC) and three yellow cards on each side.
Finally Alan Gordon who subbed in for the LA Galaxy at the 82th is a poor forward lacking talent, missing two clear chances when the Galaxy were down 1-0.
