LOS ANGELES — Although Los Angeles F.C. had the best regular season in Major League Soccer history, the two-year-old club will not get a chance to play for the title.
Instead, the tough, tested Seattle Sounders — a team that seems to go deep in the postseason almost every year — will have that chance after a comprehensive display of postseason grit and guile in the Western Conference final.
Nicolás Lodeiro scored a goal and assisted on two more by Raúl Ruidíaz, and the Sounders advanced to the M.L.S. Cup final for the third time in four years with a 3-1 victory over L.A.F.C. on Tuesday night.
Ruidíaz and Lodeiro scored four minutes apart in the first half to lead the Sounders, who held the likely M.L.S. most valuable player Carlos Vela to one shot.
While Los Angeles has a raucous stadium and a thrilling style of play, the Sounders have years of playoff experience, and on Tuesday Seattle’s veterans pushed, shoved and carried themselves back to the one-game final. The Sounders won the league title in 2016 and lost to Toronto F.C. in 2017.
Seattle will either host Toronto or visit defending champion Atlanta United in the M.L.S. Cup final next Sunday, Nov. 10. The Eastern Conference final is Wednesday night.
“The many times that we’ve been to M.L.S. Cup now has been off grit, has been off not playing pretty,” Seattle midfielder Cristian Roldan said. “It’s been off winning in different ways.
“Today we won in a different way. We locked down on defense. We scored on our few opportunities. In other games, maybe we would play pretty. But we knew it was going to be a tough opponent away from home. We adjusted accordingly.”
Seattle slowed down L.A.F.C., the most potent offensive team in M.L.S. history, with physical defense, sometimes on the edge of legality. The Sounders committed 12 fouls and appeared to get away with two handballs in their penalty area, but L.A.F.C. failed to capitalize on any of its meager chances after Eduard Atuesta scored on a free kick in the opening minutes to give the hosts an early lead.
Lodeiro joyously carried the conference trophy back to the visitors’ locker room at Banc of California Stadium after an on-field celebration that was drowned out by the singing of the L.A.F.C. fans.
Los Angeles set league records for points, goals and goal differential during the long regular season, and then beat the crosstown Galaxy, 5-3, last Thursday to earn its first playoff victory.
But Seattle largely kept the ball away from Vela, who followed up his record 34-goal regular season with two goals against the Galaxy last week. Diego Rossi, another key contributor to his team’s success on offense all year, was barely a factor, too, managing only two shots.
“Nobody expected this end for our season,” Vela said. “But we know in the playoffs, it’s one game, and if they make better plays than you, you’re out. In the end, I think we have to be proud with how we’ve done all year, and we have to learn. We have just two years as a club. We have things to improve.”
Lodeiro followed up his outstanding performance against Real Salt Lake in the conference semifinal with another dominant offensive game. A 30-year-old Uruguayan, he set up Ruidíaz’s goal and then scored his own in a blistering sequence late in the first half.
Ruidíaz made it 3-1 in the 64th minute when Lodeiro stole an attempted clearance and fed him for a beautiful shot past Tyler Miller, a former Sounders backup goalkeeper. Ruidíaz, the 5-foot-7 Peruvian forward, now has six goals in five career M.L.S. postseason games.
He also has a chance for more. L.A.F.C. does not.
“If we play this game 10 times, we probably win nine out of 10,” L.A.F.C. midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye said. “But playoffs are just different.”
Source : NYtimes
