The Seattle Sounders reached the CONCACAF Champions League final for the first time, beating New York City FC 4-2 on aggregate in the two-leg semifinal.
The second leg of the semifinal matchup between the Major League Soccer teams ended 1-1 on Wednesday night thanks in large part to a memorable performance on goal by Seattle’s Stefan Frei.
“It’s a trophy that the club certainly covets,” Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer said of winning the Champions League.
“I think that is something that we have made public. … The constant theme throughout this club, the culture of the club is to win every game, every trophy in a competition.”
Raúl Ruidíaz scored in the first half to give Seattle a needed away goal and a three-goal lead on aggregate. Santiago Rodríguez scored early in the second half for the reigning MLS Cup champions, but NYCFC was able to get another shot past Frei.
“I think we created enough to score at least three goals, but their goalkeeper was amazing today,” said NYCFC head coach Ronny Deila.
The Seattle goalie was credited with seven saves, most of them in the final 25 minutes as NYCFC desperately pushed for goals.
“Sometimes teams throw the kitchen sink at him. I think a bathtub was thrown at him today,” Frei said. “But we were able to resist.”
Seattle will face LigaMX’s Pumas in a two-game final looking to be the first MLS team to win the title under its current format. The Sounders are the fifth MLS team to reach the final under the current format joining Real Salt Lake (2011), CF Montreal (2015), Toronto FC (2018) and LAFC (2020).
The first leg will be played in Mexico City in late April and Seattle will host the second leg in early May.
The Sounders led 3-1 after last week’s semifinal first leg in Seattle. Albert Rusnak, Jordan Morris and Nicolas Lodeiro scored for Seattle in the first leg, while Thiago Martins scored a key road goal for NYCFC.
But Frei was the star in Seattle’s second leg. Frei made three significant saves in a 10-minute span midway through the second half. He denied Martins with a header in the 63rd minute. Frei finished Talles Mango’s shot over the crossbar in the 68th minute and five minutes later made a spectacular save to prevent Mango from going wide after a perfect pass from Valentin Castellanos.
NYCFC also fired a corner kick in the 75th minute with a header that was saved by Seattle defender Kelyn Rowe’s back.
Seattle got the road goal it needed in the first half from Ruidiaz in the 28th minute. Ruidiaz had yet to score in any competition this season for Seattle.
Rodriguez scored in the opening minutes of the second half moments after NYCFC fired two shots off the Seattle goalpost.
“I was very proud of the players. I think they did everything except put the ball in the net more,” said Deila.
