Expansion Sounders headed to playoffs

By STEVE BRISENDINE
STATS MLS Correspondent

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (STATS) – The Seattle Sounders might be the
first MLS expansion team in 11 years to make the playoffs in its
inaugural season, but they still have a long way to go to match
the achievements of the league’s most successful expansion club.

With Saturday night’s 3-2 comeback victory over the Kansas City
Wizards, Seattle joined the 1998 Chicago Fire on the short list
of teams that kept playing after their first regular season.

Chicago won the MLS Cup that year – but Sigi Schmid, who is the
first coach to take three teams to the playoffs and won titles
with the first two, said even making the postseason is more
difficult now.

“The scenario is a lot different than when Chicago did it,” said
Schmid, who led Columbus to last year’s championship and also
coached the Los Angeles Galaxy to the Cup in 2002. “The league
was a lot younger then. I’m proud of our team, I’m proud of what
we’ve done all season, but I still think we can play better
soccer.”

Nate Jaqua capped a high-scoring second half with a 76th-minute
goal to give Seattle (11-7-11) its postseason-clinching win. It
was a shot of redemption for Jaqua, who hit the crossbar in the
first half.

“I felt like if I got another chance, I was going to put it in,”
he said.

Zoltan Hercegfalvi and Josh Wolff scored three minutes apart
early in the second half for Kansas City (8-13-8), putting the
Wizards up 2-1. However, Seattle’s Roger Levesque tied it with a
header in the 69th minute and Jaqua scored the game-winner seven
minutes later.

Freddie Ljungberg drove almost to the endline in the Wizards’
penalty area, then crossed to Jaqua for an easy tap-in from
point-blank range. It was the second assist of the night for
Ljungberg, who also started the sequence that led to Seattle’s
first goal.

“The goal was a tremendous effort by Freddie Ljungberg,” Schmid
said. “The work he did down the line, getting along the end
line, beating two players and getting the ball to Nate, that was
tremendous soccer.”

Even before the loss, Kansas City was eliminated from playoff
contention when Toronto FC beat Real Salt Lake 1-0 earlier
Saturday.

“We played OK tonight,” Wolff said. “We created several chances,
we converted a couple – but on the flip side, we gave away a
couple of really bad goals. We can’t have that happen.”

Tyrone Marshall had a goal and an assist for Seattle. He scored
on a putback from close range in the 28th minute, after Wizards
keeper Kevin Hartman made a diving save on Ljungberg’s bending
corner kick.Then, in the second half, Marshall nodded on another
of Ljungberg’s corners to set up Levesque’s equalizer.

Hercegfalvi, making his first MLS start, scored on an assist
from Michael Harrington in the 51st minute. Wolff made it 2-1 in
the 54th, on a tap-in of Davy Arnaud’s cross.

It was Wolff’s 11th goal of the season, a career high.

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