Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Seattle Sounders FC won the U.S. Open Cup by beating Chicago 2-0


SEATTLE— Kasey Keller burst through the door first, dumping a bottle of champagne over the head of coach Sigi Schmid. James Riley and Fredy Montero followed seconds later to douse Schmid — appropriately one bottle of bubbly for each of the three U.S. Open Cup titles the Seattle Sounders FC now owns. Montero collected a loose ball off a corner kick scramble and slid it past Chicago goalkeeper Sean Johnson in the 78th minute, Osvaldo Alonso scored on a breakaway in the final seconds, and the Seattle Sounders FC won the U.S. Open Cup for the third straight year with a 2-0 win over the Fire on Tuesday night. Playing before a record crowd of 35,615 — the largest ever for any game in the competition — Montero was in the perfect position to clean up after Johnson made a diving save on Jeff Parke's header off a corner kick.

Tuesday's victory adds another notch in a monumental few weeks for the Sounders, where they advanced in the CCL, clinched a MLS playoff spot for the third straight season and claimed the Cascadia Cup in their regional rivalry with MLS newcomers Vancouver and Portland. But Keller was quick to point out that Seattle doesn't want the Open Cup to be the only highlight of this season, with the MLS playoffs less than a month away. "We're not done yet. We still have one more very, very important competition left," Keller said.

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