Sounders
Sounders hang on to win the West

By Steve Ewen
Special to The Seattle Times

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VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Vancouver Whitecaps carried the play last night. The Seattle Sounders, however, are the ones carrying on.

The Sounders, thanks to the sparkling play of goalkeeper Preston Burpo, withstood an offensive charge by the Whitecaps in a 1-1 draw to win the Western Conference final and reach the A-League championship game.

Seattle took a 2-1 aggregate win in the home-and-home total-goals series. It had won Game 1 1-0 on Friday.

The Sounders' celebration was tempered, however, by the second-half ejection of Brazilian forward Welton after collecting two yellow cards. The yellow cards make Welton ineligible for the Sounders' next game, the championship contest Saturday against the Montreal Impact.

"I'm just drained," Burpo said after last night's game, in which his team was outshot 22-8. "I don't know if anybody is keeping possession stats, but I think it was probably 65-35 in favor of them.

"They (Vancouver) were solid tonight. We did know that was going to be the case coming in. They're a good team and they're so tough here."

The Whitecaps dominated the first 20 minutes of the game so much that Burpo may have been the only Seattle player to touch the ball during that time.

He was stealing the show, though, with big plays like punching away a dangerous low drive by Vancouver's Jason Jordan in the second minute of the game and an indirect free kick by John Sulentic in the 12th.

Vancouver finally broke through in the 18th minute, as Jordan volleyed a Carlo Corazzin pass to himself, spun around and blasted a high shot home. The Whitecaps kept coming after that, with Burpo tipping away a cross from Dave Morris in the 23rd minute and punching away a Jordan shot in the 33rd.
 
It looked like Vancouver was well on its way to a win. Then, suddenly, it all changed.

Seattle made one of its few forays into Vancouver territory in the 43rd minute. A Welton header was blocked by defender Geordie Lyall, and the rebound came out to an unchecked Jason Farrell at the top of the box. He hammered it past Whitecaps goaltender Mike Franks, and suddenly the Sounders had life.

"A little luck," Burpo said with a smile. "But that's the way this season has been going the past few weeks. We will take it."

Vancouver made another push in the second half and caught a break when Welton was ejected in the 72nd minute.

The Sounders' leading scorer picked up a yellow card in the 69th minute, then got another three minutes later for taking too much time coming off the field on a substitution.

Farrell was sitting on the field injured at the time, and Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer argued that the game was already stopped because of that.

After he was tossed, Welton went bonkers, firing obscene gestures toward sideline official Kevin Duliba and the Vancouver bench before being ushered into the dressing room.

Once the game resumed, Burpo was up to the task once more, highlighted by him getting his hands up on a Lyall chance from point-blank range in injury time.

"Burpo was great tonight," said Vancouver midfielder Martin Nash. "We know that he's an excellent keeper.

"He made some excellent saves and he got lucky, too, with some shots going just (to the) side. But he's a presence in there, and that may be why those shots go wide."

The only disappointing part on the night for Seattle was Welton's situation.

Schmetzer said he planned to appeal the ejection to the league in hopes of having Welton on the field against Montreal, which beat the Syracuse Salty Dogs in the Eastern Conference final by a 3-1 aggregate score.

"I'm going to appeal it because he (referee Tiger Lui) just cheated Welton out of a chance to play in the final," Schmetzer said. "It's unfair to Welton."

Sounders 1, Whitecaps 1 (Scoring summary — Seattle, Farrell; Van, Jordan (Corazzin). Shots — Seattle: 8, Van: 22. Saves — Seattle: (Burpo 4); Van (Franks 3). Fouls — Seattle: 15; Van: 8. Offsides — Seattle: 4; Van: 1. Corner kicks — Seattle: 4; Van: 9.)