Sounders
Sounders fall in A-League title game

By Sean Farrell
Special to The Seattle Times

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

MONTREAL — The Sounders' amazing playoff run was knocked off the rails by a devastating Impact in Montreal.

Seattle's dreams of its first A-League soccer championship since 1996 came up one win short last night as the Sounders fell 2-0 to the Montreal Impact in the league's title game before an overflow crowd of 13,648 at Claude Robillard Stadium.

"The playoff run was great up until today," Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said. "As a soccer guy, not as a Seattle Sounder, I just have to say today they played better than us."

Montreal defender Mauricio Vincello scored in the 33rd minute and Freddie Commodore added a second-half goal in the 79th minute, just moments after Craig Tomlinson narrowly missed drawing Seattle even with a drive off the crossbar.

"They scored that first goal and we weren't able to recover," Schmetzer said. "We had a lot of individual performances that weren't as good as they could have been, and it was a deserved victory."

Tomlinson's chance was by far the best one for the Sounders, who had two shots against league MVP goalkeeper Greg Sutton in the first half.

Veteran Sounders midfielder Jason Farrell had the second shot, a scoring opportunity just before halftime that Sutton pounced on to protect Montreal's one-goal lead.

"It was fun to make it this far," said Farrell, the only remaining link to the Sounders' back-to-back championship teams in 1995 and 1996. "We kind of exceeded everybody's expectations, probably even our own, but you never want to lose. You never want to lose in the championship game, but we lost to a better team tonight, so it's definitely bittersweet."

Farrell played his final professional game along with midfielder Darren Sawatzky. Both players had announced they would retire following the season.
 
"It hurts," Sawatzky said. "I'm going to go home and hug my kids and hug my wife, sit down and not think about soccer for a few days."

The Sounders, playing without suspended leading scorer Welton, had little to challenge Montreal's stifling defense. Vincello scored with a left-footed shot into the right side in the first half, and Commodore put the game out of reach when he finished off a passing play with Sandro Grande and Nevio Pizzolitto.

Sounders goalkeeper Preston Burpo, who made an outstanding save on Ze Roberto's header 18 minutes in, had little chance to stop either goal.

"You've got to congratulate them," Impact coach Nick DeSantis said about the Sounders' playoff run. "They sneaked into the playoffs, and they had a good run. They're a hard-working team and they fought hard."

The Sounders' deep run provided little consolation to Schmetzer as he stood outside Seattle's dressing room, well within earshot of the victor.

"Nobody likes to lose, and nobody likes to lose in a final," he said.