2009 Recap: The Sounders were supposed to be terrible in 2009. After all, SJE, TFC and RSL had all been terrible before them as recent MLS newbies. But Sigi Schmidt didn’t want to repeat history, he wanted to make it. So, he built a winning team in his first year (12-7-11). The Sounders didn’t play like guys who had never played together before. In fact, they showed some of the league’s best chemistry. If not for one Ching goal, they could have gone further too.
Top Players: Kasey Keller was amazing in goal (2nd best in MLS with 0.92 GAA), but it was young Freddy Montero (12 goals) who became a huge fan favorite. He was the league’s leading shooter, and he suffered the 2nd most fouls as teams hacked him to pieces to try and stop him. Who was fouled more? Well, Freddie Ljungberg actually led the league, but he drew many via his acting skills. Still, the old Swede showed he still had something left in the tank in ’09.
Symbolic Stats: Seattle was good @ home, but that was to be expected because they had the best 12th man in the league. I am talking about their league leading 30,000 average fan attendance of course. What is surprising though is that they were also the 3rd best team on the road, posting a 5-5-5 record. The only place they didn’t finish near the top of the league was in 1 goal games (6-5). I guess it is fitting then that they were eliminated 1-0 by the Dynamo.
2009 MLS Season Review:
