Postgame Pontifications: Another agonizing finish

SEATTLE — By most objective metrics, the Seattle Sounders enjoyed a very good regular season. They finished with 57 points and a +16 goal-difference, both the fifth best totals they’ve posted during their 15 MLS seasons. For a second straight season, they had the league’s best defense and bolstered that by scoring 10 more goals than they did a year earlier.

They now head into the playoffs on a seven-game unbeaten run that was part of a 12-2-3 second half of the season.

Given all this, why does it feel like the regular season ended on such a sour note?

In a very literal sense, the 1-1 tie against the Portland Timbers on Saturday wasn’t anything like a disastrous result. Yes, it knocked them down to fourth in the Western Conference and kept them from clinching a spot in Concacaf Champions Cup, but those things can still be fixed. The Sounders’ playoff path is not appreciably more difficult than if they’d finished third and they can still qualify for CCC, either by winning MLS Cup themselves or if one of the eight MLS teams who have already qualified win it.

Even from a momentum standpoint, the Sounders can justifiably look at how they played against the Timbers and find plenty of positives. They largely controlled the match, even after going down a man, and got quality performances from a host of players. Not the least of those was Pedro de la Vega, who had some absolutely electric runs and was agonizingly close to restoring the Sounders’ lead immediately after they surrendered it.

Yet, it was the Timbers who were celebrating, even though the single point didn’t really do them any good in the standings. Part of that was that they won the Cascadia Cup — the three-team regional trophy — courtesy of having scored two more goals than the Sounders over the course of the six games they played against their rivals. But it was also that they had managed to extend their unbeaten streak at Lumen Field to a hard-to-believe 11 games.

The scoreboard may have said it was a tie, but that didn’t mean much to the Sounders.

“I think everyone is super frustrated,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said during the postgame. “This was as good a chance as any to end that streak, certainly with a lively home crowd with the Cascadia Cup on the line. I’m super frustrated about not being able to bring that to our fans. What can I say? The game unfolded in a certain matter, I thought we were in control and it just didn’t end up in our favor. It is a loss. It’s a complete loss.”

That this streak defies almost any logical explanation only seems to make it worse. Prior to the Timbers’ goal, the Sounders held a 12-1 shots advantage and seemed to be firmly in control of the match, looking by far like the team who was more likely to score the next goal. That they didn’t proved to haunt them.

“It sucks in the immediate right after,” Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei said. “We thought we played well. We were playing down two men. But we have to find a second goal. To take advantage of your good play, you have to find a way to put the game away. That’s what hurts the most. We showed good quality. If we play like this, avoid the red, find the second goal, I think we’d be very happy.”

Disappointing as this result was, the Sounders know that they have more and bigger things still left to play for. This is still the team that looked like one of the league’s best over the second half of the season and nothing about their performance against the Timbers should change that perception. They’ve settled on a starting lineup and a rotation, they are as healthy as they’ve been all year, and they have shown an ability to win on the road, which will come in particularly handy now.

The playoff draw isn’t easy by any stretch, but they’ve historically dominated first-round opponent the Houston Dynamo at Lumen Field over the years. LAFC would likely loom in the Western Conference semifinals — a little earlier than they’d prefer — but they were probably going to have face them eventually, regardless.

This is not a lost season, at least not yet. It’s been one filled with some pretty deep lows, but also one in which they seemed to overcome more than their share of adversity.

“There’s a lot of frustration and anger toward some of the things that happened on the field today, but we’ll harness that on the training field,” Frei said. “We’re a little pissed off right now. But once you let off some steam, get back on the training field and harness that in a positive way, I think we have enough veterans to harness that and push it in a positive way.”