American MLS is a league that continues to grow, attracting fans and even those passionate about sports betting.
If you’re part of the team who likes to bet online on football, we advise you to visit the website mightytips. There you will find tips, predictions and much more on the subject. The 2022 MLS season has just begun, and despite losing the first game, the Sounders will battle it out for the top of the leaderboard for the playoffs. Take advantage of the start of the competition to search for the best online new australian bookmakers and also to learn more about the teams. A good game to bet on is Columbus vs Seattle Sounders, an MLS classic.
And if you are or are becoming a fan of Major League Soccer, stay with us, as in today’s article we will tell the story of a club that has risen in recent years. To prepare this content, we enlisted the help of football expert Kate Richardson (see her profile here). Now, without further ado, let’s get to know more about them.
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Foundation
During history, there have been three Seattle sounders and they were all football clubs. The first one was founded in 1974 and played soccer and futsal.
The second one came in 1994, only as a football team. They chose the same name as a way of honoring the former club. This new team played in the former US league for 2 years, where they achieved two championships.
Before the 1996 creation of the actual soccer league, many cities were trying to get a place in it, and Seattle was no different.
Despite having many fans, the absence of an exclusive Soccer field and the inability to get the 10,000 mandatory subscribers to enter the league ruined the possibility of competing at the highest local level. 10 years later, in 2007, they finally got a spot in the Major League.
First Season in the MLS
2009 was their first season in the elite, so they needed to beef up extensively to compete in the Major League. The first step for the one who owns the Seattle Sounders was to sign a manager and the chosen one was Sigi Schmid, who had won two championships so far by that time.
The Sounders got permission to draft all players from the former city team to their current team as long as they weren’t under contract to another franchise, making last season’s MVP, Sébastien Le Toux, the first signing of the year.
They also brought in:
- American international goalkeeper Kasey Keller
- Promising youngster Sanna Nyassi
- Swedish midfielder Freddie Ljungberg
Another source of players was the Expansion Draft, in which each year’s expansion team is allowed to pick one player from each of the teams. There they got to add 10 more players to their squad.
Curious Facts
In 2008, they finally announced what the franchise would be called. Apart from that, we also got to know their shield, which had the Space Needle, the city’s most iconic building.
They chose three colors to represent specific things of the city, just like the forests near and the waterfalls in the East. The new denomination was chosen in an online poll back in May 2008. The initial list didn’t include Sounders, as the founders wanted to go from scratch.
But the public hadn’t accepted the list, so a section was included where fans could write a name. Out of the more than 14k votes, more than 49% included the word Sounders, so it was chosen as the official name. An agreement with Microsoft to sponsor the team for five years for $20 million was also disclosed. As part of the deal, the Xbox logos would show up on the jersey and in the stadium where to watch Seattle sounders.
Best Players & Trophies
Speaking of important players who have worn the Seattle shirt, one name that always comes to fans’ minds is Clint Dempsey.
The American international joined the Sounders in the 2013 season, at a high point in his career, and changed not only the face of the club but also of MLS itself. It was him who made people want to know how to watch Seattle sounders games.
Dempsey is the third leading scorer in the club’s history, behind only Peruvian Raul Ruidiaz and Colombian Fredy Montero – both still play for the team. In terms of caps, the player who scored the most games for Seattle was Cuban Osvaldo Alonso. Uruguayan Nicolas Lodeiro was the one who gave more assists. In terms of titles, they have already managed to add 7 trophies, even though they are considered new.
The most recent was the MLS Cup title in 2019, which was the second in this competition. In addition, they also have a Supporter’s Shield and four US Open Cups.
