Major League Soccer outfit Seattle Sounders will be one of five teams from the Concacaf region to take part in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025\u2122, which will be held in the USA.<\/p>\n
Read on to find out more about the first team from the US to qualify for the tournament, with details on how they punched their ticket to the global showpiece, their history and the club’s iconic players.<\/p>\n
How they qualified
\nSeattle Sounders earned their place in the Club World Cup with a victory over Mexican side Pumas in the 2022 Concacaf Champions Cup final, claiming one of Concacaf\u2019s four allocated berths.<\/p>\n
The Sounders fought back from a 2-0 deficit to claim a 2-2 draw in the first leg in Mexico, before goals from Raul Ruidiaz and Nicolas Lodeiro secured a 3-0 victory in the second leg and a 5-2 win on aggregate. It marked Seattle\u2019s first Concacaf club crown and the first by a team from the USA in 22 years.<\/p>\n
Club history
\nWhile the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer were founded in 2007 and played their first season in 2009, the history of the team spans five decades. The club’s original founding dates back to 1974, when they formed part of the North American Soccer League until 1983.<\/p>\n
Another iteration of the Sounders came to pass in 1994 in the American Professional Soccer League, which was later renamed the A-League. The club later participated in the United Soccer League between 2005 and 2008 before their entrance into Major League Soccer in 2009.
\nSince joining Major League Soccer, the Sounders have enjoyed unbridled success with U.S. Open Cup triumphs in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2014, an MLS Supporters\u2019 Shield trophy in 2014 for having the best overall record during the regular season, MLS Cup titles in 2016 and 2019 and the coveted Concacaf Champions Cup crown in 2022.<\/p>\n
Iconic players
\nOsvaldo Alonso
\nThe Sounders made the MLS Cup playoffs in their first ten seasons, and that record was indebted to the presence of Alonso. The hard-nosed defensive midfielder from Cuba was an anchor in the centre of the park for Seattle, beginning with the team\u2019s first season in MLS in 2009 through to 2018.
\nAlonso finished his Sounders career with 339 appearances across all competitions and was a prominent figure in winning six trophies, including Seattle\u2019s first MLS Cup title in 2016.<\/p>\n
Nicolas Lodeiro
\nFrom the middle of the 2016 season until the end of 2023, Lodeiro served as Seattle\u2019s wizard in the attacking third, combining pinpoint, surgical, passing with a penchant for finding the back of the net. Lodeiro\u2019s arrival in late July 2016 was the catalyst for the team\u2019s run to the 2016 MLS Cup title, as he scored four goals in the postseason.
\nThe Uruguayan also contributed an assist in Seattle\u2019s victory over Toronto FC in the 2019 MLS Cup final. However, his finest moment was in the 2022 Concacaf Champions Cup final when he supplied three goals in Seattle\u2019s 5-2 aggregate victory over Mexican side Pumas. Lodeiro departed the club having made 191 appearances and amassing 80 assists.<\/p>\n
Stefan Frei
\nThe Switzerland-born goalkeeper landed in Seattle ahead of the 2014 season and, at 38, remains a crucial figure to this day for the Sounders, having accrued more than 350 matches in goal. Seattle\u2019s first MLS Cup title in 2016 would not have been possible without the heroics of Frei, who made one of the best saves in MLS Cup final history by denying a Jozy Altidore header for Toronto FC.
\nFive-and-a-half years later, Frei would come through again when the stakes were highest, recording a clean sheet to help Seattle claim a 3-0 win against Pumas in the second leg of the 2022 Concacaf Champions Cup final. The reliable keeper also ended up pocketing the tournament\u2019s Best Player Award for his efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Major League Soccer outfit Seattle Sounders will be one of five teams from the Concacaf region to take part in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025\u2122, which will be held in the USA. Read on to find out more about the first team from the US to qualify for the tournament, with details on how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":994545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-994544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=994544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/994545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=994544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=994544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=994544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}