WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!! Seattle Sounders FC win 2016 MLS Cup, defeating Toronto FC

Break out the blue and green vic­to­ry ban­ners — the MLS Cup is com­ing to Seattle!

After many years of com­ing up short in the play­offs, the Seat­tle Sounders FC have final­ly won it all, defeat­ing Toron­to FC on their home turf in Canada’s largest city to bring home their first cham­pi­onship. It was a hard-earned win — the match was decid­ed by a penal­ty shootout after nei­ther team man­aged to score dur­ing a hun­dred and twen­ty min­utes of reg­u­la­tion and extra time.

The win­ning penal­ty was scored by Roman Tor­res for the Sounders.

As report­ed by ESPNFC, the shootout went like this:

With Toron­to FC shoot­ing first, Jozy Alti­dore opened the shootout with a well-tak­en penal­ty and Sounders sub­sti­tute Brad Evans answered.

Bradley was next and rolled a soft shot too close to the mid­dle of the goal that Frei saved, before Andreas Ivan­schitz put Seat­tle ahead.

Toron­to sub Benoit Chey­rou con­vert­ed, and the teams were back on lev­el terms when Clint Irwin saved Alvaro Fer­nan­dez’s shot.

Will John­son and Drew Moor were next to scored for Toron­to, only for Joevin Jones and Nico­las Lodeiro to answer with pow­er­ful shots.

But Mor­row’s shot hit the under­side of the bar and stayed out, and Tor­res sent his shot down the mid­dle to win the title.

And with that, the Sounders rushed onto the field to cel­e­brate their thrilling victory.

All of us at NPI extend our delight­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to the Sounders on win­ning their first MLS Cup. The Port­land Tim­bers won the title last year, so the cham­pi­onship is stay­ing in Cas­ca­dia — which is fitting.

With today’s win, the Sounders have joined the Sea­hawks, the Storm, and the Son­ics in hav­ing won their league’s cham­pi­onship at least once. The Mariners are now Seat­tle’s only pro­fes­sion­al team nev­er to have won a title.

Let’s hope that changes next year.

Con­grat­u­la­tions again, Sounders! MLS champions!

Reac­tion from elect­ed lead­ers on the Sounders’ victory.…

King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Constantine:

They fought, and they won. Con­grats to the Sounders for bring­ing the MLS Cup to Seat­tle. Our team’s march to the cham­pi­onship was an inspired come­back — from last place to the Championship.

Toron­to played a great match but the Sounders, led by Coach Schmet­zer, had des­tiny on their side.

Fans across the region wel­come the 2016 Sounders in the Parthenon of champs includ­ing the 1979 Super­Son­ics, 1991 Huskies, 2004 and 2010 Storm, and 2013 Sea­hawks. We love you Sounders, we do.