A group of Sounders FC players gathered at Chad Marshall’s house last Sunday to watch the LA Galaxy face FC Dallas, a match that would have a major impact on playoff seeding in the Western Conference. Dallas helped Seattle with its 2-1 victory, but the Sounders know their objective of winning the Supporters’ Shield remains a challenging task.
For one, Sunday’s clash between Seattle and LA will be the final regular-season match at the StubHub Center for Landon Donovan. The All-Star forward announced he would retire at the end of this season after a storied career in MLS and with the U.S. National Team.
Donovan and his LA teammates will be going all out for one final victory in front of an expected sellout crowd at the StubHub Center.
“With Landon announcing his retirement, it’s just another rallying point for them as a team,” Sounders FC Head Coach Sigi Schmid said. “But we can’t let that bother us from that standpoint. Obviously Landon has been a fantastic player for our league, a fantastic player for the country…so we want him to go out on good terms. But we want to go out on our terms as well.”
Regardless of how the Galaxy fares this weekend and in the playoffs, Donovan will retire as arguably the best player in MLS history. His 144 goals and 136 assists are both league records, and Donovan is tied for the most MLS Cups won by an individual with five.
When the Sounders hosted LA in July, Donovan made his presence felt with a goal and two assists in his team’s 3-0 win.
Seattle is focused in training this week to make sure that doesn’t happen again on Sunday.
“We’ve got to contain him,” Marshall said. “We’ve got to know where he likes to pop up and try and limit that.”
“I think with this being his last game, and then you’ve got the Supporters’ Shield on top of that, it’s only going to add to it. Both teams are going to come out with high intensity, wanting to win.”
If the Sounders win on Sunday, the Supporters’ Shield will be theirs for the first time in six years of MLS play. LA could still finish with the same amount of points after the regular-season finale at CenturyLink Field, but Seattle would have clinched more total wins, the first tiebreaker for playoff seeding.
A victory this weekend would also preserve Seattle’s chance at becoming the first club to achieve the treble of a U.S. Open Cup title, Supporters’ Shield, and MLS Cup in the same year.
On an emotional night at the StubHub Center, the Sounders will need a strong performance to conquer Donovan and the Galaxy.
“If this was going to be my last year, I’m going to put everything into it,” Sounders FC captain Brad Evans said. “He’ll be going gung ho.”
