Ryan and I took Ziya and Sennet to the last regular season Sounders match tonight. They opened up the whole stadium and were expecting over 53,000 to show up.

We played Real Salt Lake, and the playoffs – for us – were on the line: win and we’re in. Draw or lose, and we would need a lot of help.

 Apparently the Sounders decided they didn’t want to rely on anyone else – so they scored three goals in the first twenty minutes: Clint Dempsey at five minutes, Marco Pappa at ten, and Dempsey again just before twenty. We let one get past us in the 77th minute and the game ended 3-1.

The kids had a blast, Ryan and I both enjoyed the rout, and the Sounders clinched the playoffs. Which they’ve now done every single year since their founding in 2009.

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Post script: looks like we’ll be facing LA this Wednesday night, at home, for the first round of the playoffs. Of course it’s the Galaxy, who usually seem to have our number…

We got the 4th seed and would host all games except against the Red Bulls or Crew if we make it to the MLS Cup.

PPS: I just read that the attendance tonight was 55,435! That gives the Sounders a new MLS average attendance record of 44,245/match for the year! That average puts us ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea, and would put us in 3rd place in all of Serie A, 3rd place in Ligue 1, 4th place in La Liga, and 5th place in the Premier League! Also ranks us at number 28 in the world. (Our lowest attended match this year was 35,175 – which is still higher than 98.1% of all the MLS games played outside of Seattle). Seattle also has a league record 124 consecutive sell-outs at Century Link Field.