- [Narrator] It's December 10th, 2016.
We're in Toronto, Canada
where the MLS cup final between Toronto FC
and the Seattle Sounders is tied in the 108th minute.
Although, that might be about to change
as Toronto's Jozy Altidore
soars to meet a cross from Tosaint Ricketts.
Before Altidore delivers
a potential championship winning header,
we should recall the paths that converged on this moment.
And meet the people who will dictate its critical outcome.
We'll need to rewind.
(Rewinder Theme)
Before we get to this scoring chance,
you'll notice that deep into extra time
the ball has yet to find net.
You could have watched an entire Richard Linklater
movie without missing a goal.
That's probably got something to do with
these sleeves, and these gloves,
and these fans dressed for tobogganing.
It's cold as fuck out here.
It is, after all, Toronto in the middle of December,
this particular circumstance doesn't have much precedent.
Toronto FC formed before the 2007 MLS season,
typical of an expansion team,
TFC failed to reach the post-season
for their first eight years of existence.
They played their first playoff game last season in Montreal
and took a swift knockout blow from the rival Impact.
To date, this building, BMO Field
has hosted exactly one playoff game,
that was in 2010 back when
MLS hosted its cup final at neutral sites,
Super Bowl style.
And I will note that that match between
Colorado and Dallas was in November,
at a relatively balmy 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
Since then, MLS has pushed the playoffs
later in the calendar,
and pushed its championship cup
to the home stadium of the finalist with the better record.
So yeah, here we are.
It's dropped to 23 degrees Fahrenheit,
or -5 Celsius
with an extra blast of wind chill off Lake Ontario
right next door.
Brutal soccer conditions.
Although, survivors of the 20 degree,
2013 cup in Kansas city
would have me remind you this isn't the coldest one ever,
but this frigid occasion is a joyous one.
After all, Toronto could win a cup final at home
after nine years
without even hosting their own playoff game.
Clearly, this was a special season,
it didn't always seem that way.
Toronto solidified its core and reached playoff caliber
thanks to some big 2015 transfers.
That's when Jozy Altidore came on board.
After a teenaged pro debut in MLS,
the American striker had played abroad for nearly a decade.
Altidore received plenty of offers to stay in Europe,
but his USMNT pal, Michael Bradley,
helped convince him to give Toronto a try
and Italian playmaker Sebastian Giovinco
brought Toronto even more firepower.
Giovinco's 23 goals won him the 2015 MLS Golden Boot
and League MVP,
and helped carry Toronto
to that first ever cup playoff break.
But, despite some additions on defense,
this season looked like a step backward.
In March and April, BMO field was under construction,
increasing capacity to over 30,000 fans,
among other improvements.
But when home reopened in May,
the club's performance
wasn't exactly earning maximum attendance.
A string of poor results sunk Toronto
in the Eastern Conference table.
The injury bug found Altidore, then Giovinco,
then Bradley too,
and Toronto fans genuinely feared a missed post-season.
But Altidore returned in late July
and so did Toronto's juice.
Altidore scoring commanded a blistering month of August,
with only one loss.
a feisty, controversial 1-0 defeat against the despised
Montreal Impact.
Even with some spottier late season results,
TFC had enough momentum for their best ever finish and
return to the playoffs.
In the knockout round here in Toronto,
Altidore put the icing on the Red's
first ever playoff victory,
by salvaging this kind of missed connection with Giovinco.
In leg one of the conference semifinal
against NYC FC, Altidore was the first to break through.
Right place, right time to clean up a mess.
Toronto, one to nil.
In the second leg, at Yankee stadium.
Another Jozy goal helped Toronto
absolutely wreck shit to advance with ease,
but then came the final boss in the east.
The Impact, a fierce Canadian flavored
conference final, like spicy maple syrup.
Is that a thing? Spicy maple syrup?
(beeps)
Oh wow, that is a thing, I bet that's good.
Anyway, the conference finals started horribly for Toronto,
not long after halftime of the first leg in Montreal,
the Reds stare down a three nil deficit.
To salvage some hopes of advancing,
Toronto had to make up ground before heading home.
And Altidore was the first to push things in that direction.
With this nifty header in a similar position to where we
find him right now.
Minutes later, Michael Bradley added another away goal,
but Toronto still returned home needing
to win in front of their massive crowd.
Their tiebreaker, away goals, slipped away pretty quickly.
Altidore's noggin struck yet again to make the score
two-one in the first half,
but Montreal squirted in a second away goal
soon after the break,
Nick Haglund headed in the extra goal Toronto needed.
So, regular time finished with a dead even aggregate score.
Someone would have to blow this thing open in extra time.
And Toronto did it first with another well-placed fire head.
And then with national hero, Tosaint Ricketts
taking a slide on the slick patch.
This building absolutely erupted.
(crowd cheering) - [Commentator] It's
Tosaint Ricketts!
Finalists.
And you will note, the thread
tying all those games together.
Josie Altidore scored in each playoff match.
He's the top goal scorer in these cup playoffs
with five balls in the net.
Obviously, Altidore hasn't given us his regular goal
yet today.
He had a chance almost instantly after kickoff,
but missed wide, and 90 minutes later,
he very nearly got his head on this deflected corner
before the keeper punched it away.
Early in extra time,
Benoit Cheyrou had Altidore to his right,
but took the shot himself, and that, too got stopped.
So this perfect cross from Ricketts,
represents Altidore and Toronto's
chance to finally break through.
Jozy can keep his
streak alive, and probably secure a title for these 36,000
home fans with one more well-placed header.
But before we see that,
we ought to explain the other half of this story
and this double bagel scoreline, superficially similar,
but quite different beneath the surface.
Over the years,
Seattle has been home to three men's soccer teams called the
Sounders.
This latest one joined an expanding MLS,
just a couple of seasons after Toronto.
Unlike their current co-finalist,
Seattle hit the ground running.
Every year they've existed,
the Sounders have made the playoffs,
and every year they've made the playoffs,
the Sounders have flamed out.
Before today, Seattle hadn't even played in a cup final.
Their most brutal shortfall happened not long ago in 2014.
One of the highest scoring teams in MLS had a shot
at an unprecedented treble.
They won the cross league US Open Cup.
They won the supporters' shield by topping
the regular season league table,
and they needed to advance past the equally dangerous,
LA galaxy to get a shot at perfection.
But Seattle failed to score
in the away leg of the conference final,
then failed to score enough at home.
Their best season ever ended with a fizzle.
And that was just the beginning of the slide.
2015 brought a ridiculous volume and variety
of devastating injury related absences,
including offensive stars like Obafemi Martins
and Clint Dempsey.
This was also the season Dempsey drew a long
US Open cup suspension,
effectively a lifetime ban from that competition,
for shredding a referee's notebook.
Weird season.
And this season started even worse
with centerpiece Obafemi Martins forcing his way
out of MLS entirely.
On the field, Seattle opened with a whimper
and kept plummeting into the summer.
By the end of July,
the Sounders sat near the very bottom
of the Western conference.
Well on pace for their first ever losing record,
it got bad enough that the Sounders felt compelled
to pull the plug on the only manager
they'd ever known, Sigi Schmid was fired,
and his longtime assistant, Seattle fixture,
Brian Schmetzer stepped up interim.
Around the same time, Seattle acquired midfielder,
Nicholas Lodeiro who helped the Sounders finally pile some
points on that sorry record.
The rally lost some steam when a heart condition
pulled Dempsey off the field for the rest of the year.
But, thanks to Lodeiro and outstanding rookie,
Jordan Maurice, the Sounders kept cooking
and climbed back into playoff contention.
It went so well that Schmetzer earned
the full-time job at season's end.
And after Nelson Valdez's 88th minute header got Seattle
past a tense knockout stage versus KC,
Lodeiro scored just enough to carry the Sounders
through the rest of the playoffs.
Especially without Dempsey,
this is not the high scoring side we've seen in prior years.
They've gotten here with defense and terrific timing.
Although, this match is really stretching.
Here is a genuinely astounding number for you,
108 minutes into the MLS cup,
Seattle has zero shots on goal, none.
And we've seen little to suggest they've got one coming,
especially with Eric Freeburg and Valdez
subbed off for injuries.
Seattle's only prayer of stealing this championship
with zero shots on goal,
is surviving the next dozen or so minutes
unscathed to break a tie with penalty kicks.
But Altidore's in mid air with a
great chance to ruin that plan.
Only one man can stop him.
So, let's meet the goalkeeper.
Stefan Frei.
Born in Switzerland and educated at Cal,
Frei joined MLS as a member of the other team.
Toronto drafted Frei in the 2009 MLS super draft.
Frei immediately became the Red's regular keeper
and held his starting spot for three solid seasons.
But injuries pulled Frei away from the field
and lost him his regular starting job.
After missing the whole 2012 season,
recovering from surgery,
Frei expected to reclaim his role in 2013,
but broke his nose in a fuckin' preseason game
at Disney World.
And while recovering from that
lost his regular starting job yet again.
It just wasn't working.
So, before the 2014 season, Toronto traded Frei
for a draft pick,
to the Sounders where he immediately took over
as one of the league's premier goalkeepers,
Frye has been a rock for Seattle ever since.
Although, this time last year he was front
and center for their playoff heartbreak.
In the 2015 post season,
Seattle got revenge on LA to advance out
of the knockout round, then beat FC Dallas,
2-1 in the home leg of the conference semifinal.
So all the Sounders had to do in the second leg was
force a draw.
And in stoppage time, they were well on their way,
aggregate lead intact.
But, when a late corner skittered through a crowd
then back toward goal, Frei could do nothing
but freeze and watch it float past.
Frei couldn't stop FC Dallas and penalties,
and another Sounders playoff run went down the drain.
But that didn't break Frei's stride this season.
He anchored an improved defense with eight clean sheets
in the regular season, then followed that
with three more in the five playoff matches before today,
including revenge against FC Dallas.
Obviously, that has continued tonight
and with no margin for error,
Frei has had to deliver a perfect,
MVP caliber performance for Seattle to have any prayer
of surviving their utter lack of productive scoring chances.
But, keeping that prayer alive, isn't looking probable,
not with Jozy Altidore in perfect position to score
for Toronto like he has in every match, this postseason.
All but cementing a victory in this slog of a match,
and a first ever title for these 36,000 frigid fans.
Stefan Frei is the last line of defense
against his former team.
Stuck in a tough spot, like he was at the end
of last season's disappointing finish.
To maintain Seattle's chances of ending their
long streak of heartbreak,
Frei will have to create magic out of thin air.
Welcome to a moment in history.
- [Commentator] Now across Altidore.
What a save by Frei!
Wow!
- [Narrator] And I won't leave you hanging,
that incredible save gave us penalties,
and penalties gave us a new unlikely champion.
Behind MVP, Stefan Frei.