The Sounders returned home MLS Cup champions, parading an elusive silver trophy through the Seattle streets and a crowd of lime-green-wearing admirers.
The march ran from Westlake Center downtown to the shadow of the Space Needle, where a crowd of thousands listened to forward Clint Dempsey say that now that the Sounders have won one, the 2015 champion Portland Timbers “can’t say (expletive).”
Seattle mayor Ed Murray opened the rally, opining about soccer’s long history in the region before making way for a series of fellow local luminaries.
“Forty years ago, this is where it all began,” Murray said, harkening to the original, North American Soccer League Sounders.