Seattle’s knockout-round opponent allowed Frei to answer for a mistake made all the way back on the first night of this season.
The irresistible narrative of Nelson Valdez breaking his 364-day goal drought just in time to head the Sounders into the Western Conference semis understandably dominated the aftermath of Seattle’s dramatic 1-0 win over Kansas City on Thursday at CenturyLink Field.
Valdez’s 88th-minute goal will go down as, if not one of the indelible moments in recent Seattle soccer history, than certainly one of the most improbable. And yet there was another Sounder who also deserves credit for delaying the offseason for at least another week-and-a-half.