Seattle Sounders forward Raul Ruidiazi’s brace was the difference maker as the Rave Green clinched the 2018 Cascadia Cup title with a 2- 1win over the Vancouver Whitecaps Saturday night in BC Place. It was the first time the Rave Green claimed the trophy since 2015. Seattle now has five Cascadia Cup titles on shy of the Whitecaps six.
The Cascadia Cup is a regional trophy that was started in 2004 by supporter groups from the Portland Timbers ( Timbers Army), the Seattle Sounders ( Emerald City Supporters) and the Vancouver Whitecaps ( Southsiders). The win by the Sounders extended their MLS best unbeaten streak to nine consecutive games. Seattle is unbeaten in its last 12 matches and is just one tie or victory of the equaling the club record of 13.
Here are sights and sounds from the Sounders trophy-clinching win.
POST GAME QUOTES
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC
HEAD COACH CARL ROBINSON
On the match:
“I think sometimes in football you don’t get what you deserve, I thought that’s what I saw today, I thought we were the better team. I’m not avoiding the fact Seattle have got fantastic players and they punished us with two mistakes of ours early on. Yes, we got ourselves in a hole but we should have been ahead prior to that, we should have got back into the game but the boys kept going, the character was unbelievable and I don’t think we got anything out of the game. We should have won that game today and we lost it and we have to accept it and we will. It’s not great, it’s not ideal, it’s disappointing against a rival but I can’t ask them to do anything more other than put the ball in the back of the net and maybe not play square balls across the edge of the box.”
On mistakes in the match:
“The games are won in both boxes, that’s why the boys at the top are paid the big bucks, you hear that all the time. We got into some wonderful areas and our final pass was over-hit or under-hit or we made the wrong decision and that’s what happens. It doesn’t matter how much possession you have in the world, it’s what you do in both boxes. The first 20 minutes we didn’t do our details correctly, we lost our runner on the first goal which was a pullback and then the second goal we played a square goal to a top, top forward and he scored. We dug ourselves a hole last time we played Seattle and we’ve done it again and this time we weren’t able to get out.”
On Levis’ error:
“He doesn’t need [to explain it]. I just said to him there, as young players you’ll make mistakes and when you make mistakes it’s important you don’t go under. He had a little wobble but he didn’t go under which is really important. I’ll speak to him on Tuesday, maybe he didn’t see the player but when you’re a centre forward like Raul [Ruidiaz] who sniffs out every little square pass and every little opportunity to score, unfortunately Brett was the one who made the pass. He’ll make more of them as he goes along in his career.”
CENTRE BACK KENDALL WASTON
On how he’s feeling:
“Upset, because we wanted to win, needed to win. But football is like this, and now we just have six more games that hopefully we can try to do everything possible to get in the playoffs.”
On what it will take in the final six games:
“The only thing that matters is that we can run, we can play good or whatever, but at the end what matters is that we need to win, and at the end to get in the playoffs. That is the most important thing here.”
On how hard it will be to get in the playoffs:
“It’s always going to be hard, it’s never going to be easy.”
On what head coach Carl Robinson said about the performance:
“He told us he felt proud. We fight until the end, we never give up. We want to get in the playoffs because of the coaches. They have given us all the tools during the week to have all the information possible to play against Seattle or any other teams. Since we are with them they have given us great things, so hopefully we can get in the playoffs for them.”
