Seattle Sounders


The Seattle Sounders are two U.S. professional soccer teams based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1994, the men’s team belongs to the USL First Division league. The women’s team, founded in 2000, belongs to the W-League Soccer league. The club has one fan club known as the Emerald City Supporters.

They take their name from the original Seattle Sounders soccer team, which played from 1974 to 1983 in the North American Soccer League. The A-League/USL-1 Sounders have three championships to their credit, winning the league cup in 1995, 1996 and again in 2005. Seattle finished with the best regular season record in the league in 1994 and 2002. The Sounders have numerous division titles and advanced to the league finals in both 2004 and 2005. In 2004 the Sounders lost the championship 2-0 at Montreal. In 2005 Seattle drew the Richmond Kickers 1-1 at Qwest Field before claiming the championship 4-3 in penalty kicks.

The Sounders have played at Qwest Field since 2002. Before this facility was built, the team played at Memorial Stadium. The NASL Sounders franchise also played at Memorial Stadium for its first two seasons before moving to the Kingdome. When the Sounders were "reborn" in 1994 they also played a few home matches at the Tacoma Dome.

More recently the club have played US Open Cup, friendly, USL-1 regular season and playoff matches at the suburban Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, when Qwest Field has not been available.

Source: Answers.com