Photo credit: Max Aquino
As soon as we clinched the Western Conference Championship and another trip to Toronto for MLS Cup, we knew what we had to do. Going on the road in a hostile stadium against a team looking to avenge their 2016 MLS Cup loss, the Sounders were going to have to defend together. To defend our cup would require all of us, whether we played, supported in BMO Field's rafters or watched from home. For those who couldn't travel, we carried them with us on the back of the "SOUNDERS" banner. We united together in defense of our cup and gave it our best effort, but we came up short.
The 2018 season is right around the corner. Practice starts in January, Champions League starts in February, MLS starts in March, Open Cup starts in June, and MLS Cup wraps it all up in December. To get back to the top, we must remember:
We are all Sounders.
We fight for each other.
We win together.
Display stats:
The 3 text banners were 10' tall and totaled 120' wide.
Every seat in the away section had a flag, over 1100 total.
The display was transported over 2000 miles from Seattle to Toronto, with other gear arriving from around the country thanks to our regional subgroups.
The SOUNDERS banner was signed by innumerable Sounders fans and supporters throughout the week, either for themselves or family and friends who would travel to Toronto with us in that way.
As with the display from the previous round, this was inspired by Brian Schmetzer’s emotional letter. We love the message he shared and we wanted to include everyone in this display. With over 6400 flags throughout the Brougham End, we showed that we are all Sounders, fighting together to defend our MLS Cup. Whether you're on the field, in the stands or watching from around the world, you're part of this!
The 3 text banners are each 10' tall and 100' wide, and our ECS Tifo team produced this in 2 nights. The 6400 flags is the most we've used in a display, our volunteers set them all up in about 90 minutes. If you're interested in getting involved in producing, setting up, or deploying tifo, let us know here!
Photo Credit: Joe Towner / PNWMF
At the start of the 2017 playoffs, Sounders fans were read a letter by Head Coach Brian Schmetzer about the defense of our 2016 MLS Cup Championship. This resonated with us, so for our first home playoff match we joined the Sounders lineup announcement with a large text banner celebrating the words coach shared with us.
Photo Credit: Max Aquino Photography
Once again we find ourselves nearing the end of a roller-coaster season. The past season has been full of ups and downs. The future is uncertain. But one thing has been constant. A force that drives every chant, every pogo, every extra ounce of passion in our hearts- our players have time and time again shown us their worth, and it’s about more than just kicking a ball around a field. They embody values that we as supporters connect to on a fundamental level. It’s what makes soccer so universally relatable and what makes the Seattle Sounders so special.
Photo credit Joe Towner / PNWMF
The Brougham Cathedral display celebrates the values that we see our boys live for day in and day out, both on and off the field. We’ve chosen seven players that demonstrate what it means to be a Sounder, each personifying a particular value in his own way. These are our patron saints that we look to in times of struggle and lift up in thanks in times of glory. Our love for them, for all of the Sounders, is deep and profound - a love that only the gods can understand!
For this display we constructed curtains that span 7 sections, a text overhead in GA and 7500 cards covering the Brougham End, including the 300 level, to frame our image. This expansion in footprint makes this the largest choreo in ECS history! All of this was produced in 12 days by our 100% volunteer choreo production team, totaling about 500 hours of hard labor.
Tifo projects like this aren’t possible without the help of our volunteers and we’d love your help. For more information and email updates on how to help, check the tifo production box on our volunteer form and follow ECSTifo on twitter.
Photo Credit Max Aquino Photo
Reference photo credits for design: Dean Rutz (Ozzie), Lindsey Wasson (Frei, Nico), Charis Wilson (Dempsey), Ted S. Warren (Jordan, Cristian), Dan Poss (Jones)
For the Cascadia Cup match against Vancouver on September 27th, we brought back a tifo medium we hadn't used in years: small colored flags! We used these to create a Cascadia flag the size of the ECS section both pre-game and at times throughout the match when our capos called for it!
Photo Credit: Joe Towner / PNWMF