Sidebar

21
Thu, Nov

Typography

Joevin Jones could culminate a memorable season on Saturday night by going from worst to first in just 12 months.

That would happen if his Seattle Sounders defeat host Toronto FC in the MLS Cup final at BMO Field.

Last year, the Trinidad & Tobago defender played for the Chicago Fire, which finished with the poorest record of all 20 Major League Soccer clubs.  He was traded by Chicago to Seattle in January and has enjoyed one of his most memorable campaigns.

"I'm excited to be in the finals because not many players get to be in the final," Jones said Friday.  "Obviously, I am in a bigger team.  No disrespect to Chicago.  We are a better team than Chicago."

The Sounders have never won a First Division championship in the United States, although it has captured the Lamar Hunt/U.S. Open Cup four times.

If Seattle winds up as champion, it would be a fourth league title for the 25-year-old Jones, who won two TT Pro League championships with DirecTV W Connection in his native country and with HJK Helsinki (Finland) in 2014.

"It would mean a lot to me and the fans," expressed Jones.  "The fans have been waiting a long while to lift the MLS Cup.  Once you win it, it's for them, it's for the fans."

Seattle endured a bumpy stretch during the season in which it fired long-time head coach Sigi Schmid and replaced him with assistant Brian Schmetzer.  The Sounders went 6-1-1 in their final eight regular-season matches to clinch a playoff berth while registering an impressive 4-1 mark thus far in the postseason.

"We were going through a patch that we went through a losing streak," Jones noted.  "We turned it around the last three-four months right into the playoffs.  I'm very happy."

In addition to the MLS crown, with a win, the Sounders will qualify for the 2017/18 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League.