Jul 13, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Sounders FC players celebrate following a 2-0 victory against the Portland Timbers at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

As winter falls upon Cascadia, accompanied by the yearly chills, the Seattle Sounders 2014 season has come to an end, yet again too soon. The Sounders’ rivals from the south, LA Galaxy, have once again won the MLS Cup, for an unprecedented fifth time, and the season has ended with a similar flavor to many others for Sounders fans. The end of the season, capped off with losing on away goals to the eventual champions LA, hasn’t brought quite as much angst and upset to the Sounders fanbase, however. This can really be attributed to a set of circumstances that have made the season a resounding success in the eyes of many fans.

Chiefly among these reasons is the fact that the Sounders won a double in 2014. A dramatic extra time victory over Philadelphia Union to secure the US Open Cup and two intense games against LA to end the regular season and secure the Supporters Shield all came in the latter half of the 2014 season, and has left the season in the fond memory of many Sounders fans. Well, fonder than the 2013 season certainly. Prior to this season’s success, the Sounders had never won the Supporters Shield, so there’s a bit of a feeling that they managed to throw a monkey off the team’s collective back in that respect, even though the monkey of never winning the MLS Cup is there and more annoying than ever. Despite that, and ignoring the extended metaphoric monkeys, winning a league-and-cup double in a season is definitely a success for any team (although a treble certainly would have been nice, but alas).

Winning trophies is obviously nice, but the Sounders players themselves can be viewed as a success in 2014. Clint Dempsey, following what can only be described as a miserably disappointing first season with the Sounders in 2013, came back from the winter break and hit the ground running for the Rave Green, scoring 15 goals and bagging 10 assists in 26 games, which is certainly an impressive handful of statistics for Captain America. Dempsey’s forward counterpart, Obafemi Martins, was also in and among the top performers of 2014, not just for the Sounders but for the whole of MLS. Oba even outperformed Dempsey, scoring 17 goals and gathering 13 assists in 31 games, and landed in second place for the Volkswagen MLS MVP award, and won the award for best goal of the season for his sublime chip against the San Jose Earthquakes.

Not all of the Sounders impressive players were sprinting forward in their attack, however. The introduction of Chad Marshall to the back line for the Rave Green changed the Sounders in a way that they had never experienced before. Easily the best central defender to ever play for the Sounders, Chad Marshall commanded the defense and saved his teammates on many, many occasions. Many were skeptical of Marshall when he came in, and why Columbus would be willing to trade him away, but he certainly came good in the end, as he went on to win the 2014 MLS Defender of the Year award.

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