SEATTLE — The Seattle Sounders have been chasing the imaginary Major League Soccer playoff line all season. For the first 29 games of the season, Seattle sat beneath it, starting slow then clawing back only to be tantalizingly denied yet again.
On Wednesday night, with just four matches remaining, they finally caught it.
The Sounders defeated the Chicago Fire 1-0 at CenturyLink Field behind Chad Marshall’s fourth goal of the season and now occupy the Western Conference's sixth and final playoff spot. Seattle has won three games on the trot for just the second time all season and has usurped Cascadia rival Portland, a possibility that two months ago seemed implausible.