By Dave Zeitlin and Matthew De George
CHESTER, Pa. — On Wednesday night in Houston, the Philadelphia Union will have the opportunity to capture the first trophy in franchise history when they take on the Dynamo in the 2018 U.S. Open Cup final.
But the Union have had other chances to win a title, the first coming four years ago when, against all odds, they rallied around an interim coach, had a slew of wild Open Cup wins and hosted the final of the historic tournament in front of what many agree was their most raucous home crowd ever.
Here’s a detailed look back at the Union’s 2014 U.S. Open Cup run — and what it meant for a young franchise still trying to find its way — through the eyes of the players, coaches and fans who experienced it.
‘A BREATH OF FRESH AIR’
After a promising 2013 season in which several young players had breakout years, the Union bolstered the team in the offseason with the signings of midfielders Maurice Edu, Vincent Nogueira and Cristian Maidana. The Union also selected goalkeeper Andre Blake No. 1 overall in that January’s SuperDraft in Philadelphia, and acquired winger Andrew Wenger early in the 2014 campaign in a trade for Jack McInerney.
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Amobi Okugo, Union defender/midfielder: I felt like 2013 we were right on the cusp of making the playoffs and we didn’t make it. I felt like the 2014 season, we were coming in ready to take that next step. We had a good group of young guys. We just brought Vincent and Mo in to kind of take us over the hump. They really did a good job of stabilizing our midfield and our team with their veteran leadership and big-game experience.
Sheanon Williams, Union defender: That was definitely one of the more memorable seasons going in. There was a lot of excitement.
Michael Lahoud, Union midfielder: It felt like a breath of fresh air. The club was really putting itself out there.
Andrew Wenger, Union winger: That was a fun group to be a part of. We had some good veteran guys, good foreign guys, and a couple of younger guys trying to get into the mix.
But the Union got off to a poor start in 2014 and the club fired manager John Hackworth on June 10 after a 3-7-6 start, with Jim Curtin taking over on an interim basis right before the start of the U.S. Open Cup.
Lahoud: It just felt like we would be in every single game and we would be competing, but we just didn’t have enough in the tank. If there was a way to drop points, we would find that way.
Jim Curtin, Union head coach: I came into the job not the way you want to; John lost his job and that was difficult. But at the same time, you want to grab ahold of something and try not to let it get away. Luckily I had a team at that time that was really willing to fight for me.
Andre Blake, Union goalkeeper: We were on a break — we had like five days off — so I went back to UConn, just to say hello to the guys. And I remember hearing the news that Hack got fired and Jim was going to be the interim. We weren’t doing well, so at the time, I guess they thought they needed a change. I remember Jim coming in and right off the bat, he let us know how important the Open Cup is.
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Maurice Edu, Union midfielder/defender: It was a weird time. The coaching change had just happened, so there was a little confusion. You don’t really know where you stand when something like that happens.
Sebastien Le Toux, Union winger: I think when Jim came in, he kind of changed the team a little bit. He told us he would always play the best team every time. … It was a good thing for everybody to start fresh and not think about what happened before.
Okugo: Fortunately, Jim Curtin was with us for quite a while as an assistant coach. He obviously implemented a couple of different things with tactics and the lineup, but the transition wasn’t too difficult because most of us knew Jim Curtin already. And being a former player himself, he knew what it was like to go through coaching changes so he made sure the transition was smooth and easy for us.
Fabinho, Union defender: Sometimes you lose confidence, and that happened in 2014 in the beginning but I think after Jimmy stepped into head coach, he gave the confidence to us. He hugged every player and said, ‘Only us can change our situation.’ Every player got that responsibility, and we went to the final.
Conor Casey, Union forward: It got near the end of the year and the Open Cup was what we had left to play for. Jim did a wonderful job of keeping the group motivated in the Cup.
Williams: Jim did a good job of getting us refocused after everything had gone down. It was a good way to close the door on something and to look forward to the run that we could have in Open Cup.
Lahoud: He came in at the right time with the start of the Open Cup. It felt like a new season where we thought we had a chance to salvage something.
‘SURVIVE AND ADVANCE’
The Union needed extra time to get by their first two opponents in the tournament, both lower-division sides. In Curtin’s first game in charge, they rallied to beat then-affiliate Harrisburg City, 3-1, on a late game-tying goal from Edu and then two extra-time goals from Wenger. In the next round, Le Toux scored twice, including the game-winning penalty kick in the 115th minute, as the Union scraped by the New York Cosmos, 2-1, in a game marked by ejections and a near-brawl in the final minutes.
Curtin: To say I was fully ready for that experience, I’d be lying. You’re thrown into it and you make the most of it.
Lahoud: Our run to the Open Cup final could’ve ended before it even began.
Okugo: I feel like every game we played had a bit of randomness in it.
Lahoud: Whenever I think of the U.S. Open Cup, I think of (former forward) Antoine Hoppenot. Antoine started saying this phrase, that the Open Cup is not about pretty soccer, it’s about surviving and advancing. We started using the phrase ‘Survive and advance.’
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Edu: I think (Harrisburg) kickstarted everyone a little, gave us a new boost of life and a new belief in what we could accomplish.
Lahoud: We felt like it was the first time we put our foot down and said we’re not going to be the team that succumbs to crumbling when it gets too difficult. It was a huge step of resilience for the team.
Wenger: It was interesting because Harrisburg always had guys who’d come in and train with us. It was guys who saw an opportunity to play and get noticed. They were well up for it. That was hard-nosed. And Cosmos, they’ve always had a chip on their shoulder.
Curtin: There’s still locker room damage from the Cosmos that they left behind after that one. Some holes in the walls.
Lahoud: The Cosmos were getting really chippy and frustrated. I remember being on the field and a guy that I actually have a really good relationship with now, Ayoze, the left back, it was getting pretty heated. I felt like he made a pretty dangerous play on Antoine out of frustration, and I went there to have Antoine’s back and had some choice words for a guy that I didn’t know would be a future teammate. Before I knew it, all hell broke loose. People started pushing and once that skirmish started happening, you just start seeing red. I remember getting punched in the face, someone grabbed my throat. … I never quite got my punch in, but I’m glad I didn’t do that, because I would’ve gotten a longer suspension.
Fabinho: I know they’re a small club, but this club (New York) was always difficult because the kids want to show something for the coach, for everybody. In soccer, this is normal, and that’s why that game was tough because they ran a lot, they fought like crazy.
Le Toux: It brought us even more together as a team, winning like that in extra time.
Williams: It was always pretty entertaining, whether we wanted it to be or not. Some of the games we made a little more exciting than we needed them to be.
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Wenger: Granted, maybe some of those games we shouldn’t have been taking to overtime to win. But when you’re winning exciting games like that, that’s energizing for everyone.
Edu: That confidence became contagious among the group. For whatever reason, it just seemed like when it was the win-or-go-home scenario, we seemed to do better.
Lahoud: After that Cosmos game, it was a turning point in our season and this competition. It was a coming together of sorts for our team. We felt like we had a band-of-brothers kind of mentality. A lot of times we didn’t know how we were going to do it, but we were going to find a way.
THE DUST STORM
In the quarterfinals, the Union made a couple of pieces of history with Le Toux leading Philly past the New England Revolution with his 14th career Open Cup goal, setting the scoring record for the modern era of the tournament (1995-present). Not long after that, the game was delayed for about an hour when a rainstorm rolled through the Union’s stadium with dust flying on the field from the team’s unpaved parking lot. It would go down in club lore as “The Dust Storm.”
Le Toux: I was surprised because I thought I had scored even more goals than that! But it was good to hear and I could put something else on my résumé as a player.
Corey Furlan, Sons of Ben: (Le Toux) was really the first player fans identified with. The guy seems like he’s always in the right place at the right time, specifically in the Open Cup.
Curtin: That (dust storm) stuck with my kids. Now every time they come here they bring that up like, ‘Is there gonna be a dust storm?’ They think it’s just like a regular occurrence, not like an incredible crazy phenomenon. It does get windy down here but that was something I’ve never seen or experienced. The lore of the Open Cup, man.
Furlan: It was almost like a smoke grenade got lit off in the entire stadium because the dust was everywhere and you couldn’t open your eyes. It was absolutely crazy. But everyone turns around and looks at each other like, ‘Well, it wouldn’t be the Open Cup if there wasn’t some ridiculous weather.’
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Williams: It was kind of crazy. You thought there was something going on in the stadium. It just ended up being a dust cloud, I guess.
Wenger: Thankfully the locker room in Philly was really nice so we had plenty of room to lay out and relax. It probably would have been much different being in the away locker room for that delay.
PK SHOOTOUT IN DALLAS
Hitting the road for the first time in the tournament, in the semifinal the Union and FC Dallas battled to a 1-1 draw through regulation and extra time thanks to a rare goal from Okugo on a feed from Le Toux. Goalkeeper Zac MacMath then made two saves in the penalty kick shootout to send Philly to their first final.
Okugo: I think we had a flight problem, we ended up getting there late, it was hot, Dallas was good at home. I think at that point, they were really high in the standings and I feel like no one expected us to beat them.
Lahoud: The game went to extra time, and I felt delusional. I don’t know how I survived that game. I couldn’t tell you who was what, what color we were wearing, but we outlasted Dallas. (Editor’s note: Lahoud had just returned from international duty days before with Sierra Leone, where during the height of the Ebola crisis, he and his teammates were quarantined for a day in the Nairobi, Kenya airport after being denied entry to Seychelles.)
Okugo: They had a lot of good players. Curtin had us set up for their speed and particularly for (Mauro) Diaz in the middle. Me and Lahoud had to always keep an eye on Diaz. For the goal, Seba made a great run like he always does. He crossed it top of the box and I was able to come in with a late run and somehow finish. I think that caught Dallas off guard.
Le Toux: From that point on, we really felt like it was kind of our moment.
Okugo: Zac stood on his head, everyone played well, everyone performed.
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Williams: Zac came up huge in the shootout. That was definitely something that brought us together as a team.
Danny Cruz, former Union winger: It built a lot of character in the locker room, for sure. I do remember running from half field (after the last penalty). You have this sense of, OK, we’re almost there.
Lahoud: It was kind of a coming-of-age game for some of our younger guys. Amobi scored a very good goal. Zac MacMath, so many guys stepped up. Sheanon Williams stepped up in PKs. There was excitement and belief that we could really do something special in the final.
Ray Gaddis, Union defender: We had a great run that year. I played with some exceptional teammates that season for us to get to that final.
Fabinho: I remember I celebrated a lot in the locker room after the game, because the week before game, I don’t think anybody believed we could beat Dallas there. They were doing very well in MLS. Some guys talked shit about us, but never did we lose our belief in our group, in ourselves. That’s why I thought we beat them there.
Curtin: In all Open Cup runs, there are these fine margins where it could have been over several different times. … That was truly a wild run.
Edu: I remember thinking we were going to win (the Cup). There was no doubt in my mind. As soon as we found out we were hosting a final, I was like, ‘Yup, this is it.’
CHEMISTRY ISSUES
Despite the tournament success, there was friction behind the scenes. The Union that summer signed two World Cup veterans in Algerian goalkeeper Rais Mbolhi and Colombian defender Carlos Valdes, the latter returning to Philadelphia after a protracted saga with his Argentine club. MacMath in particular was under pressure, and he raised his play in August to earn the start in the Open Cup final. The usually reserved keeper tweeted veiled criticism of the situation after the Dallas win. Neither move ultimately elevated the club in anywhere near the way ownership had envisioned.
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Lahoud: It was disruptive. The intentions of the club were good and when you have a guy in Carlos that is back from the World Cup, when you have a guy that’s played in two World Cups in Rais, you think, ‘Oh wow, we’re getting upgrades.’ But cohesiveness and chemistry, a team is always bigger than individuals. And yes individuals can make a team better, and when you’re moving that late in a tournament, it was surprising to me that the team was chopped up and new pieces were put in.
Edu: It’s one of those situations that as a player, what can you do about it? At the end of the day, you don’t make those calls. You don’t dictate who plays or who comes into the team or who gets traded. Those are things that are out of our control, so as a professional, you have to have a strong mentality.
Curtin: I know everyone shits on Rais but he was very professional in that moment and saw he was just coming into a team and Zac had done great work for us at the time and made some really big saves and then did great for us in the penalty kicks.
Edu: For a guy like Zac, I’m sure it was difficult. For a younger player who’s playing significant minutes and now or a change to happen when you feel like you’re in a good run of form, of course it’s going to be difficult. But as a team, it was our responsibility to make sure everyone bought in as a team to what we’re trying to accomplish, and that’s what you have to believe in.
Williams: Obviously it was a really tough situation for Zac personally. … As a teammate and somebody that’s known him for a long time, I was happy that they saw fit to start him in the final.
‘I LITERALLY BLACKED OUT’
On a beautiful mid-September night, the Union players walked onto the PPL Park field wearing jerseys in honor of the old Bethlehem Steel franchise that won five U.S. Open Cups in the early 1900s. When the final vs. the Seattle Sounders kicked off, the stadium had a special feel to it.
The scene in the stadium before the final. (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Union)
Sean Doyle, Union season-ticket holder: That was the best. And really nothing probably came close to that in terms of a Union atmosphere in that stadium.
Furlan: One hundred percent (the best atmosphere ever in the stadium). Hands down. Without question.
Cruz: It’s Philly fans. It’s just how they are. … It was a fantastic atmosphere.
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Lahoud: I don’t know the numbers. You could tell me the numbers, but it felt like more people there. … It was electric.
Wenger: That was fabulous. It’s unfortunate we didn’t win because just seeing everybody celebrate afterwards would have been spectacular.
The Union’s starting XI. (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Union)
Chad Barrett, Seattle Sounders forward: We were a little gutted not to have the final in Seattle because we would have had a great turnout. But the turnout in Philly was kind of amazing.
Pedro Ribeiro, Union forward: It was an incredible atmosphere. The fans made the night more special, even though we didn’t get the win. The whole stadium was packed and the fans were amazing.
Doyle: I think it was anticipation. It was a chance to win the trophy, and a chance to win a trophy against Seattle. They were the Cup kings at that point.
Curtin: That Seattle team was stacked. They were really talented.
Lahoud: It was kind of a blue-collar team, which is what Philadelphia epitomizes, vs. the West Coast Hollywooders, the Seattle A-listers.
Barrett: The U.S. Open was a really big deal to Seattle. And we really thought that was the year we were going to win the treble (Open Cup, Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup).
Wenger: We had a little bit of swagger. We were the underdog but we accepted that and tried to make the best of it.
Lahoud: We felt like a team of destiny. And the fact that we were hosting at PPL, the fact that we went to Dallas and did what we did and had the experience of beating a top team in the league, we really believed that we could not just win the game, but that we were going to ball. We owed it not just to the fans, but to ourselves, to the character we’d shown to get that far.
The underdog Union got off to to a great start as Edu electrified the crowd with a goal on a perfect Maidana free kick, giving Philly the halftime lead.
Edu: To score a goal in that game and see the reaction by the fans and see how much it meant to them, to put us ahead, we were playing well, we were confident as a group, I think everyone honestly believed we were going to win this game.
Furlan: When Mo scored that goal, I literally blacked out. I don’t even drink and I blacked out. I jumped so high and stood up and I was four rows behind where I started. And I had no clue how it happened. People were insane. It was just nuts. Absolute pandemonium.
Lahoud: When we scored the first goal, it was like, ‘Oh man, here we go.’ I felt we were going to rout them.
Maurice Edu scores to give the Union a 1-0 lead. (Drew Hallowell / Getty Images)
Barrett: At halftime, I remember (then-Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid) just reaming into us. … Sigi was never one to get that emotional about anything. But obviously a final is going to change that about anybody.
Stefan Frei, Seattle Sounders goalkeeper: I can’t remember exactly what Sigi said at half but I’m sure he lit a fire under our butts. But the credit goes to the veterans that kept us even-keeled and made sure we wouldn’t panic and dig ourselves into an even bigger hole.
Just two minutes into the second half, Barrett tied the game, heading home a rebound in a crowded box after MacMath made the initial save.
Barrett: I kind of scored a trash goal. But it was a really important goal. And the fact that it was in front of the Sons of Ben … I remember holding the finger up to (shush) them because they were just so loud the entire game.
Furlan: I remember (that shushing) and I probably said some things that I can’t repeat.
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Curtin: I say this because he’s a friend … but fucking Chad Barrett. An old teammate comes back to bite you.
Barrett: I’ve always had a lot of respect for Jim Curtin. He was one of the guys who really helped mold me as a professional when I was in Chicago. Jim put together a great strategy and as soon as I scored, he probably was like, ‘Dang, Chad, you ruined everything.’
Wenger: After that, it just kind of became a dogfight.
Jeff Mitchell, Sons of Ben: That night was magic … for about 46 minutes. Once Seattle scored, all of the memories of Joe Carter and Tom Brady came flooding back to bring us back to reality.
‘IT JUST BROKE OUR HEARTS’
In what was probably the starkest sign of the talent gap between the clubs, the Sounders brought in star striker Obafemi Martins off the bench in the 60th minute in place of Barrett. Meanwhile, as the game wore on, Curtin called the numbers of the aging Fred, the untested Ribeiro and the blue-collar Cruz.
Curtin: When you look at the subs they brought off the bench and the subs we brought off the bench, we’ll just say different pay grades.
Barrett: When you have Obafemi coming off the bench, the people that are gonna hate that most are everybody in Philadelphia. It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, we did all this and now we have Obafemi coming in?’ That had to be the worst sight they could have possibly seen.
Frei: That could be a bit of a downer when someone like that is ready to come in.
Wenger: I mean, that guy was probably getting paid more than our entire budget.
Williams: That was something we didn’t have on our bench, for sure.
Edu: To have a guy like Obafemi come off the bench, it made it difficult for us. And we had a couple of chances where we could’ve finished off the game in regulation but we didn’t, so the mountain just got bigger and bigger.
Ribeiro had a chance to be the hero deep into regulation when he helped create a turnover and got into a good position in the box after Gaddis had a shot deflected. But on the rebound attempt, he was denied by Frei from point-blank range.
Ribeiro: I ended up getting the ball right on top of the box on the left side, and I decided to take a first-time shot with the side of my foot, and I didn’t get the best contact on the ball. The ball went to the middle of the goal and I feel like if it had gone a little more wide to the left, the ball would’ve gone in. But since I didn’t hit it as hard as I wanted to, the keeper had time to come back.
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Frei: I was diving but it got blocked by one of our guys and it was kind of laying there so I scrambled back and someone tried to finish it but I was able to clear it off the line.
Curtin: Pedro had a really good chance where you bet your life on his left foot in that moment.
Frei: We had a decent amount of traveling supporters with us and they were going to a bar not too far away from our hotel (after the game). A bunch of the players decided to go there as well. And it just so happened after we walked in, that save was on the TV on ESPN’s Top 10 Plays. That was a special time for the supporters, watching a highlight of me, with me.
Ribeiro: I don’t know if it happened for a reason, but I wanted that ball to go in, because that was probably the winning goal at that point.
With the game still tied, the Union missed another great chance to win it in stoppage time, nearly scoring an incredible game-winner with Nogueira forcing a turnover, combining perfectly with Maidana, beating Frei … and pinging a shot off the post.
Cruz: Oh my gosh, it was almost there. You could taste it.
Curtin: I think everyone in the stadium thought that was in.
Furlan: A half-inch to the right and we win the Open Cup. You gotta be kidding.
Williams: If we score there, I think that closes out the game. I felt like it robbed us of a championship.
Le Toux: I like signs. And when I saw that, I was like, ‘Ugh, this doesn’t look that good.’
Once in extra time, the Sounders’ stars took over with Martins assisting on Clint Dempsey’s go-ahead goal in the 101st minute and then icing the game with a 114th-minute goal to suck the life out of the stadium and crush Philly’s dreams.
Casey: When Clint scored, I thought, ‘OK, we’ve got some work to do.’ And they had so much quality. Bringing Martins off the bench is a pretty great thing to do.
Cruz: When the first goal went in, it was like, ‘Alright, we gotta go, we gotta push for it.’ Then at the end, it was just kind of heartbreak.
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Curtin: We played a really good game. We had a lot of little half-chances we could have scored at the end. Then we got Obafemi’d and Clint Dempsey’d. That was tough.
Ribeiro: Martins’ pace took over the game. … It was two plays that we couldn’t really defend because he had fresh legs and our team was pretty much gassed.
Le Toux: It was very close for us to win after 90 minutes. Going into extra time, everybody was exhausted. I was getting cramps. Everyone was getting cramps. They put Martins in and he was so much faster than all of us, all tired.
Wenger: When everyone’s tired, he can make a difference. And he did.
In a picture that came to epitomize the heartbreak in the stadium, Philly Soccer Page contributor Earl Gardner captured a photo of Sean Doyle’s son, Tim, crying in the stands while the Union remained on the field to collect their second-place medals, watching the Sounders celebrate.
Doyle: That was right before the trophy lift. We came down from out seats in 103 to get as close to the field as we could to clap for the players. It was Dempsey’s goal that really set him off. Then when Obafemi Martins scored, he was just crushed. It surprised everybody. We didn’t expect it. … But we all felt that. We all felt we were so close. Then to have it snatched away, it just broke our hearts.
Williams: As soon as the game’s over, you just want to go to the locker room. To have to sit there and have them go through the whole trophy ceremony is definitely not fun, especially in front of your fans. I couldn’t even tell you where my second-place medal is.
Edu: To ultimately lose that game at home in front of the fans like it did, it definitely hurt. It hurt for all of us.
Tim Doyle after the 2014 Open Cup loss. (Earl Gardner/Philly Soccer Page)
Struck by the photo, Curtin reached out to the Doyle family and sent Tim a signed jersey, a handwritten note and his second-place medal. He also promised to trade him his gold medal whenever the Union win their first U.S. Open Cup.
Doyle: How many kids have a U.S. Open Cup finalist medal hanging in their room? When the Union came into existence, Tim was 8. So he grew up with the team and has cheered them from the beginning.
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Curtin: I’m never proud after losses but that was the one loss I had where I can say honestly to a man every guy literally gave everything that they had.
Wenger: Let me tell you: it sucked. But I felt proud after that game.
Fabinho: After the final, I cried for two days. I woke up in the morning, I said, ‘I don’t believe it.’
Le Toux: Nobody played a bad game. … It was very tough because everybody played their butts off and really gave everything. It was hard to lose in front of our fans.
Doyle: Hopefully I can make that swap with Jimmy. He told us to hold onto his medal until he gets one the right color. So we’ll see.
The Union with their second-place medals. (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Union)
‘NOW THE NEXT STEP IS TO WIN IT’
The Union hoped to use their 2014 Open Cup experience to make a late charge into the playoffs but ended up finishing sixth in the Eastern Conference that season, with the top five teams getting in. But the run did help Curtin get the coaching job on a permanent basis at the end of the season, and he guided the team back to the Open Cup final the following year (where they lost another heartbreaker at home on penalty kicks to Sporting Kansas City) and then to the playoffs in 2016.
Curtin: After the (2014) game when (Schmid) said that Jim Curtin has done a great job with his team and that was a tough game for us and he deserves this job, that was an endorsement that gave me belief and confidence that I belonged as a coach in this league.
Williams: That’s probably what led to Jim getting appointed the full-time job, us getting to the finals. … It was just a good overall run. I know a lot of people didn’t think we could make it that far, especially with the season we were having.
Curtin: I think it builds character, man. It builds character in young players. It toughens even older players. And it’s fun. It’s a great competition. And I really want nothing more to have our fans and our players, most importantly, to have that feeling of what it’s like to lift a trophy. I felt it and you can’t really put it into words.
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Edu: I think it also gave us confidence in the group that we had. We didn’t do so well in the league. There were a lot of things written about us, about the makeup of that team and the changes that needed to happen and this and that, so that was kind of the defining moment for that group to get to that final.
Okugo: To be able to be part of the first group that wins a trophy, you’re going to be forever remembered. We obviously would’ve gone to Champions League the next year and maybe a lot of different things would’ve happened in terms of the structure of the team, the personnel on the team. But when that happens after the year that happened, the coaching change, the loss of a final, things have to change and that’s what happened.
Casey: Whenever you win (a trophy), it builds a culture and it reaffirms a lot of the positive processes that are happening, and it’s something that they can never take away. It’s an incredible feeling, and it’s why you play. And it’s great for clubs.
Wenger: It’s something that I think if we would have won the final, some of the guys on the team would have gotten back together and talked about it in the future. It was a fun group with Jim coming in, just getting his feet wet coaching. It was really special. But you gotta win it at the end of the day to make those memories last forever.
Curtin: Any time you’re playing in a final game, that’s what people talk about, that’s what players live for, that’s what fans want to see. Now the next step is to win it and lift that first trophy.
Top photo: Union defender Ray Gaddis and goalie Zac MacMath can only watch as Sounders forward Clint Dempsey’s shot finds the net in extra time for the go-ahead goal in the 2014 U.S. Open Cup final. (Michael Perez/AP Photo)