The home regular season finished tonight, and it’s been a great year hasn’t it? Unfortunately for the first 75 minutes or so the Sounders were not at their best, there was little creativity and only one chance worth the name, but how quickly things change in this game.

The headlines will be dominated by two things, a crowd of a little over 64,000 and Keller. The crowd number is unquestionable impressive, it was a terrific atmosphere in the stadium and another landmark in the remarkable story of this team.

San Jose went up shortly before half time. Unsurprisingly it was Chris Wondolowski that got on the end of a nicely weighted through ball that split the defense and really gave Keller little chance.

The second half did not start too well for Seattle, they were still flat and the game started to get away from then a little. First there was a rather contentious moment when Fernandez almost started a fight after giving a San Jose player a kick. A few minutes later Alonso lost his head somewhat when a player perhaps went down a little too easily from one of his challenges.

Just after the hour mark Sigi made the change that made all the difference. Rosales came on for Fucito, who had been totally anonymous tonight. It took a while for Rosales to get into the game, but when he did the difference was clear.

Keller had a huge moment with 20 minutes left, four stand up saves one after the other kept it a one goal game. This was the moment that perhaps turned the game as shortly afterwards the equalizer arrived. It was a beautiful through pass from Rosales to Sammy Ochoa that split the defense and gave the new-boy a fairly straightforward tap in.

With a few minutes left to play the winner went in. It was a through ball from Neagle to Montero just outside the six-yard box. Montero did exactly what you expect him to do and gave the keeper no chance.

It was not a great game tonight, but that was fine as last night Salt Lake dropped points and ensured Seattle could no longer be caught for second in the table. It was good to have Rosales back; his importance to this team was clearly seen tonight.

Sigi and his tactical changes were a large part of this win. On reflection it’s difficult to say it was fully deserved as the team did not play well for long stretches, but that’s football and we’ll take the three points. It’s Chivas away next week to close out the regular season then it’s into the playoffs with the big one waiting to be taken by the team that can put three or four great performances together, dare we dream?

The night finished with a tribute to Kasey Keller. As his 20 year career as a professional football is coming to a close he had a huge game again tonight. We are fortunate to get at least one more chance to see him in action; we’ll all be back in a couple of weeks for the home leg of the playoffs. Hopefully another chapter on the clubs history is written that night as they advance towards to MLS Cup. There is unfinished business to be taken care of in this magical season.

Related articles

• Keller, Rosales, Schmid named finalists for MLS awards (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Injury mars win in Sounders FC’s season finale (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Sounders gift-wrap win for Keller (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Today has just kept on giving and giving…

“It’s not like he eats his boogers all the time…”

Peer to peer mentoring at it’s best.

“She’s got good teeth for a crack whore…”

From an early morning phone call, someone has issues with their sister…

Here are a couple of photos of the world champion from a wonderful weekend in Montreal.

The first car race probably happened when the second car was built and the first one had something to race against. It’s just how it is, people will race anything with a motor. Lawnmowers, Bobcats and the usual range of cars.

One the butts of all jokes is the Robin Reliant. For the non-enlightened it’s a three wheel, one wheel drive, fiberglass bodied deathtrap of a machine, and of course they are raced.

It’s been a fascinating few days. My lawyer is Lorna, and she is a total professional and deals with the more drama filled part of my life. And it’s been interesting, in part because of the way she called what would happen.

There is a lot more about actions and choices made, but I’ll be sharing that at some time.

When this process started Lorna told me to be patient, that the system may take it’s time, but it works. That at the end of this it will all be taken care of. It’s taken a while for me to see it, but today I totally understand what she assured me all that time ago.

Sebastian Vettel finally tied it all up last night in a fascinating Japanese Grand Prix. Lets be clear, it’s been a while since there was anything other than mathematical doubt as to who was going to win the drivers titles this year.

It’s been another compelling season of racing and the comfort of Vettel’s championship, won with four races left, had taken little of the drama away.

The winning margin this year is impressive because both the driver and the team cut out the mistakes. Last year he was clearly the quickest, but errors by both parties cost him points on more than one occasion. This year there was none of that, just a team and driver at their very best.

I can think of only two significant errors this year, and that is remarkable. The last lap mistake in Canada that gave Jenson Button an outstanding win, and a spin in Germany, that’s it.

Nine wins and twelve pole positions in fifteen races is impressive. Yes, there were weekends where he was dominant, but there were others where he had to fight for every point and did so. But wait there’s more, he’s the only driver to have finished every race and what’s more finished every race except for Germany on the podium. That’s impressive.

Perhaps his most dominant weekend was Turkey, it was clear from the Friday times that everyone else was looking at second. Team principal Christian Horner was asked after qualifying by one of the press pack if Vettel had any weakness. He replied, “Yes, when he turned up this weekend he had quite a dodgy haircut.”

It was the same story in Australia, Valencia, Belgium, Italy and a couple of others. Monaco was shaping up to be an outstanding fight to the end before a safety car ruined the spectacle.

Two years ago I was getting on an airplane when there were a couple of minutes left to play and I never found out the result until I got to London. For the 2010 final I was at Royal Brougham Park and the atmosphere was incredible.

Last night I was back at RBP and I think that was the loudest I’ve ever seen the place. From kickoff through to showing the cup off after the final whistle it never stopped.

For a supporter big nights under the lights with something important on the line don’t come along very often, and when they do walking into the stadium feels a little more special. Last night was outstanding. We were treated to two teams that wanted to win the 2011 US Open Cup. No negative tactics from either side, no hanging on for a draw and a referee that let the game flow.

Even better, it was a really good game, and that only added to the night. Either side could have won it. Had Chicago come out on top it would have capped a huge turn around from their awful beginning of the season.

OK, so I’ve missed a couple of months of the view from my window at the beginning of the month, but here is this months. The trees at the back of the house are hanging on (but you’d never know it looking at all the leaves on the deck) better than the ones on the front.

Another week or two and I’m sure the deck will be buried under fallen leaves. I’ve friends that talk wistfully of “sweater weather” and the autumn, I miss summer.