Lumen Field rises near the shores of Seattle’s Elliott Bay like a concrete citadel.
In years past, the 68,000-seat stadium, home to Seattle’s professional football and soccer teams, has answered to Qwest Field, CenturyLink Field and Seahawks Stadium. Whatever its name, it has become a house of horrors for Southern California’s professional soccer teams, all of which have struggled on its plastic grass and in its rainy, bone-chilling climate come playoff time.
Only once in seven tries has an L.A. team won a postseason game there — and that win came 13 years ago. Since then, the Galaxy, LAFC and Angel City have seen at least one season buried in the mausoleum by the bay.
They aren’t the only teams that have gone winless in Seattle: The Sounders are unbeaten in their last 19 home playoff games, equaling the longest streak in MLS history, and haven’t lost in Seattle in 15 postseason matches under coach Brian Schmetzer. That’s the history LAFC will be looking to buck Sunday when it meets the Sounders in the MLS Western Conference semifinals on Lumen Field’s slick artificial turf.
“The stats sound pretty ominous,” Schmetzer said. “But I don’t know. Sports are cyclical.”
Not in Seattle, where the Sounders have lost only two of 26 playoff games all time. Only the Galaxy, who have been in MLS twice as long, have more postseason wins or a better playoff winning percentage at home (minimum three games played).
LAFC has faced the Sounders only twice in the playoffs, once at home and once on the road, losing both times. While that’s a small sample size, LAFC hasn’t done much better in Seattle in the regular season with its only victory there coming in the first game in franchise history in 2018. LAFC is 0-4-3 in Seattle since then.
If history favors the Sounders, the present is a toss-up. In Sunday’s playoff game, LAFC will send its unstoppable force, MVP finalist Denis Bouanga, the league’s leading scorer with 20 goals, against Seattle’s immovable object, goalkeeper Stefan Frei, who gave up an MLS-low 28 goals and led the league with a 0.88 goals-against average and 14…