Rantz: Now is the time to become a Sounders fan

Soccer is the world’s most popular sport and the Seattle Sounders consistently see 40,000 blue and green clad fans filing into CenturyLink Field for home games. And yet, there are still plenty of people who know little to nothing about, arguably, Seattle’s best sports team.

Well, there’s no better time to learn than the present.

For anyone not paying attention, the Sounders are moving onto the MLS Cup finals (i.e. the Super Bowl of Major League Soccer) for the first time ever. Seattle’s Cinderella season continued this month as the team tore through FC Dallas in the first round of the playoffs and the team finished off Colorado Rapids Sunday with a 1-0 win.

Sounders…. win!!!!!!!! We’re headed to the MLS CUP!!!!! #THISMOMENT #COLvSEA pic.twitter.com/8cxZxn4cXJ

— (((Jason Rantz))) (@jasonrantz) November 27, 2016

KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz, who is the voice of the Sounders’ pre/postgame shows and host of Sounders FC Weekly (Thursday nights at 9 p.m. on KIRO), says there is nothing wrong with jumping aboard the championship train now.

“Bandwagon fans are important if you want to keep growing a sport,” he said. “Everyone at some point will start off as a bandwagon fan. I embrace bandwagon fans because I’m convinced if you go to a game, whatever your motivation, you’ll love it and become an evangelist.”

So, if you’re completely new to all this but would like to communicate with the millennials and/or the thousands of Seattle soccer fans, here is a cheat sheet:

Sounders basics

• The Sounders have consistently been one of the MLS’s best teams since entering the league in 2007.

• Games at CenturyLink are rowdy — like chanting and dancing in the stands the whole game.

• Paul Allen and Drew Carey are minority owners of the team.

• Season ticket-holders – who make up the Seattle Sounders Alliance — get to vote every four years about whether or not to fire the general manager.

• There are three different MLS trophies each year. Seattle has won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup three times in a row. They’ve won four US Open Cup titles. This is their first-ever trip to the MLS Cup Finals.

Bring it home, boys! #ThisMoment pic.twitter.com/RryKa9ftRF

— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) November 28, 2016

The 2016 season

• It has been insane. After a 3-0 loss near the end of July, the team had a 6-12-2 record. So they fired their first and only head coach, Sigi Schmid, and brought in interim coach Brian Schmetzer. They added a Uruguayan player named Nicolas Lodeiro. And, voila, they go from the bottom of the barrel, to the MLS Cup.

• Forward Jordan Morris, homegrown from Mercer Island, is the fresh face of the MLS and was named 2016 Rookie of the Year. He is playing with a hamstring injury and was bed-ridden with the flu up to two days before Sunday’s game, which he won by scoring the day’s only goal.

• This all happened without the team’s best-known superstar, Clint Dempsey, who has been out for months because of a heart issue.

Jason Rantz’s advice

• Own your bandwagon-dom. There’s no shame in telling people that you’re really excited for Seattle and want to be part of the winning culture.

• We are all Montreal Impact fans this week. The Impact plays Toronto on Wednesday for the Eastern Conference Championship. If Montreal wins, the MLS Cup will be hosted Dec. 10 at CenturyLink, because the top-seeded team of the two winners gets the home game.

• If you can, go to the game. Soccer is not part of the typical American sports culture yet. It’s not football or baseball. Some people will incorrectly say it’s too slow. It’s a strategic game, yes, and that makes it great. Once you’re there, once you experience it live, it all makes sense.

• Looking for something easy to say at the water cooler? Try this: “Brian Schmetzer represents the heart and soul of the Sounders.”

A Rave Green madhouse at the airport. Amazing. You guys are amazing. #Sounders 💚 pic.twitter.com/q9qY9bgldG

— Alex Caulfield (@Alex_Caulfield) November 28, 2016

Follow @http://twitter.com/Mynorthwest