MLS Cup preview: Seattle to cement dynasty or Columbus winning at home? Predictions, tactics, more

It stands to reason that Columbus will need to be even more judicious in terms of when full-backs Harrison Afful and Milton Valenzuela push forward. The last thing the Crew want to do is expose themselves to the possibility of Jordan Morris, Joevin Jones and Nicolas Lodeiro running wild on the break. In fact, a defend-and-counter approach from the Crew, utilizing the speed of Derrick Etienne Jr. and Luis Diaz along with playmaker Lucas Zelarayan, might be just the thing to break down Seattle's defense.

Set pieces could also be a factor. Seattle tied for second in the league in scoring from such plays (0.50 per game), while the Crew were the best in the league at defending them (only 0.11 set piece goals allowed per game).

Seattle, meanwhile, has the luxury of being adaptable to most any situation. They can be deadly in transition through the likes of Morris and forward Raul Ruidiaz, but they can also control the tempo through Cristian Roldan and Joao Paulo. That duo are also capable of destroying a team's attack if that's necessary. All of this is designed to free up Lodeiro and allow him to show off his creativity.

It stands to reason that like much of the match against Minnesota, Seattle will dictate terms. So long as they can blunt the impact of Afful and Valenzuela, as well as Zelarayan and forward Gyasi Zardes, the Sounders should be successful. -- Jeff Carlisle

Seattle are one win from a dynasty. Just don't say it out loud

It hasn't gotten to the point where the word "dynasty" is taboo in the Seattle Sounders' locker room, but ahead of Saturday's MLS Cup final against the Columbus Crew, it's a topic that players, coaches and executives would just as soon avoid.

Winger Jordan Morris said, "We're trying to push that [talk] off to the side," while manager Brian Schmetzer added, "I'm trying to tamp it down a bit."

But there's no denying that such discussions are surrounding the Sounders for a reason. A win on Saturday would give them a third MLS Cup title in five seasons, which would certainly put them in the conversation with some of the best teams in the league's history.

A look into the Wayback Machine reveals the dominance of D.C. United in MLS' early years, with three MLS Cups, a U.S. Open Cup and two Supporters' Shields in four seasons. There was the "Stealth Dynasty" that was the San Jose Earthquakes and Houston Dynamo in the early to mid-2000s, where the same core of players won four MLS Cups and a Supporters' Shield over the course of seven seasons. All of this was achieved despite relocation. That was followed by the glory years of the LA Galaxy, who won three MLS Cups and two Supporters' Shields from 2010 to '14.

In terms of pure numbers, Seattle is still a tad short of those teams, even if you throw in the Supporters' Shield and U.S. Open Cup double the team won in 2014. That sentiment is shared by the Sounders camp as well. "I don't think there's any point in having the conversation unless we win on Saturday," Sounders GM Garth Lagerwey said of the dynasty talk.

Players like midfielder Cristian Roldan are of similar mind. "I don't think dynasties win 50% of the MLS Cup final games that they've been in. A dynasty has to win the majority of them," he said. "We certainly embrace being at the top and we want to continue in that fashion."

Each era has its own challenges, however. D.C. United and the Quakes/Dynamo dynasties took place in the pre-Designated Player days, when teams were largely built through the draft and astute mining of the foreign market. The Galaxy were the first to really exploit the DP rule to the fullest extent, with the likes of Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane and, of course, the namesake of the DP rule, David Beckham.

Even though it's only been six years since the last of the Galaxy's titles, Seattle seems to be operating in a different league these days. The spending and international scouting is much more robust, and the advent of academies means teams are taking more and more responsibility for developing their own players. The increased investment in infrastructure (be it in stadiums, training sites or support staff) has been massive too, though there are some common threads that run through all of the league's dynasties.

To a large degree, there was stability in the front office and coaching ranks, which in turn allowed a core group of players to be assembled. Seattle has certainly had that in its MLS iteration. Adrian Hanauer has owned the team from the beginning, and there have been but two head coaches in Schmetzer and Sigi Schmid, two GMs in Hanauer and Lagerwey.

All of which raises the question: Does winning beget stability, or is it the other way around?

Schmetzer comes down firmly on the side of stability giving an organization a better chance of winning, and given his tenure with the Sounders as a player, assistant coach and manager, he would know. It doesn't take much for Schmetzer to trace the progression from the USL days all the way through its move to MLS, dropping in names like Leighton O'Brien and Roger Levesque and Zach Scott and connecting them to Kasey Keller and Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins.

Those connections extend beyond the first team, from smart and ambitious owners all the way down to the fans. In between there are sharp executives, like sporting director Chris Henderson and director of soccer analytics Ravi Ramineni, making the kind of decisions that perpetuate a team's run of success.