Chris Eylander came up empty when the all-league teams were announced last

week.

But he came up big on Sunday night to help the Seattle Sounders get back

into the USL First Division championship game.

Eylander saved two of Puerto Rico’s four tries in the penalty-kick shootout

-- the first one and the last one -- to help the Sounders win the

tiebreaker, 4-2, in front of 3,107 fans at Starfire Sports Complex in

Tukwila.

Seattle thus finally got over the top in the semifinal series. Puerto Rico

won the regulation 90-minute second leg on Sunday, 1-0, to tie the aggregate

score at 2-2 following the Sounders’ 2-1 victory in Bayamon in Game 1 on

Friday.

That forced 30 minutes of series overtime. It ended deadlocked at 1-1, as

the Islanders answered the Sounders’ 10th-minute goal with one of their own

late in the 27th minute.

The Sounders, who lost the title game 2-0 at Montreal in 2004, but beat

Richmond in penalty kicks at Seattle in 2005, will take on the Atlanta

Silverbacks for the crown on Saturday at Starfire. Atlanta also had to go to

penalty kicks on Sunday at Portland. The Silverbacks beat the Timbers in the

tiebreaker 3-1, after the teams played 120 minutes of scoreless soccer,

leaving their aggregate deadlocked at 1-1.

Tickets for the finals will go on sale this morning through the Sounders.

Prices are $25 for grandstand seating and $20 for bleachers. The game time

had not yet been determined as of Sunday night.

The Sounders will be going for their fourth league title. Seattle won

back-to-back championships in what then was known as the A-League in 1995

and ’96 before taking it all again in 2005.

The Sounders, who won the coin toss and elected to go first, in the

tiebreaker converted all four of their penalty kicks. Greg Howes, a late

second-half sub who scored Seattle‘s overtiime goal, drilled his into the

upper left corner, and Eylander responded moments later by diving to his

left to save Atiano Taiwo’s try.

The teams matched efforts in the next two rounds. Leighton O’Brien scored

for Seattle, then Gregory Simmonds answered for Puerto Rico. Hugo

Alcaraz-Cuellar made it 3-1 for Seattle, and Victor Herrera, who scored the

late ovetime goal that brought on the penalty kicks, answered for the

Islanders.

Andre Schmid went to the back right corner for a 4-2 Sounders lead, leaving

them with two chances to clinch it: an Eylander save, or a conversion on

their next try.

Seattle never needed that final kick. With Lars Lyssand on the penalty spot,

Eylander -- who led the league in wins with 14 and saves with 109, but still

was denied an all-league position -- dove to his right and went to the

ground to stop the shot.

The Sounders were less than 10 minutes away from taking care of business in

regulation time, as they were deadlocked 0-0 with the Islanders but still

had that 2-1 aggregate lead.

But on a counterattack, Puerto Rico‘s. Noah Delgado, who subbed into the

game in the 55th minute, went down the right wing side. Almost on the goal

line, he cross the ball on the ground into the box, where Alberto Delgado, a

69th-minute sub, one-timed it past Eylander into the back right corner at

80:07.

That made necessary the 30 minuets of series overtime. The Sounders needed

less than 10 minutes of the first 15-minute session to get on the board .

Kenji Treschuk, who scored the game-winning goal Friday at Puerto Rico,

gained control of the ball between the center line and the goal line on the

left side. He pushed it ahead to Roger Levesque, who was on the attacking

left side of the penalty area. Levesque crossed it into the box, and Howes

ran onto it at the top of the 6-yard box and drilled it into the left

corner.

With a little more than three minutes left in overtime, Puerto Rico’s

Herrera had a free kick about 35 yards up from the goal line on the right

side. He floated it into traffic on Eylander’s front porch, and the ball

dropped into the left side at 26:48 of OT.

The Sounders and Islanders both had near-misses earlier in the second half.

In the 56th minute, Seattle’s Kevin Sakuda had the ball just outside the

6-yard box on the left side. He sent a shot toward the top shelf, only to

see it slapped away at the last possible instant by Puerto Rico goalkeeper

Josh Saunders.

About four minutes later, the Islander had a chance. A loose ball on

Eylander’s front porch wound up at the feet of Atiano Taiwo. Eylander

reacted just in time to nock it away.

While both teams created some opportunities during a somewhat

rough-and-tumble first half, neither the Sounders nor the Islanders

dominated the run of play for long stretches of time. (Puerto Rico had a

12-7 advantage in shots.)

Midway through the 14th minute, Sebastien LeToux went down the right-wing

side and crossed the ball into the box, where Roger Levesue was waiting.

Levesque wasn’t able to position to get off a shot himself, but he got the

ball out to Leighton O’Brien at the top of the arc for a shot that went over

the top.

The Sounders had a corner kick from the attacking right side near the end of

the 37th minute. Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar found Taylor Graham with the kick, but

Graham’s header from near the top left corner of the box hit the ground and

bounced over the top.

Puerto Rico manufactured two dangerous shots inside the last five minute of

the half, both of them hard blasts for forward Willia Sims. His first try

was a 16-yard shallow-angle shot from the inside the box on the right side,

but it zipped just beyond the far post.

Then, 90 seconds later, Sims ripped a 30-yarder from the right side that

also went wide of the left post.

Islanders 1, Sounders 0

Second leg

First half -- None.

Second half -- 1, PR: Alberto Delgado, from Noah Delgado, 81st minute.

Shots -- PR 21, Sea 14. Saves -- PR (Josh Saunders) 3, Sea (Chris Eylander)

6. Corner kicks -- PR 3, Sea 2. Offsides -- PR 3, Sea 1. Fouls -- PR 14, Sea

4. Cautions -- PR: Willie Sims, 9th minute; Taiwo, 9th; A. Delgado, 81st.

Sounders 1, Islanders 1

Overtime; Sounders win PK tiebreaker, 4-2

First OT -- 1, Sea: Greg Howes, from Roger Levesque, 10th minute.

Second OT -- 2, PR: Victor Herrera, unassisted, 27th.

Shots -- PR 3, Sea 3. Saves -- PR (Josh Saunders) 0. Sea (Chris Eylander) 0.

Corner kicks -- PR 1, Sea 0. Offsides -- PR 0, Sea 1. Fouls -- PR 5, Sea 3.

Penalty kicks -- PR: Atiano Taiwo saved, Gregory Simmons goal, Victor

Herrera goal, Lars Lyssand saved. Sea: Howes goal, Leighton O‘Brien goal,

Hugo Alcaraz-Cueller goal, Andre Schmid goal.

Attendance -- 3,107.