List of Tacoma Defiance seasons

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The Tacoma Defiance are an American soccer team based in Tukwila, Washington, part of the Seattle metropolitan area. They compete in the Western Conference of MLS Next Pro, a third-division men's league, as the reserve team of Major League Soccer (MLS) club Seattle Sounders FC.[1] The team, originally named Seattle Sounders FC 2 (S2), were established in 2014 as part of an agreement between MLS and the United Soccer League (USL) to host reserve teams in the second-division league (later renamed the USL Championship). The Sounders previously had a reserve team in the MLS Reserve League from 2011 to 2014.[2] S2 played at Starfire Stadium in Tukwila, the training facility for the Sounders, beginning in the 2015 season.[3]

A soccer field viewed from behind the goal with a small covered grandstand in the background.
Starfire Stadium is the home venue of the Tacoma Defiance.

S2 were relocated in 2018 to Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington, after the Tacoma Rainiers baseball team were also added to the ownership group a year earlier. The team was then renamed to the Defiance in 2019.[4] The MLS–USL agreement was terminated in 2021 and the Defiance were moved the following season into MLS Next Pro, a new third-division league for reserve teams.[5] The team also moved back to Starfire Stadium in Tukwila due to scheduling conflicts with the baseball season and the abandonment of plans to build a soccer-specific stadium with National Women's Soccer League club OL Reign.[6][7]

The regular season for MLS Next Pro clubs has 28 matches and runs for 30 weeks from March to October; the league does not have draws and instead has tied matches proceed into a penalty shootout to decide the result.[8] Teams earn three points for a win, two points for a shootout win, one point for a shootout loss, and no points for a loss.[9] The top eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs, a single-elimination knockout tournament that decides the season's champion. The higher-seeded team in each round hosts the match and, if applicable, picks from the remaining opponents in the lower seeds.[10]

In addition to league play, MLS Next Pro clubs can participate in the U.S. Open Cup, an annual knockout tournament organized by the United States Soccer Federation that is open to all eligible teams in the country. In their inaugural season, S2 advanced to the fourth round of the 2015 U.S. Open Cup and were eliminated in the same round as their parent team.[11] From 2016 to 2023, reserve teams that were owned by another participant in a higher division were barred from participating in the U.S. Open Cup; the policy was reversed after MLS withdrew most of its teams from the competition in 2024.[12][13] As of 2025, MLS clubs that qualified for continental competitions are able to instead send their MLS Next Pro team to represent them in the U.S. Open Cup.[13]

Key

Key to competitions

Seasons

More information Season, League ...
Results of Tacoma Defiance league and cup competitions by season
Season League Position Playoffs USOCTooltip U.S. Open Cup Top goalscorer(s)[18][a] Refs.
Div League Pld W SW[b] L D[c] GF GA GD Pts PPGTooltip Points per game Conf. Overall Player(s) Goals
2015 2 USL 28 13 — 12 3 45 42 +3 42 1.50 6th 9th R1 R4 Pablo Rossi 11 [19][20]
2016 2 USL 30 9 — 13 8 35 50 −15 35 1.17 12th 20th DNQ DNE Darwin Jones 7 [19][21]
2017 2 USL 32 9 — 19 4 42 61 −19 31 0.97 12th 26th DNQ DNE Zach Mathers 11 [19][22]
2018 2 USL 34 6 — 21 7 40 71 −31 25 0.74 16th 30th DNQ DNE David Estrada 11 [19][23]
2019 2 USLC 34 8 — 19 7 42 82 −40 31 0.91 17th 33rd DNQ DNE Justin Dhillon 12 [19][24]
2020 2 USLC 16[d] 4 — 10 2 25 32 −7 14 0.88 12th 26th DNQ NH[e] Alec Díaz 6 [19][27]
2021 2 USLC 32 10 — 13 9 37 41 −4 39 1.22 11th 21st DNQ NH[e] Samuel Adeniran 13 [19][28]
2022 3[f] MLSNP 24 14 3 6 4 57 25 +32 49 2.04 2nd 3rd SF DNE Marlon Vargas 13 [29][30]
2023 3 MLSNP 28 14 6 5 9 57 36 +21 57 2.04 2nd 3rd R1 DNE Braudílio Rodrigues 17 [31][32]
2024 3 MLSNP 28 13 2 10 5 59 53 +6 46 1.64 4th 8th QF DNE Chris Aquino 11 [33][34]
2025 3 MLSNP 28 10 2 14 4 62 67 −5 36 1.29 12th 23rd DNQ Ro32 Yu Tsukanome 18 [35][36]
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Notes

  1. [a]
    Top goalscorer(s) includes all goals scored in the regular season, playoffs, U.S. Open Cup, and other competitive matches.
  2. [b]
    MLS Next Pro uses a penalty shootout to decide matches that are tied after regulation time. Teams receive one point for a shootout loss and two points for a shootout win.[9]
  3. [c]
    Includes shootout wins
  4. [d]
    Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 USL Championship season was shortened to 16 matches played from July to October within limited geographic regions. The Defiance played two matches prior to the season's suspension in March that were counted in the standings, leaving 14 remaining matches.[25]
  5. [e]
    The 2020 and 2021 editions of the U.S. Open Cup were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[26]
  6. [f]
    In 2022, the Tacoma Defiance joined 19 other reserve teams affiliated with MLS clubs in the inaugural season of MLS Next Pro, a third-division league run by MLS. In doing so, they voluntarily moved down a tier in the U.S. league system.[5]

References

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