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 USL (later the USL Championship) to host reserve teams. 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]
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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]
As of 2024 [update] , 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 [update] , 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]