Toronto head coach Greg Vanney, in his pre-match interview, talked of changing their shape from a 3-5-2 to a back four with a midfield diamond in order to put more pressure on Seattle. It's working so far. Seattle are being overrun in the middle. But no goals yet. Surely Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer will respond.

Seattle are struggling to keep their heads above water here. Sebastian Giovinco runs at the vistors' defence, and it needs a very well timed tackle by Seattle captain Roman Torres to halt him. Those who watch Seattle regularly say that their season started to take a turn for the better when Torres recovered from early-season injury problems. He is a key player for them.

To prove the point, Toronto have two great chances in two minutes. Jozy Altidore chests down for Jonathan Osorio to hit a first-time shot that Frei pushes aside. Then Sebastian Giovinco is played clear, and probably should score, but is crowded out by keeper and defender, and the ball bobbles wide - Frei again got a touch.

Now Toronto's front two of Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco link up for the first time. The US striker plays in the Italy international, who scuffs his shot and sees the ball bobble through to Seattle keeper Stefan Frei. The home side are having the better of it early on.

Toronto's Victor Vazquez, playing at the tip of a diamond by the looks of it, is looking to spray the ball around and pull the Seattle defence out of shape. It almost works with an angled pass left that runs just too far ahead of Justin Morrow, attacking from left-back.

Seattle, having survive that early scare, attack down the right with Kelvin Leerdam - his cross takes a nick off Marco Delgado and loops just over the bar with keeper Alex Bono struggling. Toronto deal with the resulting corner rather better. The early signs are that this won't be goalless, as last year's final was. But I've been wrong before.

Toronto striker Jozy Altidore, the man who couldn't hit a barn door in England, sets off on an early run and wins a corner off Seattle captain Roman Torres. Chris Mavinga then flicks on the resulting set-piece, and centre-back Drew Moor turns it wide at the far post. A good early chance that.

Toronto have home advantage in the final. If you're wondering why, it's because they had the better record over the regular MLS season. They finished 12 points clear at the top of the Eastern Conference; Seattle were runners-up in the Western Conference.

Seattle, meanwhile, are aiming to become the fourth team to retain the MLS Cup, after DC United (1996 and 1997), Houston Dynamo (2005 and 2006) and LA Galaxy (2011 and 2012). Their coach Brian Schmetzer played for two previous incarnations of Seattle in the 1980s and 1990s.

Toronto, coached by former United States defender Greg Vanney, are aiming to complete a domestic treble today, having won the Supporters' Shield - given to the team with the best regular season record across the two Conferences - and the Canadian Championship, their cup competition.

Two national anthems before we get started. The Star Spangled Banner first, followed by O Canada. The two singers performing them both appear to be wearing half-and-half scarves. The young woman performing Canada's anthem does the Robbie Williams/Angels thing by dropping out for a bit to let the crowd take over. And they do, with gusto.

Toronto XI: Bono; Delgado, Moor, Mavinga; Beitashour, Osorio, Bradley, Vazquez, Morrow; Altidore, Giovinco.

Substitutes: Irwin, Hagglund, Zavaleta, Hasler, Cheyrow, Cooper, Ricketts.

Seattle XI: Frei; Leerdam, Torres, Marshall, Jones; Roldan, Svensson; Lodeiro, Dempsey, Rodriguez; Bruin.

Substitutes: Miller, Alfaro, Nouhou, Delem, Shipp, Neagle, Morris.

Mind you, at least I'm not trying to do a live text commentary on the Carabao Cup draw.

An enormous model of the MLS Cup trophy has been placed in the centre circle, and we're ready for the teams. And here they come!

We were told that this game was going to kick off at 21:00 GMT. As you may have gathered from the fact that I'm not describing any action, that schedule is proving about as reliable as a bus timetable in a snowdrift. But the players have finished warming up, and I hope the action gets under way soon enough that I don't have to start humming incidental music to fill the gap.

Image source, Reuters

Seattle, meanwhile, have Clint Dempsey in their attack. The former Fulham and Tottenham striker, now 34, looked as if he might have to retire after missing most of the 2016 season because of an irregular heartbeat. Not only did he recover, but he was named MLS Comeback Player of the Year for 2017.

Dempsey scored in the Western Conference final, as Seattle booked their place at today's match with a 5-0 aggregate thumping of Houston Dynamo.

Image source, Reuters

Both sides contain attacking talent that will be familiar to Premier League fans - although Toronto striker Jozy Altidore would probably rather forget his spells at Hull and Sunderland, as he scored a grand total of two goals in 70 Premier League games.

He's a happier man in Canada, with 15 goals in the regular MLS season - and the strike that got them to today's game, as Toronto beat Columbus Crew 1-0 over two legs in the Eastern Conference final.

It's a fascinating contest in prospect this evening; Toronto have been the outstanding side in MLS over the season as a whole, but have stumbled through the play-offs somewhat. Seattle took a while to get going, but seem to have hit form just when they needed to.

Image source, Getty Images

We've been here before. It was 364 days ago that Toronto hosted Seattle in last year's MLS Cup final at BMO Field. That day, Seattle failed to muster a shot on target, saw through 120 goalless minutes and then won 5-4 on penalties. Will Toronto get their revenge this time?