The Seattle Sounders went into Saturday night's Western Conference showdown vs. San Jose with aspirations of maintaining second place in the West, and potentially a chance to draw closer to first-place Earthquakes.
It took the Earthquakes just two minutes to show they had no intention of losing, and it took a impressive overall performance to show why they are the best team in the league.
Chris Wondolowski scored a game-winning goal in the 30th-minute for his league-leading 22nd goal, and the Earthquakes defense made the goal stand up as their high-pressure approach flustered Seattle on their way to a 2-1 victory at CenturyLink Field on Saturday night.
Simon Dawkins scored a second-minute blast for the Earthquakes, but Seattle answered right back when Steve Zakuani converted a Sammy Ochoa pass to tie the score in the 14th minute.
Playing without suspended forward Eddie Johnson and injured playmaker Mauro Rosales, the Sounders struggled to generate consistent chances against a San Jose side that pressured well throughout the match, and particularly in the first half.
The Earthquakes maintained that pressure throughout, and the defense, led by Victor Bernardez and Jason Hernandez, limited the Sounders to just one shot on goal.
The win moves San Jose five points clear of Sporting Kansas City in the race for the Supporters Shield, while the loss dropped Seattle to fourth place in the West.
Here are the match highlights
What did you think of the match? Impressed with how well San Jose played in Seattle? Surprised to see the Sounders struggle to generate chances?
Share your thoughts below.
Wouldn’t want him on my team and pretty sure I’m not alone on it.
Any Smart bettor would take one of those teams over SJ in the playoffs. that streak will end
Not true. When RSL had Clint Mathis most of us just cringed. Any team would die to have Wondo. Lenhart can suffocate on his blonde pubes.
They’ve had an absolutely dominant season and deserve the SS, no doubt. The playoffs are going to be epic.
“Biased SSFC fan” is a bit redundant.
I could see Wondo succeeding in Eredivisie, but he’s 29, right? He’s pretty late into his career to start thinking about Europe – or for Europe to start thinking about him.
Earthquakes are now 8-0-0 vs. Seattle, LA and RSL wow!!! with one home match left vs. LA. No doubt about it they are the best team in the west this year…congrats to them. Wondo is one of the good guys in this league give him the MVP now.
It’s funny because almost every team in MLS would love to have Lenhart on their team. No one wants to play against him because he is such a pain to play against. I guarantee if he was on anyone else’s team, the fans of that team would love him.
Top 5 for sure but I don’t know about biggest D-Bag in MLS history. We have had some winners. Remember Mathis? The hair. The boots. Maestroni took off his own jersey and humped his number on the back of his shirt after scoring a goal. We have had some winners.
Nope. Just reiterating…again.
Watching Lenhart fly into people and fall over every time he touched the ball is absolutely disgusting. He’s worse than Carlos Ruiz ever was. Congratulations Lenhart, I think you’ve taken of the biggest D-bag in MLS history spot. Go out and celebrate!
Perhaps….
But thats soccer is it not?
Biased SSFC fan here,, We got out played by a motivated squad,
Wrong, he needs to stay in MLS.
And to thegut below Lenhart os going from the guy you could repect to absolute disgrace.
I hope you are not just finding that out now…
Lenhart is a disgusting player. Zero sportsmanship and a terrible example to the kids watching MLS Soccer.
22nd. 6 to go to break the record with what…4-5 games. I had him pegged at scoring 25. Maybe I was wrong. But definitely he needs to head to EUROPE
Yea but now there is a good chance both RSL and LA could overtake them, meaning Seattle would be in the play-in match.
As an LA fan, I welcome the move to 2nd place.
Doesn’t matter. Seattle just needs to stay healthy for the playoffs. They weren’t catching SJ anyways.
I think I was the only Quakes fan there. Great fans, stadium and result! I’m going back to San Jo a happy man.
Utter bullcrap the whole post. seatle dominated the second half and perhaps should have won