For 83 minutes, the San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders played a rather lackluster match with few fireworks. The final seven minutes of regulation, and extra time, wound up offering much more.
Chris Wondolowski converted a Marco Urena pass in the 90th-minute for a last-ditch equalizer in what wound up finishing a 1-1 draw. Wondolowski’s close-range finish canceled out a left-footed volley from Nicolas Lodeiro that opened the scoring in the 84th minute.
The Earthquakes nearly found a winner in the final moments, but Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei made the second of a pair of outstanding saves on the night to deny Urena and help the reigning MLS Cup champions escape Avaya Stadium with a road point.
Lodeiro ended the scoreless affair in the 84th minute, knocking in his second goal of the season after a Clint Dempsey free kick struck the wall and fell to the Uruguayan, who hit a deceptive left-footed shot that beat David Bingham and avoided three Earthquakes defenders.
The Earthquakes, which created and missed chance after chance throughout the night, scored the match-tying goal as Urena drove a well-hit cross toward the front of the goal-mouth, where Wondolowski made no mistake.
The Earthquakes (2-2-1, 7 points) will look to notch their first win since March 11 when they host F.C. Dallas Friday night. The Sounders (1-1-3, 6 points) will look to notch their first win since beating the Red Bulls on March 19 as they will travel to Vancouver to take on the Whitecaps Friday night as well.
MAN OF THE MATCH:
Stefan Frei showed everyone on Saturday night what could’ve been a replay of his performance in last year’s MLS Cup. He made two key saves that helped Seattle hang onto the road point.
MOMENT OF THE MATCH:
Stefan Frei’s save on a scissor-kick shot by Marco Urena in the first half preserved the then-scoreless draw.
MATCH TO FORGET:
Simon Dawkins had chance after chance to help create or take a shot that could’ve opened the scoring for the Earthquakes on the night, however, he was late on his passing and couldn’t get his shots off in time.
San Jose is such a great squad -a very organized group of hackers
Note to SBI Power Ranking peeps,….Sounders aren’t that good. They got hot last year, won MLS Cup w/o registering a shot in goal. They shouldn’t be viewed as some juggernaut that stemmed its way to the title and are the team.