Sounders vs. Earthquakes: Highlights, stats and quotes

The Seattle Sounders surrendered another late lead at home, this time giving up an 89th minute equalizer to the San Jose Earthquakes in a 2-2 tie on Wednesday. Jordan Morris scored a brace that gave the Sounders a lead after going behind 1-0 and they seemed to be well positioned to move up in the table. Instead, they were forced to settle for a single point, while running their winless streak against the Earthquakes to six games.

Highlights

Stats

MATCH SUMMARY

Seattle Sounders FC 2 – San Jose Earthquakes 2

Wednesday, September 18, 2024 

Venue: Lumen Field 

Referee: Victor Rivas

Assistants: Jeremy Hanson, Chris Wattam

Fourth Official: Ricardo Fierro

VAR: Jair Marrufo

Attendance: 29,326

Weather: 64 degrees and cloudy 

SCORING SUMMARY 

SJ – Amahl Pellegrino (Cristian Espinoza) 16’

SEA – Jordan Morris (Pedro de la Vega) 21’

SEA – Jordan Morris 39’

SJ – Paul Marie (Jeremy Ebobisse, Cristian Espinoza) 89’

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY 

SJ – Hernán López (caution) 20’

SJ – Cristian Espinoza (caution) 38’      

SJ – Carlos Gruezo (caution) 51’

LINEUPS & STATS 

Seattle Sounders FC – Stefan Frei – Captain; Alex Roldan, Yeimar Gómez Andrade, Jackson Ragen, Nouhou (Jonathan Bell 86’); Cristian Roldan, Obed Vargas (Josh Atencio 82’); Pedro da la Vega (Georgi Minoungou 63’), Albert Rusnák (Danny Leyva 82’), Paul Rothrock (Reed Baker-Whiting 63’); Jordan Morris

Substitutes not used: Andrew Thomas, Nathan, Dylan Teves, Raúl Ruidíaz

Total shots: 18

Shots on goal: 3

Fouls: 11 

Offside: 0

Corner-kicks: 5

Saves: 1

San Jose Earthquakes – Daniel; Oscar Verhoeven (Paul Marie 70’), Rodrigues, Daniel Munie, Carlos Akapo; Carlos Gruezo, Niko Tsakiris (Jackson Yueill 60’); Amahl Pellegrino (Tommy Thompson 82’), Hernán López (Jeremy Ebobisse 60’), Cristian Espinoza; Ousseni Bouda (Alfredo Morales 70’)

Substitutes not used: William Yarbrough, Jacob Daniel Jackson, Tanner Beason, Casey Walls

Total shots: 10

Shots on goal: 3

Fouls: 13

Offside: 0

Corner-kicks: 3

Saves: 1

Quotes

SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER 

On tonight’s draw to San Jose:

“You look at a one or two ways, you could look at some of the chances, maybe that Georgi [Minoungou] or Reed [Baker-Whiting] or some of the guys produced. Or you could say, and those are young kids, that is my point. My point is, those are young kids, they try, they do their best, they are energetic, they do their things, they [have] tremendous potential. Or you could say where is the group leadership at two-one to connect a bunch of passes and just kill the game with good possession. Make them chase ball, you know, no extended… They are 55 percent to 45 percent possession. That is not good enough. When you’re up two-one, I get it. I get it. The team that is up by a goal, you know, kind of drops in or, you know, does whatever they can to hold on to the lead. But not here at home. We are actually the home team, and I don't care if it is two-one, we should be controlling tempo and creating the chances that we did.”

SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER CRISTIAN ROLDAN

On not being able to close out the game:

“Frustrating to not feel like you were in control with the ball at the end of the game, being up two-one. We need to see games out better. I thought we did an okay job of sliding and defending. But just an unfortunate play. I don’t think we were quite ready for that ball in behind. The storyline could have been that we grinded the game out but now all of a sudden, they score the goal and it’s what we could have done differently. Goals change games and it’s really unfortunate to concede a goal that late in the game.”

SOUNDERS FC FORWARD JORDAN MORRIS

On the importance on learning from this result:

“We definitely have to learn from it. Get some rest during this time. We’ve had a congested schedule so get a few days off, get some rest and then learn from what we could have done better to close the game out. Whether that’s scoring the next goal or possessing the ball better at the end of game. Different things that we can look at to close the game out. Because obviously we didn’t do a good enough job tonight.”