By Pearl Allison Lo

In the very tight race at the top of the MLS table, San Jose still managed to rock the boat as they pulled the Sounders to a 1-1 draw Wednesday.

Seattle got back into a tie with Real Salt Lake for top of the Western Conference and now three teams in the league have 42 points. On the other end, the Quakes are part of a three way tie for third worst in the league, but San Jose held their own.

To possibly make a point, the Sounders’ Clint Dempsey was on the bench and did not seem like he was going to play at all. However, one Chris Wondolowski scored, Dempsey was subbed in six minutes later.

Seattle’s Chad Barrett alluded to the early confidence, “Once we got the lead I thought we were going to carry it out for three points. Definitely two points dropped.”

Ironically, the result kept the two stingiest teams in MLS during the second half even, despite both giving up a goal.

In the 46th minute, the Sounders’ Andy Rose passed the ball to Obafemi Martins who spotted Barrett ahead, with just his defender Jordan Stewart and goalie Jon Busch before the net. The five other red jerseys shown on screen when Barrett got the ball, would race in vain, as Barrett won the challenge against a forward-racing Busch.  It was Barrett’s 50th career goal and second goal in as many games.

Wondo set his goal in motion when he passed to Cordell Cato. Cato used fancy footwork against DeAndre Yedlin to cross the ball past a diving Stefan Frei. Rose didn’t quite get enough foot to stop the ball & Wondo knocked it in in the 65th minute.

Martins received a yellow card in the 77th minute for a tackle that had Victor Bernardez pounding the ground with his hands. The end result was Shaun Francis coming in as Bernardez limped off the field with his right foot in the air.

The Quakes received their first corner in the 83rd minute.

They had a 4-on-2 chance later, braced by Seattle corners, but lost the ball.

The game ended with a Dempsey header caught by Busch.

Game notes: San Jose’s Jason Hernandez’s six game undefeated streak playing against the Sounders remained intact, now at 6-0-1 and the series between the team earned its first tie, now 6-2-1 since 2012. Seattle’s Marco Pappa led all with six shots in his return to the field. The Quakes’ Tommy Thompson made his first start as he played in his second game in a row, with 87 minutes logged. Teammate Adam Jahn then took over as he made a rare appearance. San Jose heads to Philadelphia next to face the Union Sunday at 5pm PST.