San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders battled to a draw at Lumen Field in Seattle on Wed Sep 18, 2024 (SI photos/Getty Images)

The San Jose Earthquakes are back on the road, this time they visited their Pacific Northwest counterparts, the Seattle Sounders at Lumen Field.

San Jose Starting XI: Daniel, Verhoeven, Rodrigues, Munie, Akapo, Gruezo, Tsakiris, Pellegrino, Lopez, Espinoza, Bouda

Seattle Starting XI: Frei, Roldan, Yelmar, Ragen, Nouhou, Roldan, Vargas, Rothrock, Rusnak, de la Vega, Morris

The Quakes got out to an early lead in the 16th minute when a pass by Cristian Espinoza landed loose inside of the box for Amahl Pellegrino who was able to put it away and make it 1-0 in favor of the visitors. It didn’t take long for Seattle to tie it up though.

After Hernan Lopez was shown a yellow card, the Sounders got a dangerous free kick from roughly 35 yards out. The ball was crossed into the box, and after quite a bit of a scramble with the ball inside of the area it eventually found its way to Jordan Morris who was able to put it past Daniel. In the 39th minute, Morris got his second of the night on a volley inside of the box giving the Sounders a 2-1 lead that they’d carry into half time.

Heading into the second half, the Earthquakes found themselves in a very similar situation. They were trailing with 45 minutes to figure out a way to get a point or potentially all three. Although they controlled possession quite a bit in the second half, the Earthquakes were unable to find an equalizer for quite a while in the second half. The Quakes brought quite a bit of pressure, bringing their shot total closer to that of Seattle’s but the Sounders still led in that category.

It was ultimately a pretty uneventful second half, as although chances were being created many of them weren’t high-danger opportunities that truly seemed like they could change the complexion of the match. Seattle was the better team overall, even though San Jose was able to maintain possession on a more regular basis.

Considering Seattle currently find themselves fourth in the Western Conference while the Earthquakes are dead last in 14th, it would’ve been hard to be upset if San Jose left Seattle without a point. Overall though, San Jose did do a fantastic job keeping it close against a team that clearly has much more talent on it.

Picking up three points would’ve desperately helped the Sounders as they’re currently in the midst of a massive playoff battle. While a single point is definitely better than nothing, a tight race makes every point crucial. Everyone from second to eighth in the conference are only separated by a few games’ worth of points, so every game is crucial for teams hoping to get a higher seeding.

The Quakes on the other hand continue to struggle mightily in a season that has left their fans very little hope about the immediate future. Outside of Hernan Lopez and Espinoza, there’s no true offensive weapons on the team who can help them squeak out some wins in crucial games like this one.

The Quakes had a strong outing against Seattle earlier this season when they defeated the Sounders 3-2 at PayPal Park, so it seemed like they should be able to earn another point on the road and a late goal by Paul Marie made that a reality.

In the 89th minute, he was able to find the back of the net to even it up when it seemed like the Sounders were going to walk away with three points. Instead, both teams got a single point which will undoubtedly have drastic playoff implications later on down the road.

With only five games remaining in the season, the Earthquakes have already been eliminated from playoff contention. The results of coming games aren’t meaningless though, as now is the perfect time to turn things around and carry some momentum into the 2025 season while also potentially playing spoiler for other organizations. Considering it seemed at one point that San Jose would be leaving Seattle with a loss, their late goal truly changed everything.