Sights and Sounds from Sounders 2-2 draw with San Jose

The Seattle Sounders overcame a  two zero second-half deficit and walked away from Wednesday nights midweek game with a 2-2 draw and splitting the points with the  San Jose Earthquakes thanks to goals from Kelvin Leerdam and Harry Ship. 

The Sounders every bit the woes me team that was humiliated 4-1 by LAFC  Sunday afternoon in LA. After Sunday’s debacle, the question was always going to be how would the Sounders react.  On Wednesday night the team sleepwalked the first 53 minutes of the game then woke and scored two goals in a span of two minutes to salvage the tie.

• Sounders FC improves to 5-0-1 to start the 2019 campaign, the best six-match opening to a season in club history. Dating back to last season, Sounders FC is unbeaten in its last 11 regular season matches (10-0-1). 

• The Rave Green are tied for first in the Western Conference with 16 points, level on points with Los Angeles FC ahead of its matchup tonight against FC Cincinnati. Brian Schmetzer’s side has two matches later this month with LAFC, first in Southern California on April 21, followed by a contest in Seattle on April 28.

• Sounders FC is now 9-3-2 all-time against Toronto FC in regular-season play, including a 5-2-1 record at CenturyLink Field. The two clubs also famously played in consecutive MLS Cup Finals, with Seattle winning in 2016 and Toronto prevailing in 2017. 

• Will Bruin’s brace marked his first two goals of the season, giving him 20 since joining Sounders FC prior to the 2017 season. His 70 career MLS regular-season goals passed Diego Valeri for fifth among active players, trailing only Chris Wondolowski, Kei Kamara, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Dom Dwyer.

• Cristian Roldan scored his first goal of the season with the eventual game-winning strike. The University of Washington product has 15 goals and 17 assists in 128 career regular-season appearances.

• Nico Lodeiro recorded his fourth assist of the season on Bruin’s second strike, leading the club and tying him for first in MLS. It was also the 40^th helper in MLS regulars-season action since joining Sounders FC in July of 2016. No player has more assists in league play since the Uruguayan joined MLS.

• Brad Smith recorded his second assist of the season on Bruin’s second strike, while also providing the final pass on the match’s opening strike, but was not granted an assist on that play due to the ball taking a slight deflection.

• Kelvin Leerdam and Gustav Svensson each recorded their first assists of the season on Roldan’s game-winning goal.

• Toronto’s goal in the 11^th minute marked the first time Sounders FC has trailed in match since 27^th minute of the season-opener against vs. FC Cincinnati, a span of 434 minutes.

• In the 82^nd minute of today’s match, Stefan Frei passed Tony Meola for seventh all-time in league history in minutes played in goal.