Despite a first goal from open play — despite scoring multiple goals in a match for the first time this year — the Seattle Sounders could not find their way past their Heritage Cup rivals, the San Jose Earthquakes, on Saturday night.
Raúl Ruidíaz bagged another penalty kick that made him the club’s all-time leading scorer before winter signing Danny Musovski added a second off a Cody Baker cross. Seattle’s normally-stout defense, however, could not hold firm, and let in a third San Jose goal just seconds after Musovski’s equalizer that would decide the game.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. This is disappointing,” head coach Brian Schmetzer said postmatch.
The first half, though, was uninspiring: per MLS, the Sounders generated just 0.23 xG and left their dual forward set of Jordan Morris and Ruidiaz on an island. The two were generally uninvolved, especially lacking the boosting presence of what’s become a starting engine room of Josh Atencio (missing due to a red card suspension) and Obed Vargas (head injury picked up in practice on Friday). But the defense was “a step back,” too, Schmetzer said, “Which has been our strong point.”
That unusually leaky defense was prevalent: the Earthquakes generated five shots on goal — two of which became goals at the end of the half. The first, a set piece flicked into the path of Vitor, found its way past a returning Stefan Frei with 41 minutes gone. Frei said, “If you walk into halftime [down] 1-0, then it’s a frustrating one, but that’s a little hole.” Then, under two minutes later, the Sounders gave up a counterattack and then didn’t follow up after Stefan Frei saved Preston Judd’s initial effort. That left Cristian Espinosa wide open, with the ball, ten feet or so from the goal.
If the first goal was San Jose handing a shovel to the Sounders, the second was Seattle digging its own hole further. “Whenever a goal happens,” Frei continued, “… it’s the next five. The next five [minutes] are very important — not so much physically, but mentally.” Schmetzer echoed his statement, saying, “The next five minutes… you’ve got to keep on top of your opponent.”
It would be San Jose that opened the door for the Sounders’ comeback effort; a returning Yeimar Gomez Andrade was toppled over in the air in the Earthquakes’ penalty area. Ruidiaz would step up, delicately chipping the ball past William Yarbrough to halve the deficit — and push himself past Fredy Montero into sole possession of the Sounders’ all-time goalscoring crown (he now has 80 in his time in Seattle).
As Seattle clambered out of its hole, two of its substitutes combined. Academy product Cody Baker found space on the right flank and managed to whip a ball in towards Musovski, who nodded home past Yarbrough. “Cody played a fantastic ball,” Musovski said, “and I was just trying to make sure that I made contact with it and it would go in, because it was so close.”
That header was Seattle’s first open-play goal of the year — ”I think it’s important for the offense to get going,” Musovski said. “That’s definitely something that we’ve been stressing in training and making sure that everyone [knows] offensively.”
But every bit of this team’s issues was exposed in the minute following Musovski’s goal. Once again, the team failed to maintain focus after a goal. Once again, it gave up a counterattack. Once again, it failed to track runners in the box. Jeremy Ebobisse, so often the Sounders’ nemesis in a Portland kit, added San Jose’s third.
Shovel in hand, the Sounders’ hole reappeared. “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” Schmetzer said.
Seattle made a single substitute after that moment — Paul Rothrock saw his first minutes of the season — and couldn’t find another equalizer after nearly a hundred minutes.
The Sounders, then, remain winless in 2024. The Earthquakes carried four straight losses into this game, which would become their first points of the year, and were in arguably more abysmal form than Seattle is. Instead, it’s Brian Schmetzer’s men who sit alone at the base of the Western Conference, averaging half a point per game. It’s the Sounders, now, who must search for answers to questions that they have been asking for seasons on end.
The next question on the schedule comes in the form of a resurgent LA Galaxy side, which finds itself second in the West and in excellent goalscoring form — Greg Vanney’s group has 12 goals, first in its conference and behind only Inter Miami leaguewide. Albert Rusnák will likely start that game in a week’s time, Schmetzer suggested, but it’ll be a test that this team might not be ready to face. That game kicks off on March 30, at 7:30 P.M. Pacific Time.