SEATTLE — The Seattle Sounders fell down 2-0 but staged a second-half comeback, eventually drawing the San Jose Earthquakes 2-2 in a midweek Western Conference clash between the sides at CenturyLink Field on Wednesday.
Shea Salinas scored twice for San Jose, while Kelvin Leerdam and Harry Shipp each scored for Seattle two minutes apart. The Sounders move to 5-1-2 with 17 points from their first eight matches of 2019.
The visitors struck first in the 34th minute courtesy of Salinas, who finished a counterattack by rounding Leerdam and slotting home a difficult finish past goalkeeper Stefan Frei. He then struck again eight minutes into the second half on an easy tap-in finish off a feed from Cristian Espinoza to double San Jose’s lead.
The Sounders struck back in the 65th minute, however, as Leerdam got on the end of a Nicolás Lodeiro corner kick that was redirected by Kim Kee-hee, cutting the deficit to 2-1. Shipp then leveled the proceedings at 2-2 in dramatic fashion just two minutes later, cashing home a nifty redirected finish of his own off another feed from Lodeiro, tying the contest with 25 minutes left.
SECOND-HALF SURGE
Leerdam’s tally awoke the CenturyLink Field crowd and made for a frenetic final 25 minutes. The energy shifted even higher after Shipp’s leveler with each side generating chances in a back-and-forth finish that included a couple of highlight-reel saves from Frei.
SHIPP STEPS UP
With the Sounders missing the services of forwards Raúl Ruidíaz (heel) and Will Bruin (hamstring), someone was going to have to step up and carry the goalscoring load. Shipp has answered the call in the last two matches, scoring his first goal of the season on Sunday in a loss to LAFC before following that up with Wednesday’s dramatic equalizer. The veteran midfielder now has five goals and three assists over his last 1,470 minutes dating back to last season.
HEAVYWEIGHT REMATCH
With the midweek bout in the books, the Sounders now have a familiar foe to contend with as they’ll play LAFC on Sunday (12:30 p.m. PT; ESPN, YouTube TV, 950 KJR AM, El Rey 1360 AM | TICKETS) for the second time in a week. This time, LAFC will make the trip to the CenturyLink Field, where the sides met in the season-opener a season ago in the visitors’ inaugural MLS game. The Sounders will be out to settle the score after their 4-1 road defeat in last weekend’s match and will hope for a healthy Ruidíaz as they look ahead to the matchup with LAFC’s star-studded and league-leading attack.
