San Jose Earthquakes took a 1-0 lead on a Cordell Cato shot in the 57th minute. That was the only goal of the match. Both teams started near first XIs, with Seattle Sounders making a line change in the 60th minute. Clint Dempsey was one of Seattle first XI to only go 45, but that was an expected next step in his recovery.
Cato’s goal came from solid play by the Earthquakes with a deflection preventing Brian Meredith from making a save.
57' GOOOOOAL!! Ureña to Yueill to Cato, who slides it just inside the far post. 1-0 #Quakes74 pic.twitter.com/XY72aa5p7d
— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) February 7, 2017
Seattle’s best chance of the first half came when they worked the ball for nearly two minutes. With dozens of passes they patiently sought a way to break through a compact San Jose defense. Finally, Dempsey sprang through using a short burst of speed into the box, slipping a pass to the nearly open Alvaro Fernandez who nudged it over to the wide open Brian Nana-Sinkham. With only the goalkeeper to beat, the shot went over the bar.
Dempsey worked well with Lodeiro, Fernandez and Cristian Roldan. His 45 minutes of play were another scheduled checkpoint on his attempt to return from the heart issues that ended his 2016 season.
Clint, Alvaro, Roman and Tyler Miller played just a half. That meant that Henry Wingo, Gale Agbossoumonde, Zach Mathers and Brian Meredith entered play.
The 60th minute change put in a very young Sounders squad.
Meredith; JaMorris, Gale, Stovall, Fisher; Rogers, Oduro; Wingo, Mathers, Hopeau; Adekoya
— Sounder At Heart (@sounderatheart) February 7, 2017
That's 3 Academy kids and 2 HGPs
Henry Wingo and Seyi Adekoya both created decent chances. But Seattle couldn’t score in their final preseason game of the Arizona training phase. They also did not play Steve Zakuani.
They return to Starfire for a few days before taking part in the Carolina Challenge Cup starting on Feb. 18.