Sounders vs. Earthquakes: Highlights, stats and quotes

Despite scoring just 23 seconds into the match and then again taking the lead in the second half, the Seattle Sounders were forced to settle for a 2-2 tie with the San Jose Earthquakes to close out the regular season on Sunday. It was the ninth time this year that the Sounders dropped points from a winning position, costing them 23 points in total.

The biggest bright spot of the game was Nicolás Lodeiro, who looked much more like his old self. Both goals were absolutely stunning strikes, but the Sounders could not find any other offense.

They finished the season with just 41 points, easily the fewest in their MLS history. On a more positive note, they did finish with one more home point (30) than they did in 2021.

MATCH SUMMARY

Seattle Sounders FC 2 – San Jose Earthquakes 2

Sunday, October 9, 2022

Venue: Lumen Field

Referee: Marcos Deoliveira

Assistants: Jeff Hosking, Chantal Boudreau

Fourth Official: Ricardo Fierro

VAR: Rosendo Mendoza

Attendance: 33,910

Weather: 70 degrees and sunny

SCORING SUMMARY

SEA – Nico Lodeiro 1’

SJ – Jeremy Ebobisse 4’

SEA – Nico Lodeiro 49’

SJ – Cade Cowell (Miguel Trauco) 75’

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

SEA – Albert Rusnák (caution) 42’

SJ – Rodrigues (caution) 52’

LINEUPS & STATS

Seattle Sounders FC – Stefan Cleveland; Alex Roldan (Dylan Teves 83’), Yeimar Gómez Andrade, Xavier Arreaga (Jackson Ragen 69’), Nouhou; Albert Rusnák (Léo Chú 69’), Josh Atencio; Cristian Roldan, Nico Lodeiro – captain, Jordan Morris (Danny Leyva 46’); Fredy Montero (Will Bruin 69’)

Substitutes not used: Stefan Frei, Jimmy Medranda, Kelyn Rowe, Ethan Dobbelaere

Total shots: 16

Shots on goal: 6

Fouls: 14

Offside: 1

Corner-kicks: 4

Saves: 2

San Jose Earthquakes – JT Marcinkowski; Tommy Thompson (Jack Skahan 78’), Rodrigues (Tanner Beason 83’), Nathan Pelae, Miguel Trauco (Paul Marie 78’); Jackson Yueill (Judson Silva 79’), Jamiro Monteiro; Cristian Espinoza, Niko Tsakiris, Benjamin Kikanović (Cade Cowell 58’); Jeremy Ebobisse

Substitutes not used: Eric Remedi, Matt Bersano, Ján Gregus, Shea Salinas

Total shots: 12

Shots on goal: 4

Fouls: 11

Offside: 1

Corner-kicks: 1

Saves: 4

FotMob.com

POST-MATCH QUOTES & SOUNDBYTES

SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER

On what’s next for the club:

“Well, we’ve already started some of that process. You know, since I’ve been in charged, we always have the same process, you know, we gone over the season and I will meet with all the technical staff and go to the season and ask them how I could have help them more, what could we have done better, what went well, what didn’t go so well so we’ll do that again, we’ll do maybe a little more fairly because we didn’t made the playoffs but we touched, you know, we touched every part of the organization in a normal year and then the coaching staff have already started that work, we have already listed what we feel is important moving forward, player wise, training wise, you know, how we can get the team back in the playoffs for next season, that’s already started. We’ll have meetings in the next couples of weeks, there are some, you know, training sessions they guys can take part in if they want. Some of our fitness guys will be around because we have Nouhou, Xavi, you know, Jordan and Cristian. So, it will be a, you know, a little bit of a slowdown for our normal off season but we still be working.”

SOUNDERS FC DEFENDER ALEX ROLDAN

On his overall thoughts on the season:

“Yeah, I mean, a lot of highs, a lot of lows. A weird season for sure because it’s obviously a successful one but a failure as well at the same time. We got to take the positives with us and take those into the offseason but also learn from our mistakes we made this year and hopefully turn that around for next year and next season. Looking ahead to that one, it’s going to be an important one, to see how we bounce back, how we recover from this season. Just know that going into next year we will have that in mind where we can fix some of those mistakes that we made this year and turn it around next year.

SOUNDERS FC GOALKEEPER STEFAN CLEVELAND

On getting the start and the game overall:

“It was good to play, it’s been a few months, it’s really good to play again. I appreciate the coaches for giving me an opportunity like this, the whole club. But started off really, really well. Obviously amazing start. Disappointing way to give up a goal right after starting off like that. It’s kind of frustrating night. I feel like we controlled the game really, really well. Just gave up two goals that a lot of us will be disappointed when we look back on them.”