SEATTLE – It likely wasn’t how Seattle Sounders’ head coach Brian Schmetzer drew it up, but he isn’t questioning it.
Seattle prevailed, 4-3, in one of the wildest games of the MLS season against the LA Galaxy at CenturyLink Field on Sunday. The match saw the Western Conference sides combine for four of the game’s seven goals in the final 15 minutes.
The Galaxy twice eliminated leads for Seattle, though an 89th-minute game-winner from midfielder Cristian Roldan moved Seattle back up to second place in the West with 46 points.
“I am living in this moment,” Seattle head coach Brian Schmetzer told reporters after the game. “It was an exciting game for TV, for the neutral fans, our fans went home happy. We’re happy that we got three points, we’re happy we’re in second place. So, I’m going to take this victory and enjoy this moment.
“You ask me the same question on Wednesday and then I might give you a different answer.”
For the Sounders, it’s the second straight big win after the 2-1 Cascadia Cup-clinching victory over the Portland Timbers at Providence Park last Friday.
Roldan said the Sounders are aware they still need to defend better, but echoed that it’s all about getting three points by any means necessary.
“It got a little stretched and we conceded way too many goals, but a win’s a win,” Roldan said. “You play exciting football, sometimes these games turn into track meets and a lot of goals happen. But in the end, we won the game in exciting fashion, some guys leave [for international duty], some guys stay and we’ll use this momentum against Colorado [in the next game] and hopefully get a good result.”
As euphoric as the mood was in Seattle’s locker room after the game, it was equally sour for the Galaxy. LA is 1-4-2 across their last seven matches.
Head coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto said his team played Seattle evenly, but was undone by a defensive lapse on Roldan’s winner. He also disputed the Sounders’ third goal, a 77th-minute breakaway tally from Jordan Morris where Schelotto said assist-man Raul Ruidiaz should have been ruled offside.
“They scored the third goal and I think it was pretty clear it was offside,” Schelotto said. “I don’t know why the VAR didn’t say anything. But we kept fighting and trying to tie the game, but in the last minute we made a mistake and they won the game.”
Like the Sounders, the Galaxy’s main focus will be ironing out their defense. LA are yielding an average of three goals a game over their last three matches.
“I think that we all have to look in the mirror and see what we are doing wrong and it’s going to be important to see what’s missing from the games,” LA midfielder Joe Corona said. “Up top we usually are scoring goals, we just have to be more awake in the back. I’m including myself, I’m talking about everyone defensively starting with the forwards."
