Andres Gomez scored in the ninth minute of second-half stoppage time and visiting Real Salt Lake extended its unbeaten run to 12 matches in a 1-1 draw at the Seattle Sounders on Wednesday night.
Gomez’s eighth goal of his second MLS season goal came only moments after an apparent Seattle insurance goal by Danny Musovski was disallowed following a video review.
It was a second late dramatic equalizer in as many games for Salt Lake (8-2-6, 30 points), after Nelson Palacio scored in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time to complete a rally from three goals down in a 3-3 draw at FC Dallas last Saturday.
Albert Rusnak scored his 50th career MLS goal on a cleverly taken free kick in the 68th minute to put his former team behind.
It was Rusnak’s first of the season and ninth for Seattle after scoring his first 41 in MLS as a Salt Lake player from 2017-21.
But Seattle (4-6-6, 18 points) failed again to win its first consecutive matches of the season following a 2-1 victory at St. Louis on Saturday.
Playing a second away game in four days, RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni elected to bring MLS joint leading scorer Cristian Arango and influential midfielder Braian Ojeda off the bench in the second half.
But Gomez played the duration of the match and came through in the very last moments when he hammered in his own rebound on a messy scramble in the box after headers from Brayan Vera and Arango kept the play alive. RSL is 7-0-5 during their unbeaten stretch.
Only moments earlier, Musovski had tucked home a finish into an empty net to finish off a transition sequence. But referee Sergii Boiko was summoned to the replay monitor, and after consulting it, judged that Musovski had fouled Justen Glad to spark the turnover that began the counter attack.
Rusnak opened the scoring when he appeared to surprise goalkeeper Gavin Beavers, who was leaning away from his near post in anticipation of an outswinging cross.
Rusnak sold it well by also appearing to look toward the middle of the penalty area for a teammate. Instead, he snuck a low shot around the defensive wall and just inside the lower corner at the near post, as Beavers reacted late.
–Field Level Media
