The Seattle Sounders have been a thorn in the side of the Galaxy of late and now may get a chance to effectively end Los Angeles’ season.
Seattle could eliminate the defending-champion Galaxy from the postseason if it defeats visiting Los Angeles for the third time in 35 days on Saturday night.
Results of two other matches are involved in the scenarios that affect the last-place Galaxy (4-16-8, 20 points) — the San Jose Earthquakes versus Los Angeles FC and Houston Dynamo at the Colorado Rapids.
The teams met twice in August in Carson, Calif., and the Sounders won both. Seattle rolled to a 4-0 victory in MLS play on Aug. 10 and later notched a 2-0 win to reach the Leagues Cup championship game on Aug. 27.
The Sounders whipped visiting Inter Miami 3-0 four days later to win the Leagues Cup title.
Alex Roldan was one of the many Seattle heroes with one goal and two assists.
“Every player dreams of having these moments in a final, so to be able to contribute and help my team win, it’s a special feeling,” Roldan said.
The Sounders (12-7-8, 44 points) are in fourth place in the West, five points behind the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Seattle is 8-1-4 at home, another ominous sign for Los Angeles as the Galaxy are 0-9-6 on the road this season.
Also, the Galaxy last won a regular-season match in Seattle in 2016. However, Los Angeles did win in the city in last season’s playoffs during its championship march.
The Galaxy are coming off a 1-1 draw with host Houston last weekend. They salvaged the draw on Lucas Sanabria’s header in the ninth minute of second-half stoppage time.
Marco Reus (nine assists), Gabriel Pec (six) and Joseph Paintsil (two) share the Los Angeles goal-scoring lead of five.
Paintsil missed the Houston match while playing for the Ghana National Team in two World Cup qualifying matches. He is expected to be back on Saturday.
Los Angeles needs him as he has eight goals in his last 13 matches across all competitions.
“I feel like he’s becoming more direct again, which is when I think he’s at his best,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “When he’s facing forward, when he’s running forward, when he’s playing and running, if he’s going to pick up the ball on the dribble, just be direct and really go after guys.”
Seattle is playing its first MLS match since routing visiting Sporting Kansas City 5-2 on Aug. 24. Danny Musovski had three goals to raise his team-leading total to 13.
–Field Level Media
