CARSON, Calif. — For the fifth consecutive road match, the Seattle Sounders fell behind early on Sunday.
Robbie Keane headed home a cross from Sebastian Lletget in the 20th minute at StubHub Center to give the LA Galaxy a 1-0 lead and could have had more. The Galaxy peppered Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei in the opening 20 minutes and forced him to make another massive save on a Giovani dos Santos breakaway around the half-hour mark to keep the deficit at one.
What looked like it was going to be a long day in the scorching southern California heat, however, turned into one of the better performances Seattle has had all season.
The Sounders pulled level on a Chad Marshall flick that went in as an own goal by Jelle Van Damme in the 35th minute and then took over completely in the second half. Jordan Morris scored twice and Ozzie Alonso buried a long-distance strike to beat LA and help the Sounders head back to Seattle with a 4-2 win at a venue where the Galaxy had not lost in 15 matches this year.
But a common theme has emerged over the last month and a half: Of those five matches they’ve fallen behind, they’ve rallied for points in four of them.
“They put a little extra effort in even when the chips are down or it looks like the ship is sinking, and they’re able to manufacture something,” Sounders interim head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “They’re strong enough in their mental capacity to persevere when things aren’t going well.
“That is indicative of the group of players that I have in the locker room and it’s something that I’m very proud of.”
Sunday’s game marked the second time since Schmetzer took over that the Sounders rallied from a goal down to grab a win, something they hadn’t done all season until last month. They also came back from an early 1-0 hole at Orlando City for an eventual 3-1 win, and they rallied for road draws in Houston and San Jose in the past month.
The win over the Galaxy could not have come at a better time. With five matches remaining and two in hand, Seattle is now just three points outside of the sixth and final Western Conference playoff spot. Its next two opponents are the East’s last-place team in the Chicago Fire at home on Wednesday and a weekend matchup against the West’s eighth-place team in the Vancouver Whitecaps, a team the Sounders just beat 1-0 last week.
The resiliency the team has shown under Schmetzer since he took over in late July has led Seattle to a 5-1-3 record and to within serious playoff contention, a feat that seemed like a pipe dream two months ago.
“We’re patient in games,” goalkeeper Stefan Frei said. “We’re not panicking when we go down a goal because we have our own weapons up top, we have guys who can keep the ball and put it in great service and put those guys up top in great positions to score.
“We have a veteran and savvy squad that knows the game is 90 minutes and when you go down a goal, you don’t need to score one in the next five minutes,” he continued. “You just need to make sure not to concede another one.”
Schmetzer is adamant that it’s still just one game at a time for the Sounders, but it certainly bodes well for Seattle over the season’s final stretch.
“We knew looking at the results last night that Portland lost and that three points would really help us,” Morris said. “This was a big step in the right direction and we have to keep pushing forward.”