The Seattle Sounders defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 at PayPal Park in San Jose, Calif., on Sunday behind a first-half goal from Paul Rothrock.
The Sounders had a great look at goal in the sixth minute when Georgi Minoungou drove down the left flank and crossed for Cody Baker, but his subsequent shot from the top of the box fizzed past the far post.
Seattle took the lead in the 20th minute on the end of great counterattacking play. A clearance found Danny Musovski in hold-up play, and Musovski dropped a pass for Jesús Ferreira. Ferreira then slipped a beautiful through ball in behind for an onrushing Rothrock, who calmly deposited his second goal of the young MLS campaign.
San Jose had several bona fide looks at goal inside the box in the 37th minute, but heroic defending from Jackson Ragen and Antino Lopez blocked the Earthquakes’ shots and forced a corner.
The Earthquakes’ best chance of the first half came in the 45th minute when Niko Tsakiris hit a free kick from 25 yards out that rattled the far post.
Rothrock nearly doubled the scoring in the 48th minute when he was played in behind and took a shot on a half-volley, but ‘Quakes goalkeeper Daniel did well to dive to his right to deny him.
The Sounders then withstood a serious amount of pressure over the next 15 minutes but didn’t break. Preston Judd had the best opportunity in the 60th minute when he was slipped in behind for a 1-v-1 opportunity with Andrew Thomas, but the Sounders goalkeeper made himself big to thwart Judd’s attempt.
Lopez made the defensive play of the game in the 74th minute when Thomas got a piece of a Judd chance on a counterattack but not enough to keep it out of the net. Lopez kept tracking back and slid to clear away the potential equalizer near the goal line.
Thomas came up huge again in the 83rd minute when Timo Werner drove in the box and slipped a ball into the path of Ronaldo Vieira, who spun and ripped a shot that Thomas deflected out of play for a corner.
Thomas denied a Tsakiris shot on the ensuing play, pushing the effort over the crossbar, before making yet another stop on a Judd header.
Seattle looked to ice the match in the 86th minute when Baker scored what would have been his first career MLS goal, but it was disallowed after Video Review after Albert Rusnák was deemed to be offside on the shot.
Thomas made another difficult stop in the third minute of stoppage time when he pushed away an attempt that looked to sneak inside the near post.
The win pushes the Sounders to fifth in the Western Conference with nine points from four matches (3-1-0).
The Sounders will host the Vancouver Whitecaps on Thursday (8 p.m. PT; FS2, TUDN) at ONE Spokane Stadium in Spokane, Wash., in Leg 2 of their Concacaf Champions Cup tie after winning 3-0 in Vancouver last week. Seattle then visits Minnesota United in league play next Sunday (11:30 a.m. PT; Apple TV).​
THREE TAKEAWAYS
Young talent shines
Three days after a hard-fought win at the Vancouver Whitecaps in Concacaf Champions Cup, Sounders Head Coach Brian Schmetzer employed a heavy rotation, including Tacoma Defiance players Lopez and Peter Kingston earning their first career MLS starts. Right fullback Baker also got the nod, just his second start since 2024. The young Sounders fared very well, holding the ‘Quakes, who entered the weekend with the highest Expected Goals mark in the league, off the score sheet for the first time this season.
Lopez impresses
Schmetzer threw Lopez into the end of the Whitecaps’ match on Thursday as a way to give him a taste of game action ahead of Sunday. Lopez has made the most of his opportunity, making a brilliant challenge in the box to keep a clean sheet in Vancouver before having another impressive defensive display in San Jose, including a massive goal-line clearance to preserve Seattle’s shutout.
Three road wins on the trot
In the middle of their arduous road trip while Lumen Field undergoes upgrades ahead of this summer’s FIFA World Cup, the Sounders have now won three consecutive matches away from home in all competitions over the past nine days. Starting with a win in Missouri over St. Louis CITY SC last Saturday, Seattle earned a huge victory in CCC at Vancouver on Thursday before leaving San Jose with three points on Sunday. All three wins were clean sheets for this Sounders defense.
