SEATTLE — Twenty-seven minutes. Four goals. One night to remember.
The Seattle Sounders did something Wednesday night at CenturyLink Field that no team in the history of Major League Soccer had ever done. Down 3-0 in the second half to D.C. United, Seattle strung together four unanswered goals in 27 minutes to secure a 4-3 win and stretch its league unbeaten run to four games.
In the 78th minute, Cristian Roldan dinked a pass to himself around a D.C. defender before firing a shot through the legs of goalkeeper Travis Worra to deliver the death knell in what had been one the wildest halves in franchise history. Roldan returned to the starting lineup after missing the Sounders’ July 4 win over the Colorado Rapids while away with the U.S. national team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and made his presence felt.
“We made it difficult on ourselves [going down 3-0],” Roldan said. “Everybody was committed to coming back. I try and lead in different ways and that’s playing as well as I can and doing all the right things. Tonight you saw a total team effort…that’s all you can ask for as a teammate. You want guys who are going to work as hard as you.”
Wednesday was the second time Seattle has erased a three-goal deficit this season. The team scored three goals in the final 15 minutes to draw the New England Revolution at the end of April, but the Sounders turned one point into three against United and jumped back into a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
“The emotion now is one of relief,” said head coach Brian Schmetzer. “The guys put their heart and soul into this match. Had the result gone not our way, I think I would have been still proud of the effort they showed in the second half, but getting the actual victory really should and I think will buoy them going into the San Jose game (Sunday, July 23, 7:30 p.m. PT; JOEtv, Univision, ROOT Sports outside Seattle, KIRO Radio 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360AM).”
Midfielder Gustav Svensson scored the equalizer in the 74th minute, his first as a Sounder and one that felt like it was coming after Brad Evans cut the deficit to one in the 62nd. Nicolas Lodeiro whipped in a beautiful corner kick, and Svensson had a peach of a shot to volley home the cross to the near post.
“It takes a lot of good character, a lot of good players to [come back],” said Svensson. “It’s not easy.”
Despite the emotionally uplifting comeback, though, the Sounders are still upset they needed to come back at all.
“If you look at the scoreboard,” Svensson said, “I’m very happy with 4-3 [result]. If you look at the game, especially the first half, I’m not that happy.”
Added Roldan: “It was sluggish from our side, maybe because of the [international] break. We just didn’t come out to compete…It really took until they scored three goals to turn it on. We were sharp [in the second half] and we committed guys forward and we finished the chances we had.”
Things have been going the Sounders’ way over the past two months. They are 5-2-2 in their last nine matches, just five points out of first place in the West and have the second-easiest second-half schedule in MLS.
What Schmetzer and the coaching staff hope to take away from Wednesday’s match is a momentum that will continue to grow moving forward.
“I [feel] this could be a really defining moment for this season to come back from 3-0 down the way we did, how we did it, the effort we put in,” said Schmetzer. “I thought it was pretty tremendous.”
