Cristian Roldan scored the tiebreaking goal in the 90th minute as the Seattle Sounders rallied for a 2-1 victory against visiting Sporting Kansas City on Thursday night.
Rookie Sebastian Gomez also scored, Jordan Morris had an assist and goalkeeper Andrew Thomas made nine saves for the Sounders (10-9-8, 38 points), who won their third match in a row and extended their unbeaten streak to eight (3-0-5) to move into seventh place in the Western Conference.
Andre Luiz scored for the fifth time in as many MLS starts for Sporting Kansas City (6-18-3, 21 points) and goalie Stefan Cleveland, a former Sounder, made five saves. SKC remained in last place overall in the league.
Roldan scored the winner on a counterattack. Morris dribbled down the middle of the field and passed ahead to Roldan near the top of the 18-yard box. He chipped the ball over an onrushing Cleveland and into the left side of the net.
The Sounders tied the score in the 51st minute. Roldan played a long ball down the middle of the field for Morris, who held off defender Jansen Miller as he dribbled into the penalty area. Morris got spun around and, as he started to fall down at the top of the 6-yard box, flicked a pass back to Gomez for a 12-yard shot into the right side of the net, past a diving Cleveland.
It was the first MLS goal for the 20-year-old Gomez, who came on as a halftime substitute for Danny Musovski.
Luiz, a 24-year-old Brazilian acquired in August from Greek club Olympiacos FC, scored in the 44th minute after a Seattle turnover. Sounders defender Alex Roldan tried to play the ball out of his right back position but the pass was partially blocked by SKC’s Stephen Afrifa and fell right to Luiz, who was about 15 yards out on the left side of the penalty area. Luiz immediately fired a left-footed shot inside the upper near post, leaving Thomas flat-footed.
The Sounders appeared to take the lead in the 15th minute when Morris converted a cross from Alex Roldan, but it was ruled Roldan was offside on the play — a decision confirmed by a video review.
The Sounders were without Dejan Joveljic, who was off competing with the Serbian national team. Joveljic was acquired from Sporting Kansas City in August for a $6 million transfer fee.
–Field Level Media
