Sounders FC had lost seven consecutive road matches heading into Saturday’s clash with the San Jose Earthquakes. It appeared as if the club was going to suffer another frustrating defeat away from home, but Obafemi Martins scored in the final 10 minutes to salvage a point for the Rave Green.
Despite the absence of Osvaldo Alonso due to yellow-card accumulation, Seattle earned a 1-1 result against a San Jose team that had won both of the previous matchups between the two sides this season. In his Sounders FC debut, Austrian midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz made an immediate impact by playing in the free kick that led to Martins’ trying goal.
Thanks to Martins’ fifth goal in as many matches, Sounders FC maintains its three-point edge over San Jose and sits in fourth place in the Western Conference with five games to go.
Here’s what Ivanschitz and Assistant Coach Brian Schmetzer said after the game (Head Coach Sigi Schmid did not travel with the team due to a health-related issue).
Brian Schmetzer:
“A draw on the road is certainly OK. We certainly play to win in all competitions, but for us it’s a good result because San Jose was a little bit of our bogey team. At the end of the game, our players were looking for the forwards. They were looking for the ball more to try and win the game. So that’s another sign of a committed team, and that’s what I appreciate about the group.”
“Training this week will carry us forward, because we gave up another set-piece goal. So we’ll work on that. And then we’ll just take each opponent one at a time and try and go places to win. We don’t go places, don’t travel long distances not to try and win games.”
Andreas Ivanschitz:
“I’m happy that in the end we took the point, at least one point. I think we started well, and then in the second half we dropped back too much. We gave them too much space to play, to keep the ball. But in the end, I think after [going down] 1-0, we showed a good performance.”
“It was a game between two teams who need points, who need points to get to the playoffs. So we said before at least we want to take one point. When you see the game, after 1-0, you have to fight back and it’s not easy. It’s not easy against them, because they have a very strong team and they played well. So I’m very happy that we took this point, and I think this point will give a lot of confidence for the next weeks and the next games.”
