TUKWILA, Wash. – A late goal proved to be the undoing of yet another promising Seattle Sounders FC 2 victory as the squad settled for a draw against LA Galaxy II at Starfire Sports on Sunday.
The equalizing goal came in the 81st minute when a Galaxy corner kick sprang loose in the box and fell to defender Dave Romney who blasted it into the back of the net. Goalkeeper Tyler Miller managed to get his fingertips on it, but the shot was too strong for him to wrangle.
Prior to the goal, S2 had been holding a one goal lead since the first half as well as a man advantage. Los Dos' Alejandro Covarrubias was issued a second yellow for his high boot challenge on midfielder Mark O’Ojong.
“That was not a very good second half by us,” said head coach Ezra Hendrickson. “You go into halftime a man up, a goal up and we came out and just went away from our game.”
O’Ojong scored his first goal of the season in the 41st minute on a left footed blast into the upper right corner. Forward Myron Samuel teed up the chance, finding space along the right flank and putting a hard pass across the top of the area, which O’Ojong met.
“I feel good having a goal today,” said O’Ojong. “It came at the right time but we did not have a victory today. The most important thing is to score and to have a victory and we did not have a victory.”
“I thought it was a good goal,” said Hendrickson. “We worked on some offensive patterns during the week and that was something that came from that. He took it well.”
With the season now a third of the way through, points are at a premium for S2, who have dug themselves an early hole and will need to claw their way up from the bottom of the Western Conference.
S2 hits the road this week, heading to Providence Park to take on Portland Timbers 2 on Thursday, May 26(7 p.m. PT, livestream on SoundersFC.com).
