Sounders let three-goal lead slip against Rapids

Seattle Sounders 3-3 Colorado Rapids

SEATTLE, WA–It was 90s Night at Lumen Field and the Sounders were wearing their “Orca Kits” in honor of their 1995 A-League Championship (its spiritual successor now the USL Championship). Then, the Sounders defeated the Atlanta Ruckus in a best-of-three Finals series winning the last two games at Memorial Stadium. It would lead to a Concacaf Champions Cup berth (there was no Major League Soccer at the time) and would be the first of four titles for the Sounders as a second-tier club.

Colorado’s team in the A-League in 1995 was known as the Foxes. They did not make the four-team playoffs in a six-team league in 1995. For a while, the Rapids were playing the role of the Foxes, but then turned to last Saturday’s Rapids scoring three goals–this time coming from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 at Lumen Field.

The Sounders took the lead in the 16th minute after Obed Vargas’s shot deflected off Andreas Maxso and past a wrong-footed Zack Steffen for the 1-0 lead. If the first goal conceded by the Rapids was bad luck, the second was the result of bad defending and bad decision making in the 43rd minute.

Steffen came off his line and out of the area to clear a ball. That ball was headed right to Albert Rusnak who then volleyed right into an empty net to double Seattle’s lead. Rusnak would get a second two minutes into the second half off a feed from Danny Musovsky to make it 3-0. It could arguably have been more for the Sounders earlier were it not for a couple missed chances. Chances that the Sounders would end up paying the penalty–two of them in fact.

Two minutes after it was 3-0, the Rapids were awarded a penalty after Rafael Navarro was tripped in the box by Cristian Roldan. Djordje Mihailovic would score on the ensuing spot kick. Almost immediately after that, The Rapids were awarded a second penalty after Navarro was tripped by Andrew Thomas. This time, Cole Bassett would convert the spot kick.

Photo by Paul Kahl

The comeback was complete in the 75th minute when Mihailovic fed the ball to Darren Yapi who took on two defenders before beating Thomas far post to make it 3-3. It is the first time in Sounders history that they had not won after going up three goals in a match.

It’s a point that keeps Colorado in seventh in the Western Conference, while the two points dropped by the Sounders drops them to fifth in the West with LAFC winning at Minnesota earlier in the evening.

The Sounder remain home on Saturday to take on Real Salt Lake (7:30pm PT, Apple TV) while the Rapids get this weekend off before traveling to Philadelphia on July 26th (5:30pm MT, Apple TV).

Photos by Paul Kahl