San Jose Earthquakes
SAN JOSE — Albert Rusnak’s late match heroics allowed the Seattle Sounders to earn a point against the San Jose Earthquakes in a 1-1 draw in the first installment of the 2025 edition of the Heritage Cup on Saturday evening at Pay Pal Park.
San Jose snapped its three-match pointless streak with the draw. Seattle has points in three out of its past four MLS contests after bowing out from the CONCACAF Champions Cup by Liga MX’s Cruz Azul in a 4-1 loss back on March 11th.
Earthquakes head coach Bruce Arena made changes to his backline and formation after losing to Charlotte FC last week by a score of 4-1. Out were Nick Lima and Jamar Ricketts and in was Rodrigues. Arena went with a 3-5-2 formation as opposed to the 4-2-3-1 he employed in Charlotte.
Seattle (1-2-3) had the match’s first quality scoring chance in the 18th minute. Alex Roldan headed the ball from the center of the box but a leaping save by Quakes goalkeeper Daniel to knock the ball over the cross bar kept the game scoreless.
San Jose (2-3-1) responded six minutes later with its first descent scoring chance. Beau Leroux’s diving header attempt from three yards out was easily saved by Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei in the 24th minute.
“The first half we played well, but the second half we did not. Give Seattle a lot of credit; they have a good team. [They’ve] been together a long time, very experienced and obviously put on a lot of pressure. To get a point is a fair result,” Arena said.
The Earthquakes broke through and drew first blood in the 32nd minute thanks to a turnover by the Sounders. Leroux intercepted a pass from Roldan and his shot deflected off of Jackson Regan up into the air, past the outstretched reach of Frei and into the back of the net for his first goal of the season.
“I kissed the badge,” said the San Jose native Leroux. “This club means everything to me. You know they took a chance on me. I just love this club. I love San Jose and the people. I definitely feel some weight off my shoulders but still have a lot to work on. So, we still have a lot to do to get these results and go for three points.”
San Jose kept the pressure on in the final 5 minutes of the opening 45 minutes. Leroux nearly had a brace when his shot was saved by Frei the center of the box in the 41st minute. Then two minutes later Preston Judd’s right footed shot from a similar spot inside the box sailed just wide.
The Sounders regained the momentum earlier in the second half with back-to-back scoring chances on the same possession. Pressure inside the Quakes box forced Daniel to make two big saves with both shots by Nouhou Tolo in a 15 second span in the 51st minute.
A bit of controversary ensued in the 75th minute when there was an apparent foul inside the box committed by Ragen against Josef Martinez was uncalled by referee Guido Gonzales Jr. despite Martinez beating Ragen to the ball with Ragen impeding Martinez’s progress and knocking him to the ground.
Seattle scored the equalizer in the 80th minute when Cristian Roldan crossed the ball from left to right over to Rusnak. The left winger dribbled in before firing a shot past Daniel into the lower left corner for Rusnak’s second goal of the season in the 80th minute.
“It’s certainly something that we know has to get better. Against this team tonight, they’re a good team. I think they scored five or six goals a couple weeks ago. We have to get (Josef) Martínez and (Chicho) Arango on the field together. We had to be careful with Josef tonight because of his traveling due to international duty. I think we really need to see our team through the first half of the season to really be able to analyze correctly where we’re at and where we need to go,” Arena said.
Daniel had a great night in between the pipes as he stopped nine of the 10 shots on goal, with the majority of those coming in the second half. Frei made two saves on three shots to earn his side of the draw.
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