Sounders miss out on three points, but welcome back two stars

The third time was the charm as LA finally came away with a point. Until the last match, the Sounders had beaten up on LA with a large goal differential. Beating a team 3 times in a season is difficult, and beating LA 3 times in the span of a month was too much for the Sounders.

The Sounders created better chances and led for most of the game, but some sloppy defending against set pieces left the door open for LA to tie the game after chasing it for the first 86 minutes of the game. Musovski and Ferreira scored in the first half, and the Sounders took the 2-0 lead into halftime.

LA dominated play for a while as the Sounders countered with subs. That brought in Nouhou to go in for Baker-Whiting, who was on a yellow card, and the return of Albert Rusnak and Jordan Morris from injuries and Georgi Minoungou after drawing a penalty for the Sounders in their last match.

The post-game talk from Schmetzer, who was aggravated by the result, was about leaving the opponent in the game. Although they had opportunities, such as Minoungou's attempted bicycle kick came up short.

A tie only helped stave off LA, who is 3 points behind in the standings with only 6 games to go as the Sounders are clinging to one of the top 4 playoff spots. Schmetzer was disappointed that the Sounders did not perform up to their own standard and shouldered some of the blame for the defense of the set plays.

The Sounders are still performing well, but they couldn't put LA away when they had the chance. They have been playing well since competing against the top teams in the world in the Club World Cup and have only lost once in that stretch.

Their next game will be in Miami against Miami and Messi, and some of his friends. To be fair, the LA goalie, Novak Mićović, came up with a number of quality saves that could have sent Seattle en route to a blow out.

Suarez won't be suiting up since this will be game 2 of his 3 game suspension for spitting on the Seattle head of Security following the Leagues Cup final. They also won't have defender Thomas Aviles for the match after he picked up a second yellow in their last match against Charlotte FC. By beating Miami 3-0, Charlotte tied the MLS record for longest winning streak (9 games) in the post shout-out era.

The Sounders have 6 MLS games left before the playoffs, so points are at a premium. Miami is in a similar position as both teams need points to better their playoff positions. The return of Rusnak and Morris and the high quality of performances since the Club World Cup have set the Sounders up as a force to be reckoned with in the postseason. Expectations for the team are also as high as they have been since coming into the league all those years ago.