Seattle Sounders FC fell, 1-0, to the San Jose Earthquakes Saturday night at Levi’s Stadium. Yannick Djalo scored the lone goal as Seattle dropped its second straight game for the first time this season.
Seattle (12-6-2, 38 points) remains first in the Western Conference standings, two points clear of Real Salt Lake. San Jose (6-8-5, 23 points) has won consecutive games and is unbeaten in its last three.
In the 42nd minute, Djalo put the Earthquakes up when he got behind the defense on an over-the-top ball from Chris Wondolowski and slotted it past Stefan Frei.
Sounders FC nearly equalized in the 85th minute when Chad Barrett rocketed a header off a corner kick, but Wondolowski headed it off the line to prevent the goal.
Seattle outshot San Jose 19-13, including a 9-4 shots on goal advantage, controlled 57.5% of the possession, and earned nine corner kicks to the Earthquakes’ three.
Quakes keeper Jon Busch made eight saves, including consecutive stops early in stoppage time on long-distance shots from Clint Dempsey and Gonzalo Pineda. In the 68th minute, he leapt to knock a dangerous Kenny Cooper header over the crossbar.
Following a Dempsey free kick in fifth minute of stoppage time, DeAndre Yedlin fired a shot in the box that was blocked away by Sam Cronin.
Sounders FC returns to action next Sunday when CenturyLink Field opens to full capacity for the lone matchup of the season against the Houston Dynamo. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. PT and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.
Scoring Summary:
SEA – Yannick Djalo (Chris Wondolowski) 42
