{"id":19765,"date":"2018-10-28T20:45:06","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T00:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonsoccer.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=19765"},"modified":"2018-10-28T20:45:06","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T00:45:06","slug":"seattle-sounders-skyrocket-to-second-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2018\/10\/28\/seattle-sounders-skyrocket-to-second-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Sounders Skyrocket to Second Place in the West on Decision Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SEATTLE, Washington (Oct. 28, 2018) &#8212;<\/strong>\u00a0Who would&#8217;ve thought this would happen?<\/p>\n<p>In the beginning and middle of the season, MLS fans wrote off <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/category\/sounders\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seattle Sounders FC<\/a>. There would be no historic 10th-straight season going into the playoffs. There wouldn&#8217;t be enough in the tank to fire up for a few wins.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>Seattle Sounders Skyrocket to Second Place in West on Decision Day<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>However, the Sounders never gave up &#8212; and didn&#8217;t give in.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the Sounders players, coac, es and organization buckled down and got to business. A historic win-streak propelled the Sounders from last place to sixth place, earning a playoff spot. Each week, the Sounders found themselves climbing up the Western Conference standings.<\/p>\n<p>Now, on Decision Day, the field is set for the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Not only are the Sounders in the postseason &#8212; which is historic, since the club has made the playoffs in every single season they&#8217;ve been part of the league &#8212; but the team has a pretty good starting spot.<\/p>\n<p>With a little assistance from <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/category\/fcdallas\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FC Dallas<\/a> falling to the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/category\/rapids\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colorado Rapids<\/a>, the Sounders are in second place. With that result, the Sounders earn a first-round bye week and have finished right behind <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/category\/skc\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sporting Kansas City<\/a>. The Sounders hold 59 points to their name after defeating the last-place <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/category\/quakes\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Jose Earthquakes<\/a>, 2-1, at CenturyLink Field.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What a feeling! What a goal by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RaulRuidiazM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@RaulRuidiazM<\/a>! \ud83c\udf89<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SEAvSJ?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SEAvSJ<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/67ja925QZ0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/67ja925QZ0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SoundersFC\/status\/1056681642893336577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 28, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><strong>How It Happened<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>At first, doom fell over CenturyLink Field.<\/p>\n<p>After a scoreless first half, Chad Marshall opened up the scoring account, but not for his side. Instead, in the 64th minute, Marshall scored an own goal past his own goalkeeper Stefan Frei. San Jose, a club that has trailed in last place for a majority of the season, had some hope.<\/p>\n<p>With Chris Wondolowski only two goals away from tying the all-time scoring record in MLS, all engines were roaring for the Earthquakes. However,\u00a0Ra\u00fal Ruid\u00edaz, Seattle&#8217;s Peruvian striker that was signed after the FIFA World Cup, had other plans.<\/p>\n<p>Ruid\u00edaz opened up Seattle&#8217;s tally in the 79th minute, giving the Sounders some breathing room. With a draw, the Sounders would have at least taken fifth place. However,\u00a0Ruid\u00edaz wasn&#8217;t finished, as he scored the game-winning goal in the 93rd minute, in second half stoppage time.<\/p>\n<p>Ruid\u00edaz finished the match with two shots on goal. The goals were his only attempt at the net throughout the entire day.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in goal, Frei recorded three saves against\u00a0Danny Hoesen and Tommy Thompson. Wondolowski, who was chasing a big-time record, did not record a single shot on goal throughout the match. For San Jose in goal,\u00a0James Marcinkowski made five saves to deny further opportunities from\u00a0V\u00edctor Rodr\u00edguez, Cristian Roldan, Kim Kee-Hee and\u00a0Osvaldo Alonso.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What&#8217;s Next?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Seattle is in the playoffs with time to rest.<\/p>\n<p>The Sounders will return to action on Nov. 4 and Nov. 11 for their leg matches. Seattle will face the highest-ranked team to advance to the conference semifinals. With that said, Seattle would either face FC Dallas, the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/category\/timbers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Portland Timbers<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/category\/rsl\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Real Salt Lake<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There is no way the Sounders would face sixth-seed RSL. The Western Conference knockout rounds will occur on Oct. 31 or Nov. 1, as the league will officially decide a date this evening or tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cLet\u2019s keep it going!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A message from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stefan24Frei?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Stefan24Frei<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WVydqlVvCr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/WVydqlVvCr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SoundersFC\/status\/1056685253073358850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 28, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>PHOTO: Ra\u00fal Ruid\u00edaz, who scored two goals for the Seattle Sounders to propel the club to second place in the MLS Western Conference standings, is pictured against the San Jose Earthquakes on Oct. 28, 2018, at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington. Photo courtesy of\u00a0Mike Fiechtner\/Seattle Sounders FC.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Decision Day was a success for the Seattle Sounders as the team skyrocketed to second place with a win and a little help from the Colorado Rapids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2497,"featured_media":19774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,119,22],"tags":[543,1558,1709,1937,57,471,2267,37,1430,469],"class_list":["post-19765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-mls","category-sounders","tag-brian-schmetzer","tag-chad-marshall","tag-cristian-roldan","tag-kim-kee-hee","tag-mls","tag-mls-cup-playoffs","tag-raul-ruidiaz","tag-san-jose-earthquakes","tag-seattle-sounders-fc","tag-stefan-frei"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}