th-minute goal from Cristian Roldan.
Seattle had an inauspicious start when Jordy Delem left in the seventh minute with an injury and was replaced by Shane O’Neill.
San Jose thought they had a penalty kick in the 15
th minute when referee Baldomero Toledo whistled a handball on Yeimar, but the penalty was waved off after Video Review.
Roldan capitalized on the momentum shift shortly after when he rocketed home a left-footed half volley from just outside the box for his first goal of the season.
The Sounders would unfortunately suffer another injury in stoppage time as goalkeeper Stefan Frei went down with a leg injury. Seattle was out of substitutes and finished with 10 men and defender Alex Roldan in goal.
In tense midweek action at PayPal Park, Seattle Sounders FC (4-0-1, 13 points) battled to a 1-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes (3-2-0, 9 points) in a match that pitted the top two teams in the Western Conference against one another. With the win, Seattle remains both the top team in Major League Soccer and the West, matching the best start to a season in club history with 13 points from five matches (this mark was also reached in 2019). Additionally, the result extends Seattle’s unbeaten run to 14 games against San Jose (8-0-6), dating back to 2015.
Cristian Roldan scored the game’s only goal in the 18
Seattle Sounders FC announced the signing of Tacoma Defiance midfielder Reed Baker-Whiting as a Homegrown Player on Wednesday.
Baker-Whiting, 16, has long been viewed as one of the top talents coming through Sounders Academy’s revamped player development pipeline. During the 2020 MLS season, the Seattle native began training regularly with the First Team, playing alongside the likes of Nicolás Lodeiro, Cristian Roldan and Raúl Ruidíaz, on a daily basis.
“Puts a smile on my face,” said Sounders FC Head Coach Brian Schmetzer. “The kid has earned it, he deserves it. He was a smaller kid, and when fans first see him they will see a tall, lanky kid. He has good size. In his first game for Defiance he covered like 13 kilometers in the game, he has good range. We’ve been tracking him since we brought him into First Team training last year. He stayed with us through MLS Cup, and he’s done well enough to earn a contract.”