The San Jose Earthquakes saw their two-game winning streak come to an end and a chance to creep closer to the playoff line slip away in a 3-1 home loss to the Seattle Sounders on Wednesday night.
The Quakes had to play catchup most of the match after Raul Ruidiaz scored two first half goals for the West-leading Sounders (15-5-6, 51 points). The Earthquakes (8-10-9, 33 points) are in 10th place in the West, and they are four points under the playoff line. San Jose has seven games remaining and returns to action Saturday night at Vancouver, which is three points under the playoff line.
San Jose, which played against Seattle without Cristian Espinoza because of yellow-card accumulation, trailed 3-0 before the Sounders’ Shane O’Neill knocked the ball into his own goal in the 51st minute while under pressure inside the 6-yard box by the Quakes’ Benjamin Kikanovic.
The Quakes were coming off an impressive 2-0 home win over Los Angeles FC on Saturday and are 5-3-4 since July 31.
The Sounders are two points clear of Sporting Kansas City with eight matches remaining and a game in hand on second-place SKC.
The multi-goal game was the fourth of the season for Ruidiaz, who has 16 tallies overall, second in MLS to D.C. United’s Ola Kamara. Ruidiaz did not play in the second half after sustaining a left leg injury just before halftime.
Seattle captured the season series with the victory after the teams split their previous two meetings of 2021. The Earthquakes 1-0 win in Seattle on July 31 snapped San Jose’s 14-game winless streak against the Sounders.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.