Seattle Sounders will clinch playoff berth with win Sunday

Seattle (14-13-6) extended its unbeaten run to seven games, climbing to 48 points and at least temporarily moving into a fourth-place tie with Sporting Kansas City, pending the result of Portland’s match at Los Angeles tonight.

Seattle leads the all-time series with Houston at 5-3-3, but the away side has failed to win in 11 all-time meetings.

Seattle Sounders defender Chad Marshall says he’s ready to return to the field on Sunday after suffering a scary neck injury during training two weeks ago.

Andreas Ivanschitz recorded his first assist as a Sounder when his corner-kick found Martins for the equalizer in the 82nd minute.

“It’s nice to salvage a point, having gone down”, Marshall said. “And after that, maybe a penalty shot, but it is what it is and we leave it to the last game”. Schmid minimized the severity of that injury, saying that Pappa should be fine for next week against Real Salt Lake but is unlikely to feature against Houston.

However, the 1-1 draw with Houston at BBVA Compass Stadium was enough to eliminate the Dynamo from the playoff race.

“It’s on me, because I prepared the team tactically… We needed to be more aggressive”. Whether the two remaining matches produce zero, one, two, four or six points will determine whether Seattle gets a first-round bye, home field advantage for the knockout game, travels for the knockout game, or misses the playoffs for the first time in club history. “We’re fighting essentially relegation in my mind, with that red line,” captain Brad Evans said.

I’ll be back with notes and quotes. They didn’t. That brings us to Sunday, exactly one week before the end of the Major League Soccer regular season.

Schmid however expressed confidence that Martins and Dempsey are capable of handling the pressure as Sounders head closer to the playoffs. “I thought our game was a little bit passive, a little bit slow”, said Schmid. We need to be a little more patient. Ricardo Clark received it with a few yards of space in front of him and sent it just inside the left post.

“We tried to build out of the back, and we had a turnover”, Frei said.

The Sounders were subdued in their celebration, instead quickly heading back to the center circle in pursuit of another goal.