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SEATTLE (AP) — Chad Barrett scored in the third minute of stoppage time to give the Seattle Sounders a 1-1 tie with the Los Angeles Galaxy in front of 56,097 fans Sunday night at CenturyLink Field.
Marco Pappa started the play with a corner kick from the attacking right side. Sounders defender Brad Evans flicked off his head across the goal, and Barrett, who came on in the 85th minute, ran onto the ball and one-timed it into the net from two yards away for his fifth of the year.
It was an unlikely outcome for the reserve forward who wasn't even on coach Sigi Schmid's 18-man roster for the game. He was watching warmups from the press box when he saw Nelson Valdez, initially designated as a starting midifielder, hobble off to the locker room.
Before he ever had a chance to take a bite of dinner, his phone rang.
"It was (assistant coach) Kurt Schmid telling me I needed to come down," Barrett said. "I knew I wasn't starting, so I had a good amount of time to get my head around it. We went 1-nothing down, and I thought there was a good chance I could get in."
Barrett nearly had the equalizer in the 87th minute. He chased down a ball near the goal line on the left side and sent a shallow shot across the goalmouth. Galaxy keeper Donovan Ricketts' attempt to bring it down left him on the ground the net wide open. But defenders A.J. DeLaGarza and Omar Gonzalez, both inside the net, combined to clear it off the line.
"I thought it was going to go in," Barrett said. "I thought, 'Just give me one more chance, one more chance.' That was a great ball by Pappa and a great flick by Brad."
The Sounders (14-13-5, 47 points) extended their unbeaten streak to six games (4-0-2).
"It was important to get a point and not walk away with a goose egg," Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said. "And it's important from the standpoint that everybody in our locker room knows that we can come back. We're a team that came back a lot last year. Teams usually don't come back in this league once they go down."
Los Angeles took the lead In the 36th minute when Robbie Keane converted a Sounders defensive giveaway into a goal. Seattle's Zach Scott, playing on the defensive left side, sent the ball toward Gonzalo Pineda at the top of the box. But he left it short, and Pineda couldn't reach it.
Keane did, running onto the errant pass, taking it to the top of the penalty spot, and firing into the back right center for his 17th of the year.
Even with the tie, Los Angeles (14-9-9, 51 points) clinched a playoff spot and climbed into a Supporters Shield tie with the New York Red Bulls. New York has four games left, and the Galaxy have two.
"We're a team that expects to be in the playoffs, to be honest with you," Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said. "That's good, but we certainly want to accomplish a little bit more than making the playoffs.
"For the most part, we played pretty well tonight. It would've felt a little better getting three points, but give Seattle credit. They push hard, get the goal, and earned it at the end."
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