LA Galaxy vs. Sounders, full-time: Late penalty leaves it level

FULL-TIME: The Sounders came back from a 2-0 deficit to eventually lead 3-2 but were undone by a stoppage-time penalty awarded by VAR. The point was good enough to move the Sounders into the No. 7 spot in the Western Conference, at least temporarily.

GALAXY 3, SOUNDERS 3: VAR awarded a penalty in stoppage time after a header struck the arm of Xavier Arreaga and Dejan Joveljić dispatched goal.

GALAXY 2, SOUNDERS 3: Jordan Morris completed the Sounders’ comeback from 2-0 down, putting away a rebound off a Yeimar Gomez-Andrade header.

GALAXY 2, SOUNDERS 2: Just a few moments after the Sounders hit the woodwork twice on one sequence, the Sounders found the equalizer on a Raúl Ruidíaz header off a Nicolás Lodeiro cross.

GALAXY 2, SOUNDERS 1: Kelyn Rowe put away a perfect feed from Raúl Ruidíaz in the 53rd minute to cut the deficit in half.

GALAXY 2, SOUNDERS 0: Victor Vazquez caught Stefan Frei off his line, scoring on a chip from the edge of the penalty area in the 42nd minute after a spell in which the Sounders had been reasonably dominant.

GALAXY 1, SOUNDERS 0: Chicharito Hernandez got the Galaxy on the board in the 10th minute, collecting a pass in the box and easily slotting it past Stefan Frei. It’s the seventh time in 10 games the Sounders have surrendered the first goal.

LINEUPS: The Sounders moved back to a three-back formation for the first time since July 13, but will deploy a 3-5-2 for the first time this year. The move was somewhat necessitated by an injury to Cristian Roldan, who was effectively replaced in the lineup by Kelyn Rowe.

There are nine games remaining in the 2022 regular season. The Seattle Sounders sit 10th in the Western Conference, but just one point out of a playoff spot and can jump all the way to sixth with a win over the LA Galaxy tonight. That’s been a vaguely familiar storyline for several weeks and will probably continue to be one for the next few.

This Galaxy game has some added importance because they are one of the teams the Sounders will be battling for these final playoff spots. Like the Sounders, the Galaxy have been struggling in recent weeks (although they are coming off a resounding win over the Whitecaps). The Galaxy are 2-5-0 over their past seven and 3-6-1 over their past 10. That’s one more point over their last 10 than the Sounders.

The Galaxy’s biggest problem has been on the defensive end, where they’ve given up 19 goals during this 10-game stretch. They’ve also given up at least two goals in half of those games and at least three in four of them.

Their struggles have been an almost mirror-image of the Sounders, who have only allowed as many as three goals once during this 10-game run but have been limited to just nine goals scored.

• The Sounders have a nine-game unbeaten run against the Galaxy (5-0-3) that dates to 2018 and includes a 3-2 win earlier this year. The Sounders have gone 2-0-3 on the road during that stretch.
• That overlaps almost perfectly with Raúl Ruidíaz’s time with the Sounders, which includes eight goals in eight career appearances against the Galaxy.
• The Galaxy are coming off a 5-2 win over the Whitecaps on Saturday. It included their…