Jordan Morris keeps the scoring going as Sounders beat Galaxy

Saturday was one for the history books for the Sounders. 

With a goal in the 21st minute of the Sounders’ nail-biting 2-1 victory over the LA Galaxy in Carson, Calif., Jordan Morris became the first player in club history with five consecutive goals, while head coach Brian Schmetzer earned his 100th regular-season MLS victory. 

The milestone victory came in Schmetzer’s 212th career game, making him the third-fastest manager in MLS history to reach the triple-digit mark behind only Bob Bradley and Bruce Arena, who reached it in 199 and 189 games, respectively. 

In typical fashion, Schmetzer was in no mood to reflect upon his accomplishment after the game, instead pointing the focus back on his players. 

“I’ve had a lot of help. I’ve had a lot of good players, a lot of good players helping me,” Schmetzer said. “I appreciate … everyone else that has forwarded on well wishes. I am honored to be in (Arena) and (Bradley)’s category, and Oscar (Pareja), but I’ve had a lot of help.”

Morris, playing his second straight game at center forward, gave the Sounders the lead in the 21st minute with the 50th regular-season goal of his career and MLS-leading eight this season.

Morris is the third homegrown player in MLS history to reach the 50-goal mark, and became the first player in club history to score five consecutive goals after his four-goal performance last week in the Sounders’ 4-1 victory against Kansas City. 

Morris also became the third player in club history to score 60 goals across all competitions. 

All five of his goals over the past two games have come with assists from Léo Chú, who made his second start of the season Saturday at left wing. 

As a kid who grew up watching and cheering for the Sounders from his Mercer Island home, Morris was thrilled to be putting his name among the franchise and league’s great players. 

“That’s obviously a huge, huge honor,” Morris said. “I have to thank (Chú) a lot for the last couple games, giving me some goals to help me get there. It’s a huge honor for me to grow up in this city and be such a fan of the team growing up and then to play for my hometown team.

“I always say even though I play on the wing, I feel like I’m a goal scorer, and that’s what I love to do. … To see my name up there with other greats of you know, incredible players from the past and present of the Sounders, it means the world to me.”

After setting a club record by assisting on all four of Morris’ goals last week, Chú helped Morris out again on Saturday before scoring a goal of his own in the 35th minute, with an assist from Nicolas Lodeiro, to give the Sounders a 2-0 lead. 

Lodeiro finished the game with two assists. 

With five goals together over the past two weeks, Chú knows that something is clicking between him and Morris. 

“It’s always great when you play with other players that have great quality, and it’s good that I’ve been finding Jordan often.” Chú said through a team interpreter. “This partnership is working very well. Still, the team is very strong, so I believe the partnership can work when we have Heber or Raul (Ruidiaz) there. The important thing is to help the team.”

The Galaxy finally scored on their 16th shot of the day, as Jalen Neal sneaked one past Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei in the 63rd minute to pull LA within one goal. The goal energized the home team after a sluggish first half, as the Galaxy kept Frei busy in the later part of the game. 

Frei finished with seven saves, five of them coming in the second half. The Galaxy took several shots in stoppage time, but Frei stopped them all.

After his seventh save, the referees blew the final whistle to give the Sounders their fourth win of the season. 

“It was an exciting finish. Maybe not for the home fans, but you know, it was tough,” Schmetzer said. “But those are the moments where Stefan Frei makes clutch saves. He’s been doing it ever since he’s been in this franchise, and you know, credit to the guys for closing this game out again.”

Frei made even more history for the Sounders on Saturday by making his 322nd all-competition start, tying him with Osvaldo Alonso for the most in the club’s MLS era. 

The win extends the Sounders’ unbeaten streak against the Galaxy in league play to 10 games, a streak which dates back to Sept. 23, 2018. They have a 6-0-4 record against the Galaxy in that stretch. 

The Sounders play their next game at home on Saturday against St. Louis City SC. 

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