Cédric Bakambu Rescues San Diego FC in 2-2 Draw With Seattle Sounders After Stoppage-Time Penalty

Cédric Bakambu stood over the ball six minutes into stoppage time with San Diego FC's night, and maybe its season, hanging on one kick. He went low with his right foot into the bottom right corner, and Snapdragon Stadium finally got to exhale.

That penalty earned San Diego a 2-2 draw with the Seattle Sounders on Saturday night, completing a comeback from two goals down. Seattle had controlled the scoreboard after second-half strikes from Dejan Joveljic and Sebastian Gomez, but Bakambu scored both San Diego goals, the first after a saved penalty, and the Sounders left Southern California with one point instead of three. Nobody won. Seattle will feel like they lost something.

A First Half That Belonged to San Diego

For 45 minutes, San Diego were the side asking questions. Anders Dreyer fired over in the first minute, Amahl Pellegrino missed a header and then a shot from the middle of the box in the 25th and 27th minutes, and Dreyer rattled the right post from outside the area in the 29th. Alejandro Alvarado and Dreyer both had more efforts before the break, and Dreyer finished the night with five shots.

Seattle had their moments. Cristian Roldan narrowly missed the top right corner from distance in the 21st minute, and Albert Rusnák blazed over from the center of the box. But at halftime, with no stoppage time added, it was 0-0, and the Sounders looked like the team happier to get to the locker room.

Seattle's Five-Minute Haymaker

Brian Schmetzer's halftime move changed the game. Gomez came on for Jesús Ferreira, and Seattle came out swinging.

In the 50th minute, Joveljic let fly with his left foot from outside the box and found the bottom left corner. According to Seattle, it was his 13th goal of the season and his fifth since joining the Sounders at the end of August. Five minutes later, Hassani Dotson set up Gomez, who finished from the center of the box with his left foot to make it 2-0. Seattle noted it was Gomez's second straight match scoring as a second-half substitute.

At that point, the Sounders were cruising. San Diego had more of the ball and nothing to show for it.

The Penalty That Started It All

Then the game flipped in five minutes. In the 57th minute, Alex Roldan was penalized for a foul on Pellegrino in the box, a call confirmed by VAR a minute later, and Roldan was booked. Dreyer stepped up in the 60th minute and Andrew Thomas guessed right, saving his left-footed effort low to the right. Seattle's relief lasted about as long as a TikTok video. Moments later, Bakambu scored from very close range to make it 2-1.

San Diego's bench reacted immediately, sending on Jeppe Tverskov, Marcus Ingvartsen and Onni Valakari in the 61st minute. Seattle had chances to restore the cushion: Gomez forced a save from Pablo Sisniega in the 70th minute, Dotson headed wide off a corner, Rusnák had back-to-back shots blocked, and Joveljic just missed the top left corner in the 77th. Snyder Brunell also went close in the 83rd minute.

Eight minutes of stoppage time went up. In the fifth of them, Stuart Hawkins, who had replaced Roldan in the 64th minute, was penalized for a foul on Ingvartsen in the box. Bakambu buried it. And three minutes later, he nearly finished the comeback, only for Thomas to save his shot from the left side of the six-yard box.

Who Mattered Most

Cédric Bakambu was San Diego's whole comeback. Three shots, three on target, two goals and one more that Thomas had to stop. He was in the right place for the rebound and ice cold from the spot when it mattered most.

Andrew Thomas deserves a lot of credit despite conceding twice. He saved a penalty and then denied Bakambu's late chance to win it, and without him this could easily have been a San Diego win.

Sebastian Gomez changed Seattle's attack after the break with a goal and a team-high two shots on target. Joveljic scored a beauty and was a constant nuisance, though he also picked up a yellow card in the 53rd minute.

Anders Dreyer had the busiest night of anyone in a San Diego shirt, with five shots and a post, but the penalty miss will sting.

The Turning Point

It was the 57th-minute penalty call. Seattle were two goals up and in control, and even after Thomas saved the spot kick, the scramble that followed gave San Diego the goal and the belief they needed. Here is the wild part: both penalties came from Seattle's right-sided center back spot, first Roldan, then his replacement Hawkins. That is the kind of stat that keeps a defensive coach up at night.

Stats That Matter

• Possession: San Diego held 58.6 percent of the ball.
• Passing: San Diego completed 640 of 713 passes. Seattle completed 448 of 514.
• Shots: San Diego had 13 shots to Seattle's 12, with four on target to Seattle's three.
• Penalties: San Diego were awarded two, scoring one and having one saved.
• Defending: Seattle made 26 clearances and 15 interceptions, compared with 11 and seven for San Diego.

What It Means

Seattle move to 11-10-10 (wins, draws, losses) with 43 points and, according to the club, sit seventh in the Western Conference. A four-match winning streak that ran through Oct. 10 has given way to a loss at Dallas and back-to-back draws, so the Sounders are now three games without a win.

San Diego are 8-11-12 with 35 points. They have not won since beating the LA Galaxy 3-1 on Aug. 29, a run of nine straight matches without a victory, and this was their third consecutive draw. Both of this season's meetings with Seattle have ended level, after a 1-1 draw in Seattle in May.

The Closing Take

This one played out like a Final Jeopardy collapse: Seattle had a comfortable lead, wrote down the wrong answer twice, and walked away with a fraction of the prize. San Diego's reward is a point and some belief. Seattle's reward is a long flight home thinking about two penalties that never needed to happen.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Additional match details as reported by Seattle Sounders FC.