Sebastian Gomez Bails Out Sounders in Frustrating 1-1 Draw With CF Montréal

Wikelman Carmona had the whole night on his left foot. In the 89th minute at Lumen Field, the CF Montréal substitute ran onto an Alexis Sánchez pass in the middle of the box and struck it like a man who had already planned the celebration. The ball cracked off the right post and stayed out, and a crowd of 33,007 remembered how to breathe.

That was as close as anyone came to a winner, so the Seattle Sounders and CF Montréal settled for a 1-1 draw on Saturday night. Hennadii Synchuk put the visitors ahead in the 13th minute, Sebastian Gomez answered off the bench in the 66th, and Seattle spent the rest of the evening bombarding Sébastian Breza without finding a second goal. For a club with top-four dreams, a home point against a team with six wins all season felt a lot more like two points dropped.

Montréal Land the First Punch

Synchuk had already let one fly from distance in the 10th minute, a left-footed effort set up by Noah Streit that drifted wide. Three minutes later the same duo got it right. Montréal broke quickly, Streit slipped the ball to Synchuk in the center of the box, and his left-footed finish found the bottom left corner past Andrew Thomas.

Seattle's answer was to take the ball and refuse to give it back. The Sounders finished with 63 percent possession, but the first half produced only one real test of Breza, a Jordan Morris header from an Alex Roldan cross in the 30th minute that the Montréal keeper kept out of the top left corner. The visitors, meanwhile, looked sharp every time they broke. Sánchez fired high and wide after a corner in the 38th minute, and Viktor Radojević nodded a header narrowly wide to the right on the stroke of halftime from a Fabian Herbers delivery.

It was chippy, too: Hassani Dotson was booked a minute after the goal and Sánchez in the 33rd. Seattle walked off trailing 1-0, and Brian Schmetzer had seen enough.

Schmetzer Reaches for the Bench

Schmetzer made two changes at the break, sending on Gomez for Alex Roldan and Kalani Kossa-Rienzi for Caden Clark. He went back to the well in the 64th minute with Snyder Brunell and Jesús Ferreira. Two minutes after that second wave, the equalizer landed. Gomez found a pocket of space in the center of the box and drove a right-footed shot into the bottom right corner.

What followed was a siege that should have produced a winner. Morris pulled a shot wide in the 68th minute, then rattled the left post from a tight angle on the right in the 70th after a Kossa-Rienzi feed. In that same minute Ferreira missed the target and Dejan Joveljic had a shot blocked. Gomez forced Breza into a save in the 72nd, had another attempt blocked in the 78th, and Breza kept out a Joveljic shot aimed at the bottom right corner in the 82nd.

Montréal soaked it up and still owned the two best late looks: Carmona's post and an Olger Escobar shot, teed up by Dani Pereira, that Thomas saved deep into stoppage time.

Breza Stole the Show

ESPN credited Montréal's goalkeeper with four saves, and none of them were gifts. Sébastian Breza denied Morris twice, Gomez once and Joveljic once, while the bodies in front of him blocked six more Seattle shots. That is why Montréal flew home with a point.

Jordan Morris was Seattle's most dangerous attacker, leading the team with five shots, two of them on target, plus that strike off the post. Sebastian Gomez made the loudest impact off the bench with three shots, two on target and the goal, which the Sounders said was his third of the year in all competitions to go along with four assists.

For Montréal, Hennadii Synchuk scored with one of his two shots and Noah Streit picked up the assist. Sánchez was involved in everything: ESPN had him down for six fouls committed, five fouls drawn, two offsides and a yellow card, which is less a stat line than a one-man reality series.

Per the club, Cristian Roldan made his 300th regular-season start for the Sounders, joining Stefan Frei (351) as the only Sounders FC players to reach 300 MLS starts.

The Turning Point

The halftime changes flipped the match. Before them, Seattle had the ball but almost nothing in the box beyond one Morris header. After them, the Sounders had pace and runners, and Gomez scored 21 minutes into his shift. The sting is what came next: a barrage between the 66th and 82nd minutes that produced chance after chance and no lead.

Stats That Matter

• Possession: Seattle held the ball 63 percent of the time.
• Shots: The Sounders outshot Montréal 18-9, but only five of those 18 hit the target.
• Passing: Seattle completed 611 of 690 passes, compared with 326 of 406 for Montréal.
• Crossing: Seattle sent in 21 crosses and completed only five.
• Last line of defense: Montréal made 25 clearances and 15 interceptions, against 11 and five for Seattle.

What It Means

The Sounders move to 11-9-10 (wins, draws, losses) with 42 points, and both the club and MLS had them seventh in the Western Conference after the result. MLS noted Seattle had been eyeing a climb into the West's top four, a goal that now looks like a long shot with four games remaining. The draw closed a three-match week for Seattle, per the club. The Sounders had won four in a row before a 1-0 loss at FC Dallas on Oct. 14, so this makes one point from their last two.

Montréal sit at 6-7-17 with 25 points. They had lost six of their previous seven league matches. MLS liked the timing, with Montréal's Canadian Championship final against Forge FC at Stade Saputo up next midweek, a trophy that would also bring a place in the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup. The Sounders said this was the 11th regular-season meeting between the clubs, and Seattle still trail that series 3-6-2.

Roldan did not sugarcoat it. "A wake-up call," he said postgame, according to MLS. "We haven't done anything yet, and if we want to do something in the playoffs, then we have to have complete performances."

The Closing Take

This was a heist movie where Seattle cracked the vault, filled the bags and then tripped the alarm on the way out. Montréal had Breza and a post. With four games left, Roldan's wake-up call had better be loud.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quote as reported by MLSsoccer.com. Additional details from Seattle Sounders FC and CF Montréal.