For the San Jose Earthquakes, there are positives to take from tonight’s 1-1 draw with the Seattle Sounders. Compared to their drab 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Union last weekend, the Quakes showed a fighting spirit and intensity not too far removed from their four-match win streak, one that only improved as the game wore on. Marc Pelosi and Anibal Godoy also returned from international duty and Quakes coach Dominic Kinnear told Football Every Day that he felt that their midfield improved their turnover rate from the following week. Altogether, their midfield was far more fluid and Clarence Goodson said of the pair: “They cover a lot of ground. I think they’re both comfortable on the ball and you could see we had good spells of possession throughout the game and we had them sitting back pretty deep, especially in the second half.”

Although Victor Bernandez suffered an injury against Philly, Fatai Alashe stepped in as predicted in the center-back role alongside Clarence Goodson, his first foray as a center-back in his professional career, and held his own against Obafemi Martins as well.

But as Chris Wondolowski summarized, “I think we’re running out of time to take positives, silver linings and things like that…. [In all of] these last six games you really need three [points]. That’s been our mentality for way too long now, after we to out of July. You know that you will pick some up and that you will drop some, but we have to stop dropping leads, that’s for sure.”

Tonight, the stats reflected the evenness of the matchup, when even the two goals were scored from very similar set pieces, yet Martins’ late equalizer made a respectable draw feel more like a loss for the Quakes. Their attack lacked spark, with Wondo and Quincy Amarikwa far too isolated up front. A beautiful turn and side-volley from Wondo onto the left-hand post came out of the blue in the thirty-sixth minute and was the only clear-cut chance in an otherwise even first half. Earlier, Martins poked Tyrone Mears’ low cross from the right just wide of the near post, but Goodson was glued to the Nigerian target-man. Kinnear noted: “Seattle defended pretty well and I thought our movement was a little tentative in the first half, but it was better in the second half.”

When Kinnear hauled Amarikwa off in a double-change that brought on Matias Perez-Garcia, the former Chicago Fire forward had made the fewest touches of any starter. Yet it only took one touch for Garcia to make an immediate impact, whipping in a beautiful free-kick for Alashe to head in at the near post (at least Wondo took credit for “tackling” Fatai’s marker). Kinnear admitted that he rushed on Garcia and target-forward Adam Jahn specifically for the set piece. “We were going to bring them on anyways, [the free-kick] just sped up the process,” he said. “We had those two guys at the bench and all of a sudden when we saw…the set piece…we told the guys to hold off a little bit to get those guys on for the set piece.”

Although Garcia brought a hitherto unseen energy to the Quakes’ midfield, their goal momentum gradually dissipated and they dropped deeper and deeper. Late on, Seattle’s substitutes countered the Quakes’ goal as sub Zach Scott got on the end of Andreas Ivanschitz’s free-kick; David Bingham saved the former’s header only for Martins to capitalize on the rebound.

As the Quakes players showered away another disappointing result and left for the night, the Heritage Cup, meant to honor the only NASL rivalry in Major League Soccer, sat pitifully, unwanted in the middle of the Quakes locker room. It’s main purpose was to serve as a goal in a one-man scrimmage for the entertainment of Godoy’s toddler. However, he was blissfully unaware of the damp feeling in the locker room. Although Kinnear maintained that the Quakes are “100%” in the mix for the playoffs, they go into a crucial midweek meeting with the Montreal Impact looking in from the outside.