SEATTLE (AP) — Antony Alves Santos scored in the second half to help the Portland Timbers earn a 1-1 draw with the Seattle Sounders in a Decision Day match on Saturday night to close out the regular season.
The draw drops Seattle (16-9-9) into the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference, meaning the Sounders will host the fifth-seeded Houston Dynamo in a first-round match next weekend. Portland (12-11-11) had already wrapped up a berth in the wild-card match and will travel to play the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday with regular-season champion Los Angeles FC awaiting the winner.
Seattle grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 37th minute on defender Yéimar Gomez Andrade’s first goal of the season. Albert Rusnák notched his career-high 16th assist this season on the score.
Portland pulled even in the 68th minute when Antony took a pass from Evander Da Silva Ferreira and scored. It was the sixth goal of the season for Antony and the career-best 19th assist of the campaign for Evander, who also has a career-high 15 netters in his second season in the league.
