There’s something about trips to the Bay Area that seem to absolutely confound reason. There was the 4-0 loss at Buck Shaw Stadium in 2009 when the San Jose Earthquakes were playing out the string on their way to a last-place finish. There was the 1-0 loss at Levi’s Stadium in 2014, the season the Sounders won the Supporters’ Shield and the Earthquakes finished 18th of 19 teams.
Heading into Saturday’s game, the Sounders had played nine regular-season road matches against the Earthquakes over eight MLS seasons. In all but one of those seasons, the Sounders finished ahead of the Earthquakes in the standings, four times by at least five spots.