Cristian Roldan's 90th-minute winner sinks Sporting Kansas City as Sounders make it three straight wins
Cristian Roldan pounced on a defensive mix-up in the 90th minute to fire the Seattle Sounders to a 2-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City at Lumen Field, a last-gasp winner that extended the Sounders' surge up the MLS Western Conference.
Seattle made it three straight MLS wins and now sit seventh in the West, unbeaten in their last eight games. For bottom-of-the-table Sporting Kansas City, it was a cruel way for a promising away display to go unrewarded.
How it unfolded
Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland was kept busy early on, tipping a long-range attempt from Peter Kingston over the crossbar. The visitors then went close at the other end through Calvin Harris, whose effort forced Alex Roldan into a desperate goal-line clearance.
A flurry of SKC chances followed, and after Seattle goalkeeper Andrew Thomas had made a sprawling save to keep out Stephen Afrifa, the visitors broke the deadlock when Andre Luiz struck on the cusp of half-time.
Sounders respond, Roldan delivers
Seattle drew level just six minutes after the restart, with substitute Sebastian Gomez capitalising on fantastic work from Jordan Morris in the build-up.
Caden Clark went close to nudging the Sounders ahead, but Thomas was called upon at the other end to thwart Taylor Calheira. That save paved the way for Cristian Roldan to come up with the goods in the 90th minute, as he pounced on a defensive mix-up to clinch all three points and spark celebrations at Lumen Field.
Sounders flip the script
The comeback carried extra significance for Brian Schmetzer's side — it is the first time since May that Seattle have won an MLS game in which they trailed at half-time.
And after a 13-match winless streak, it is now three victories on the spin for the Sounders, who are looking increasingly good for a playoff place.
Seattle are also now unbeaten in five straight matches against SKC (W4 D1). The Sounders managed to avoid defeat only three times in their previous ten games against Kansas City (W3 L7), dating back to 2019, underlining how emphatic their recent turnaround in this fixture has been.
Late heartbreak for wasteful Sporting
Sporting, who sit bottom of the West, may consider themselves unfortunate given the chances they created, generating opportunities worth a combined 2.05 expected goals to Seattle's 1.7 xG.
Luiz was again in the thick of the action for SKC. He has now been involved in three goals in his last two appearances, after becoming the first player to record a goal and an assist in a regular-season away match for Sporting since Dejan Joveljic — now a Sounders player — did so against LA Galaxy in March, when Luiz netted and laid one up against the Houston Dynamo in SKC's previous outing.
SKC arrived in Seattle having kept their first clean sheet of the 2026 season, with manager Raphael Wicky having urged his side to build on the confidence gained from that win at Houston, per FotMob's pre-match report on October 1. They were also targeting consecutive away victories in MLS for the first time since August 2021 — an ambition that ultimately fell short in stoppage time.
Harris, meanwhile, has been a consistent contributor for SKC this season with four goals and four assists in 26 MLS appearances, per FotMob, but neither he nor his teammates could find the finish their dominance deserved.
What it means
The result keeps Seattle firmly in the Western Conference playoff hunt, with form and momentum now firmly on their side after a season that looked in danger of slipping away during that 13-match winless run.
For Sporting Kansas City, the defeat leaves them rooted to the bottom of the West, left to rue a performance that by the numbers merited more than a late, gut-punch defeat.