Commerce City, CO (SportsNetwork.com) - The Seattle Sounders will aim for a second straight win on Sunday when the Rave Green travels to Dick's Sporting Goods Park to face the struggling Colorado Rapids.
Seattle has already clinched a playoff place and set its sights on trying to lock up the Supporters' Shield. After a harrowing 3-1 defeat to West rivals FC Dallas on Sept. 24, Sigi Schmid's club bounced back with a comfortable 4-2 win over Chivas USA.
Obafemi Martins led the Seattle attack with a pair of goals and an assist for the club's fifth win in seven tries.
Felix Borja helped set up the opening goal for Chivas after 12 minutes when he got into the penalty area and forced Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei to make a save, leaving Erick Torres to collect the rebound and roll the ball home.
Martins replied for Seattle within two minutes as he picked up the ball 35 yards from goal, danced past a defender and lashed a left-footed rocket inside the right post from 30 yards.
Jalil Anibaba gave the goal back to Chivas in the 18th minute with an own goal, but the home side was back on level terms in the 37th when Lamar Neagle collected a deflected pass and dashed in on goal before slotting his shot past goalkeeper Dan Kennedy.
Clint Dempsey then put the Sounders in front just before the break when some good ball movement in the build up allowed Martins to get into a good position and slide a pass to Dempsey for a simple tap in.
The lead was stretched to 4-2 by Seattle in the 52nd when a deflected chip from Martins found its way past Kennedy, while Seattle nearly added another goal on the hour mark with Dempsey sending a long-range effort off the crossbar.
Martin's brace gave his 15 goals this season, setting a Seattle Sounders franchise record for goals in a single season, surpassing Eddie Johnson, who scored 14 in 2012.
"I'm proud of the group and I'm proud of our character. We've shown an ability to come back in a lot of those games. There was nobody more disappointed than the group after the games in New York and Dallas," Schmid said. "But we're in first place and people are still chasing us. We're going to continue to put that pressure on for the rest of the season."
Colorado, meanwhile, is in desperate need of points, hoping to break a 10- match winless streak coming off a 1-1 draw with San Jose at home.
Gabriel Torres thought he had won it for Colorado when he struck in the 84th minute by getting on the end of a low cross from Chris Klute and tucking home a neat finish for his third of the season.
But Atiba Harris answered for the 'Quakes in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time off of a helper from Matias Perez Garcia.
"Probably one of the most difficult results that I've experienced," said Rapids head coach Pablo Mastroeni. "We're sitting right there.. and that's why it's 90-plus minutes, not 90 and [that's] the game. For all the great things we did, that ended up costing us the win."
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