Atlanta United set another MLS attendance record in draw with Seattle Sounders

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:29 am

Sunday's draw between Atlanta United and the visiting Seattle Sounders, played in front of an MLS record 72,243 fans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, will be viewed entirely differently by the two teams.

Atlanta, the team with the best record in MLS, will look at the home draw as almost deflating after the high scoring unit was contained. Seattle, the team at the other end of the MLS table, will likely walk away with a smile on its face, especially considering it played a man down the last 30 minutes after Jordan McCrary was sent off for a second yellow card.

Seattle led 1-0 at the half, but it took all of three minutes for Atlanta to draw even in the second.

Julian Gressel hit a well-placed ball into the penalty area that Josef Martinez got to in between a pair of Seattle defenders. Martinez headed the cross towards the Seattle goal, catching keeper Stefan Frei off the line and tying the game with his MLS-leading 19th goal of the season.

The game's first goal came in the final four minutes of the first half and was somewhat controversial.

Harry Shipp fired a shot for Seattle that appeared to deflect off the back of Atlanta defender Franco Escobar, giving Seattle a corner.

However, referee Baldomero Toledo went to the video review and determined Escobar had used his arm to deflect the shot, giving Seattle a penalty kick.

Nicolas Lodeiro made the most of the chance, touching the ball past Atlanta goalie Brad Guzan -- who got a piece of the shot down the middle as he dove to his left -- for the 1-0 Seattle lead.

Atlanta was held in check through the first half, with its best scoring chance coming off a near own-goal by Seattle. Will Bruin misread an Atlanta corner kick and touched a ball towards his own goal, but Frei made a diving save that pushed the ball out for another corner.