The Seattle Sounders FC will take on the LA Galaxy for the third time on Sunday in the third and final match of MLS’s Soccer Sunday, when the Sounders will be looking to close in on LA for the top spot in the Western Conference standings.

Seattle will be without Chad Marshall, who had a scare in practice this week and left in an ambulance after sustaining a neck injury. This will limit their already decreased defensive options, as center back Roman Torres is still out after tearing his ACL against San Jose a month ago. He underwent successful surgery last week.

Apart from those two, both sides should be boasting full lineups as each looks to gain an advantage on one another in the standings as they get closer to clinching the top spots in the Western Conference standings.

Last week LA picked up its first win in four matches as they took on FC Dallas at home and dealt them a 3-1 defeat after goals from Gyasi Zardes, Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard’s second career MLS goal. In that game, however, the backline still looked questionable and beatable as Robbie Rodgers poorly defended the FC Dallas goal and Donovan Ricketts was easily beaten.

Seattle, on the other hand, traveled to Kansas City and were lucky to escape with a point against Sporting as Dom Dwyer and his squad were clearly the dominant side in the final quarter hour of that match. Obafemi Martins opened the scoring in the 31st minute off an over the top pass from Gonzalo Pineda. Dwyer was subbed on in the 74th minute and was the difference in the match as he found the back of the net on a cross just moments after entering the fray in the 80th minute. He went on to have several opportunities after that to put Sporting in the lead but was just unable to convert. Clint Dempsey had an open net opportunity in the 85th minute to put Seattle back in the lead but just didn’t finish his chance on the pass from Martins that landed right in front of him.

The Sounders are in good form being unbeaten in their previous five matches, which included wins against the Portland Timbers, Toronto FC at home and Vancouver Whitecaps on the road while drawing with San Jose and Sporting KC to end the road run of three matches with a respectable five out of a possible nine points to climb quickly back up the table. This has relieved some of the initial scare of missing the playoffs. In that stretch of unbeaten matches Martins has scored in all five and tied the team record set by Freddy Montero scoring in five consecutive matches and is just two away from tying the MLS record of scoring in seven straight matches.

In the first two matches between these two clubs this season, the Galaxy hosted the Sounders and took all six points. They defeated them in April 1-0 off an Alan Gordon goal in the 23rd minute. In the next meeting LA won 3-1 after Seattle got started early with a goal from Chad Barrett in the first minute, but the Galaxy kept fighting and Zardes scored in the 13th minute, meaning both sides went into half time tied 1-1. Two minutes after the half Keane struck to put LA up 2-1 then Giovani dos Santos, making his MLS debut, found a goal in the 64th minute to finalize the 3-1 score line.

The match will be tight, but given the Sounders' recent form and LA's recent struggles on the road, Seattle will cruise home with a 2-0 win with Martins getting his 15th goal of the season and Stefan Frei getting his 11th shutout of the season against the Galaxy. The key for Seattle will be to avoid making any mistakes in the back and giving the Stars of the Galaxy a chance to take advantage of those mistakes.

If the Galaxy manage to win or draw the game they will clinch their birth in the 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs. No matter what Seattle does, due to other results on Saturday they will be unable to clinch a spot this week and will have to wait till their next match to attempt to clinch their birth. 

Jair Marrufo will be the center referee in charge of the match on Sunday, the 193rd career MLS match for the FIFA ranked referee. 

The Sounders will be wearing a special edition Pitch Black Halo 5 jersey for this one match while LA will wear its traditional white jersey. This will be the first time the Sounders have ever worn Pitch Black at home during a regular season MLS match.