By John Zielonka

The Portland Timbers earned a 1-1 draw against the Seattle Sounders on Rodney Wallace's goal in stoppage time. Wallace's tally negated Eddie Johnson's goal in the 13th minute of play on a perfect cross from Steve Zakuani.

Rodney Wallace (mlssoccer.com)

The match also featured the appearance of Obafemi Martins, Seattle's newest and highest paid striker from Europe. Martins arrived the day before with enormous expectations to replace the departed Fredy Montero.

Sounders FC head coach Sigi Schmid lamented his team's inability to maintain their attacking momentum after the 20 minute mark. The Timbers waited patiently until the end of the match to take advantage of a poor Seattle clearance to earn their second point of the MLS season.

Seattle's poor showing and Portland's comeback in the second half

"I thought the first 20-25 minutes were good. I thought we stretched them and I thought we created some chances, got our goal, as well. After that, I think we let them into the game a little bit. I think our play was a little bit too slow. Our movement to the ball was too slow. It seemed like they were obviously pressing and were more ambitious in terms of winning 50-50 balls than we were, and that certainly turned the tide of the game. In the second half, we really didn't turn that around as much as we should have, maybe Tuesday was still in our legs a little bit."--Sigi Schmid, Sounders FC head coach

"We've come back in games. Even in the Montreal match, we were pushing the game and had chances to tie the game. This team, they have that ability to come back so I think we were all very composed. We knew we had at least 45 minutes to score a goal and at least get a point out of it."--Caleb Porter, Timbers head coach

Rodney Wallace's late goal

"We were attacking at the moment. We had a few chances prior to the goal. When I saw the first deflection, I saw that [Andrew Baptiste] had an opportunity to cross the ball, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't in an offside position, so I got in the right spot, the ball came, and I finished."--Rodney Wallace, Timbers defender

"He (Rodney Wallace) came off the bench for us and made a goal so I'm real happy with him, but it was a team effort. Everybody, at the end of the game, I thought really went to another level. It wasn't pretty, but they dug deep, they battled, they fought, never gave up, never quit. In the end, to score that goal, it was fair because they were rewarded for their effort."--Caleb Porter

"The goal was just solid, there was nothing else I could do. It was unlucky that it was in the last minute."--Michael Gspurning, Sounders FC goalkeeper

Eddie's Johnson early goal

"It was one of those goals where we (Steve Zakuani and Johnson) have the relationship and understand how each other play. I know when he gets the ball I have to find the seams inside the box and get free."--Eddie Johnson, Sounders FC striker

Debut of Obafemi Martins

Obafemi Martins (Wikimedia Commons)

"I thought it was better to come now and see the place, and I am going to the (Nigeria) National Team now...It was a little bit hard. I went to the embassy and that took a little time for the travel and all. [Adrian Hanauer] really wanted me to stay so I can go straight to the national team, but I decided to come straight (here) to see the team and play as soon as possible."--Obafemi Martins, Sounders FC forward

"It was the loudest it's ever been at the Clink when he came out. The fans know the importance he has on this team and I thought he had a good debut. He was inches off from getting an assist with me today and he showed up in the 20 minutes what he can do and bring to the team. We're excited he is here."--Eddie Johnson

"It's difficult for him having just flown in and so forth...We didn't want him to play too many minutes. He laid a great ball across that Eddie was almost on the end of. He hasn't trained with the team, he doesn't know the team, per se. He'll get better, and the things that he can do-his quickness and things like that-will show through."--Sigi Schmid

They said it

"Not only did we get a point, but they lost two points. It gives us a lot of belief moving forward. This team has a lot of mettle. I'm most proud of our effort defensively. We dug deep. We gave up a goal and obviously it was a counter again and we got punished for it. But overall, for 90 minutes, we defended very well against that team."--Caleb Porter

"It's a step in the right direction. We're fighting ourselves. We're fighting a lot of adversity. We could easily be 0-3 right now. This group could be sitting on zero points, getting ready to blow this thing up. We never panicked, we never wavered. We understand that we made mistakes, still, and there's a lot of improvement that we can still make. When you get a point out of a game like this, it's very, very promising and positive and takes us in the right direction, so we're excited."--Will Johnson, Timbers midfielder

"I thought we started well. We haven't started games well this season, so I thought this was our best start to a game and we got the lead. Normally we make that stand up. Now there's something that went right and you have built on what went right and eliminate what went wrong."--Sigi Schmid