SEATTLE (AP) - Will Bruin scored in the opening moments of the second half, Nicolas Lodeiro added another, and the Seattle Sounders rolled past El Salvador’s Santa Tecla 4-0 on Thursday night in the CONCACAF Champions League round of 16.
Chad Marshall and Magnus Wolff Eikrem both added goals in the closing minutes as Seattle advanced from the two-game series 5-2 on aggregate. Bruin’s goal put Seattle in position to advance thanks to the road goals tiebreaker, but the following two goals finished off the series.
Seattle will face Mexican power Chivas de Guadalajara in the quarterfinals later this month. Seattle has reached the semifinals of the tournament once in its previous four appearances.
The Sounders open the MLS regular season on Sunday hosting expansion Los Angeles FC.
Seattle struggled to break through in the first half against Santa Tecla and had limited scoring chances. But the Sounders used a different formation with two forwards in the second half and it paid off almost immediately.
Shortly after halftime, Lodeiro found Bruin, who beat Santa Tecla goalkeeper Joel Almeida to get Seattle on the board. Lodeiro flicked a header past Almeida on a cross from Clint Dempsey in the 69th minute.
Marshall and Eikrem provided the final tallies with goals in the final 10 minutes of the match.
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