The Los Angeles Football Club started quickly and pushed late, settling for one point against the visiting Seattle Sounders following a 1-1 draw on Saturday at Banc of California Stadium.LAFC’s start — literally the fastest goal in club history — got set up 24 seconds into the match when forward Mahala Opoku was fouled just outside the penalty box.With Carlos Vela officially ruled out for LAFC’s second match of the 2021 season due to health and safety protocols addressing a potential COVID-19 exposure with his family, midfielder Eduard Atuesta adorned the captain’s armband and stepped up to hit the free kick.Facing a five-man Seattle wall, Atuesta struck a rolling, curving shot that evaded the Sounders defenders who collectively jumped to defend a high shot that never came.Instead, the ball snuck underneath the outstretched feet of Sounders midfielder Josh Atencio and skated by goalkeeper Stefan Frei.“Eduard works a lot on his free kicks,” said LAFC head coach Bob Bradley. “He has good ideas. Reads situations well. Today was a good example of that. He read the moment and created a great finish.”The opening goal came 85 seconds into the match, eclipsing LAFC’s previous record of 96 seconds set by Dejan Jakovic in 2020. Their 1-0 lead held up for nearly an hour until Seattle defender Brad Smith leveled the score in the 54th minute.A cross into the box by Sounders midfielder Alex Roldan found the head of the visitors most dangerous player, forward Raul Ruidiaz, who redirected it on frame and forced a save from LAFC goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega.The rebound found Smith near the six-yard box and, with Sisniega still on the ground, he headed in his first career goal for Seattle.Both LAFC (1-0-1, 4 points) and the Sounders (1-0-1, 4 points) stepped onto the pitch shorthanded following opening day clean sheet victories last week.Vela was already not expected to play after a knock to his right quad ended his day 20 minutes into last Saturday’s match with Austin FC and kept him out of training this week.Joining Vela, defender Tristan Blackmon was ruled out per health and safety protocols put in place to address the pandemic.Marco Farfan made his LAFC debut, taking Blackmon’s spot on the right side of the defense.“It wasn’t the three points we wanted,” Farfan said, “but I am happy to make my debut and we just keep moving forward.Forward Diego Rossi sat out for the second consecutive match as he worked to regain strength in his strained left hamstring.Forward Danny Musovski, who started last week for Rossi, was unavailable due to an issue with his right hip, giving Opoku, 19, the Ghanaian’s first start in an LAFC uniform.“We always try to push players that when the moment comes they’re ready and excited and their teammates have confidence in them,” Bradley said.Seattle missed captain and star midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro as well as forward Fredy Montero, both of whom suffered left quad strains.Each team managed nine shots on goal. The draw marked Seattle’s first earned points on the road against LAFC after losing its three previous regular season contests at Banc of California Stadium.Hoping to find a game winning goal in front of a limited capacity crowd of 4,900 — including upwards of 250 fully vaccinated “3252” supporters in the North End who chanted, locked arms and sang without social distancing measures in place — Bradley moved midfielder Latif Blessing to right back after substituting off Farfan in the 81st minute.LAFC put their foot down on the gas during the five minutes in stoppage time, however several chances fell short.“I thought that was promising it just didn’t give us the goal we wanted,” Bradley said.LAFC travels for the first time in 2021 next week, visiting the Houston Dynamo on May 1.

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