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By Pearl Allison Lo

Despite San Jose’s valiant effort and an erroneous call that would have given them a 2-1 lead, Toluca won on their sixth penalty kick in the second leg semi at home Wednesday.

Billy Schuler and JJ Koval made their first starts and held their own alongside teammates, in a game where the Quakes began without seven starters. Chris Wondolowski started on the bench with a sore groin.

Wondolowski’s shot bounced off goalie Alfredo Talavera and Alan Gordon scored off the rebound in the second half. However, the ref ruled that he was offsides.

The San Jose defense worked in tandem with goalie Jon Busch, who at times, was able to knock a shot just wide and pushed Juan Manuel Salgueiro’s shot above his head and behind the net. Busch also continued past first half stoppage time in preventing another attempt. At one point, the Quakes defensively stopped two shots by the same player with their bodies

A kick by San Jose’s Shea Salinas connected to Ty Harden’s head, gave Harden his first goal ever in the 56th minute. This first score of the game sparked aggressiveness by Toluca. Busch had to move forward out of the goal to make a save, after which he went down and was grabbing the back of his head. Pablo Velazquez also got a free kick.

Atiba Harris being helped off the field after a challenge, brought in Wondolowski and paused the new fast pace of the game.

In the second half, the Quakes cleared the ball off the goal line twice and both teams had a lot of free kicks at one point.

First, Cordell Cato cleared if off the line, but then the ball went off the chest off Isaac Brizuela, who afterwards kicked it past an approaching Wondo and a diving Busch to tie the game.

Sam Cronin also cleared the ball off the line after Edy Brambila entered the game.

The 9,000 foot elevation game then went into 30 minutes of extra time for the first time ever in CONCACAF knockout stages.

After the offsides call in overtime, Schuler had a shot off the net and Busch stopped another Toluca attempt with one hand.

Busch received a yellow card for time wasting.

The chants of USA could be heard as the teams proceeded to penalty kicks.

They went as follows: TOL – Raul Nava (save), Antonio Rios (goal), Velazquez (goal), Miguel Ponce (goal), Talavera (goal), Wilson Tiago (goal)

SJ – Wondolowski (save), Gordon (goal), Cronin (goal), Schuler (goal), Koval (goal), Shea Salinas (miss).

It was the rookie with Toluca Rios’s first Champions game. Busch got a hand on two balls that went in twice.  Against Ponce who was born in Sacramento, Busch was blowing into his hands after and Tiago’s ball bounced in after a touch by Busch. Salinas went down to one knee after his shot banged off the crossbar.

Game notes: San Jose continues with a game against the defending MLS Cup Champions, Sporting Kansas City Saturday at 5:30pm.