By: Joe Lami

SAN JOSE, Calif.—

It only took ten minutes for the Houston Dynamo to get on the board on Friday night, as they easily defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0.  Ricardo Clark had a diving header for his fourth goal of the season.  It was set up on a beautiful cross from the left side by Alexander Lopez that floated into the middle of the box, where Clark dove past Quakes’ defender Shaun Francis for the 1-0 lead.

The Quakes best chance came in the 32nd minute on a free kick.  Following a yellow card issued to Dynamo goalie, Tyler Deric, for delay of game, the free kick was set up at the top of the semi-circle. Victor Bernandez received a tap pass from Matias Perez Garcia and rocketed a right footer directly into the corner crossbar on the right side.

Bernandez had another outstanding play in the 56th minute, but this time it was on defense. Clark was going for his second goal of the match, as he kicked a bounce shot past Quakes’ goalie David Bingham, but Bernandez was able to get in front of the shot to keep the deficit at one.

Quakes’ head coach, Dominic Kinnear, commented on Bernandez play “Victor’s been consistent and good all year”.

San Jose had trouble stringing together passes in the final third, which eventually led to their demise, as they were unable to find the back of the net.

The Dynamo put the nail in the coffin in the 81st minute, after a mistake on defense from Fatai Alashe. Alashe tried to kick it back to Bingham, but the kick wasn’t strong enough leaving Bingham out high and dry. It led to a two on none, where Leonel Miranda passed it across the box to Will Bruin, who had a tap in goal for his eighth goal of the year.

Kinnear put the loss on himself, “I’ll take the blame for this one.  I think that every once in a while a coach doesn’t prepare his team properly.  I don’t think we played well tonight and I think I had a lot to do with it”.

San Jose was without captain and leading, Chris Wondolowski, as he has been called up for international duty to participate in the Gold Cup for the United States Men’s National Team.