By: Eric He

SAN JOSE — While it wasn’t three points, the San Jose Earthquakes snapped their four-game MLS losing streak with a 0-0 draw with the Portland Timbers at Avaya Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The scoreless contest did not lack excitement, featuring plenty of chances and a penalty kick that went awry, but nonetheless both teams will leave with a point in hand.

“A point is better than the last month,” said Quakes head coach Dominic Kinnear. “So we’re happy about that. We definitely had some chances. Obviously you’d love to have the win. I thought overall our game was better today. That should be the standard we set for the rest of the season.”

Portland opened the second half with a dangerous scoring opportunity as Fanendo Adi banged one off the left goalpost.

San Jose followed with some chances of its own. Matias-Perez Garcia created several corner kicks and crosses. A header by Victor Bernandez on a cross by Marvell Wynne sailed just wide, and a right footed bullet by Shaun Francis in the 63rd minute narrowly missed the net.

“We possessed the ball fairly well,” noted Chris Wondolowski. “We created opportunities, but we didn’t really make the keeper work. There were too many chances that we hit off target and we need to be a little more clinical in the final third.”

Added Kinnear: “At times we had good build-up play but let ourselves off the hook by rushing the shot or making the wrong decision. I thought we had our chance to be due for a goal today.”

The Quakes wound up with 55.7 percent of the possession on Sunday afternoon.

Not even a penalty kick could break the tie. Timbers’ midfielder Diego Valeri was tripped up by Francis in the box, but his penalty hit off the crossbar as the Quakes dodged a bullet.

“Luckily, it went my way,” Quakes goaltender David Bingham said. “If it was a hair lower I felt like I would’ve covered it.”

The first half was scoreless, although the Quakes held the majority of the possession and pressure.

Their best chance came early on in the seventh minute. Wondolowski had a point-blank opportunity with no one between him and Timbers goaltender Adam Kwarasey after a nice entry feed from Shea Salinas, but Wondolowski was denied at the doorstep.

The Quakes’ superstar blamed himself for not finishing it off.

“What a great ball by Shea,” Wondolowksi remarked. “Found me perfectly. My touch just got stuck under me. I tried poking it and the keeper made a good kick save. My first touch let me down.”

The 34th minute saw Salinas try to score one himself, lofting a ball on goal that went over the outstretched arms of Kwarasey but wide of the net.

Despite outshooting the Timbers 7-5 in the first half and controlling over half of the possession, the teams entered the locker room tied at halftime.

“It’s disappointing,” said Bingham. “We let them off the hook tonight. I felt like we were the better team throughout the night. Credit to them; they didn’t give up throughout the game, so they did well. If we could’ve been a little sharper here and there we should’ve gotten three points.”

Couldn’t wait for August 

It was a rough July for the Quakes, who dropped all seven of their matches — four MLS, two international friendlies, and a U.S. Open Cup Round of 16 match against the Galaxy. Their four-game losing streak was the longest in MLS this season.

Most recently, San Jose dropped a 3-1 decision up at BC Place in Vancouver to the Whitecaps.

“Right now, we are playing well, but the results are going against us,” said Kinnear after the loss on July 21. “We have to go back to basic stuff and just talk about it, look at our mistakes and go back to working hard.”

More Quotables

“No one likes losing games. We need to win games if we want to get in the playoffs, especially in-conference games.”

– Midfielder Jordan Stewart

“We’ve got to stop tying games. We still have a belief we can make the playoffs. You have to put your chances away and that changes the whole dynamic of the game, especially mine in the beginning.”

– Wondolowski

“Passing the ball to the correct team was very helpful. Finding Matias [Perez Garcia’s] feet a little more. We moved the ball better…we got isolated one-on-one. Shea [Salinas] was very effective in the first half. At times we were running the ball a little too much, but I thought defensively we were better. Our commitment to defending was better and overall our attitude was better.”

– Kinnear on adjustments

“Keep encouraging them [to shoot]. Sometimes you’ve got to go where it hurts. An ugly goal can maybe open the floodgates a little bit. Sometimes it needs to be a perfect chance and sometimes it needs to be a bounce of luck. I’m not really caring too much how it goes in or who it goes in from.”

– Kinnear on how he can improve offensive production

Notes

Entering Sunday afternoon, recently acquired forward Quincy Amarikwa had scored three goals in his last two matches. … The Quakes sit at ninth in the West with 26 points, six back of a playoff spot. … When the Quakes and Timbers last played on July 5th, the Timbers scratched out a 1-0 win with a stoppage time goal over the shorthanded Quakes. … The Quakes’ next game is on the road on Aug. 8 against the Dynamo in Houston.