Photo credit: @SJEarthquakes

By: Pearl Allison Lo

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Football Club prevailed over the San Jose Earthquakes again 2-0 Saturday to earn points in six straight games.

The teams’ only meeting previously was in the Bay Area at Avaya Stadium June 9, where LAFC won in stoppage time 4-3. This result ended an eight-game scoring streak and continued a four-game losing streak for the Quakes. The last time San Jose was shut out was July 28th versus Real Salt Lake. The last time the Quakes were shut out in a loss was the game previous to that one versus the Seattle Sounders.

After playing top team Atlanta on Wednesday, the Quakes played another top 3 team in LAFC. Both teams took a water break in each half on the first day of fall as they kicked off the first MLS game of the day. 6’3” Walker Zimmerman led LAFC with his first two goals of the season, the first scores with his new club. Captain Carlos Vela had the two assists and a game-high six shots and four shots on goal.

Quakes keeper JT Marcinkowski, who made his first MLS start Wednesday, started for the second game in a row. He was forced to make a career-high six saves. Marcincowski commented, “…this being my first away match in the MLS, I think it’s a pretty cool environment to be in…but at the end of the day, still didn’t get the result, so a bit frustrating, but definitely some stuff to look forward to.”

The Quakes have faced at least 18 shots in their last two games and at least 16 shots in their last three.

Corners were the name of the game in the first half. LAFC dominated possession at first. They started with three corners and six crosses and ended with nine corners to San Jose’s one.

Marcinkowski had two close calls involving Adama Diomande in the 14th and 19th minutes. During the first, Diego Rossi was close to connecting with Diomande, but Diomande got called offside. In the 19th minute, Marcinowski was able to race to the ball before Diomande.

After Marcinkowski made a high right hand save in the previous minute, Vela had a clear shot but it went to the hands of Marcinkowski in the 22nd. Rossi had a side angle shot in the 39th minute but was blocked. This precipitated three corners. The next corner would not fare so well after the Quakes got just a bit of breathing room.

Harold Cummings turned the ball over, Latif Blessing gunned for the net and Florian Jungwirth kicked the ball out for a corner. Zimmerman nailed the top left as he won the aerial battle in the 41st minute, making it 1-0.

The shot total in the first half was 11 (five on target) for LAFC and 3 for San Jose (one on target–Jackson Yueill in the 15th and 21st and Jahmir Hyka in the 30th). Two of the Quake’s shots were blocked. Vela led all in the first with three shots, two on goal and an assist.

Yueill had a close chance in the 54th minute, but his shot went just wide. It would be San Jose’s only attempt in the second half.

Former Quake Marco Ureña had his shot blocked in the 67th minute and a corner was conceded by Joel Qwiberg. This set up Vela and Zimmerman, who connected for a goal again in the 65th minute. Vela took the corner like before and Zimmerman, facing towards him, headed the ball into the net again, this one close to his back.

Regarding the defenses, San Jose Captain Chris Wondolowski stated, “I thought LAFC played pretty well, they were really organized…definitely a Bob Bradley coached team, very compact, well disciplined. I thought our defense played well too, we let two set piece goals, which is a bit uncharacteristic for us, got punished and rightfully so.”

San Jose made their last two substitutions in the 71st and 81st minute and had two more minutes of stoppage time in the second half but were unable to break through this time.

Quakes interim head coach Steve Ralston relayed, “Performance I thought was actually okay,.. Coming off the game on Wednesday on short notice, early game in heat, and me asking them to do the things that I ask them to do, is going to be hard…but I feel for this club going forward, this is what we need to do. Elaborating, he replied, “It’s a new formation we haven’t played all season. This is only the second game…” On what went wrong, “…we never could really get through in the final third, kind of ran out of ideas. What he wants the team to do, is to “…just press forward.”

San Jose’s Magnum Eriksson was not in the top 18 for just the second time this season.

Up Next: The Quakes travel to play the Houston Dynamo Saturday at 5:30 pm PDT.