by Marko Ukalovic

COMMERCE CITY, Colo- The San Jose Earthquakes are stuck in an abyss they can’t escape from. Its latest tough pill to swallow was a 5-0 shutout loss to the Colorado Rapids on Wednesday evening at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

San Jose is winless in eight straight games since the regular season resumed. Colorado has won two matches in a row and three out of their last four.

Colorado (5-4-4) dominated the first half attempting nine shots on goal. They controlled the possession battle 64%-36%.

Kellyn Acosta appeared to have have scored his second goal of the season at the 29th minute. He recovered his attempted pass that was blocked by a Quakes defender. His shot from 20 yards out beat Quakes goalkeeper Daniel Vega to far right. However a video review showed that midfielder Jack Price was offsides before he fed a pass to Acosta as referee Drew Fischer overturned the call.

Price redeemed himself six minutes later off a set piece. Price placed a free kick into the middle of the D box where an unmarked Cole Bassett headed the ball past Vega to the far left corner for his fourth goal of the season at the 35th minute.

Giving up goals off of set pieces have been a big glaring weakness for San Jose this season.

“We definitely practice it enough, and I think it’s more of a concentration thing and communication thing,” said Chris Wondolowski regarding his team’s failure on set pieces. “I think that set pieces are a bit more complicated than they sometimes look. There is a lot of crossing. There are picks, but there is a lot of time where easy communication can sort that out and sort that out easily. I think that we’re lacking on that right now.”

San Jose’s (2-6-5) best chance to get on the scoreboard came in the 39th minute. Acosta fouled Tommy Thompson setting up a free kick from 15 yards out. However, Jackson Yueill’s shot attempt sailed to the right of the net.

The Rapids doubled its lead just five minutes into the second half. Acosta made a pass out to a racing Jonathan Lewis who flew in from the left slot and chipped a ball past a challenging Vega for his fifth goal of the season at the 50th minute.

Danny Hoesen, who returned to action as a substitute in the 63rd minute after missing the past two games with a lower body injury, came with in two yards of cutting the Rapids lead in half. Chris Wondolowski, who came on as a sub to start the second half, kicked in a ball into the middle off a corner kick that landed right on the foot of Hoesen. However, Rapids goalkeeper William Yarbrough made a point blank save to keep San Jose off the board.

Colorado iced the game in the 70th minute thanks to some bad luck from San Jose. Andre Shinyashiki received the ball after a throw-in and made a nice move around Tanner Beason near the goal line. Shinyashiki’s centering attempt was deflected into the net off the foot of Thompson for an own goal.

Quakes head coach Matias Almeyda is beyond frustrated and still looking for answers.

“Realistically, we have all been really looking at ourselves. There are no excuses. It’s really sad to lose the way we have been losing, mostly because we have fans that have accompanied us at a distance. Every team has their history, some more successful than others but nonetheless it’s all history. This is a moment I’ve never experienced in my life. I have some of the blame to not find a way…”, Almeyda said.

The Rapids kept pouring it on after some shady defense by the Quakes. Auston Trusty crossed a ball into the middle from the right to a wide open Nicolás Mezquida, a sub in the 60th minute who went in all alone against Vega and chipped the ball into the left corner of the bet for his first goal of the season in the 79th minute.

Colorado finished off the scoring in the 84th minute when Bassett led a two-on-zero break with Shinyashiki. Bassett touched a pass to the left and Shinyashiki buried the ball past Vega for his second. goal of the season.

This match was very similar to the Quakes last match against Portland where the Quakes conceded three goals in the last 20 minutes of the second half.

Yarbrough finished with four saves for his second shutout of the season. Vega also finished with four saves in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose had three corner kicks. Colorado had four.

Colorado won the possession battle 60%-40%.

UP NEXT: San Jose travels to Los Angeles to take on LAFC on Sunday 9/27 at 7:30pm at Banc of California Stadium.