San Jose Earthquakes fullback Tanner Beason jumps up to win a challenge over Inter Miami’s Ariel Lassiter at Pay Pal Park on Wednesday AUG 3, 2022. (Dario Cruz-Tectonic Takes)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — The light at the end of the tunnel is becoming more and more obscured.

The light being the playoffs hopes for the San Jose Earthquakes as they fell to Inter Miami FC 1-0 on Wednesday night at Pay Pal Park. It was the first meeting between to the two clubs.

San Jose has lost three of its past four matches and are currently nine points out of the seventh and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 11 matches left in the regular season. Inter Miami have points in three of its last four matches and are tied with Charlotte FC for seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

It was a night to forget on the defensive front for San Jose (5-10-8-23 points) as they gave up numerous counter attacks to the visiting team which resulted in numerous scoring chances. The Earthquakes were fortunate in that Inter Miami only cashed in on one of them.

Inter Miami (8-10-5-29 points) broke through with the match’s lone goal in the 12th minute. Robert Taylor’s cross into the box was headed away by ‘Quakes rookie back Oskar Aegren but landed on the foot of Jean Mota and he fired a shot into the upper right corner of the net from just beyond the D for his first career MLS goal.

While the Earthquakes played flat in first 45 minutes, their energy picked in the second half. However, their aggressive play trying to score the equalizer led to easy counter attacks from Inter Miami.

“The second was a little bit different but the first half we started with low energy, and it was something that we were trying to address at halftime. In the second half we started a bit more aggressive, we recovered balls, we were able to do transitions and be a little bit more dangerous. Obviously when they are winning, they dropped back their lines and to get in was difficult, even if we had some good opportunities,” ‘Quakes interim head coach Alex Covelo said.

San Jose were without starting goalkeeper JT Marcikowski to start the second half as he was evaluated for a concussion after a collision that happened earlier on in the first half.

Matt Bersano made his MSL debut to replace Marcinkowski in net. Bersano did a tremendous job of keeping the Inter Miami from expanding their lead. Bersano came out aggressive on the many threats Inter Miami had inside the box.

“Yeah, I don’t really think there’s a perfect way to make the first appearance,” said Bersano. “So obviously I’m thankful to get out there and get some minutes. I think it was a bunch of years in the making. But to absorb the way we did and keep pressing and get so close, it’s definitely a bittersweet feeling. I’m so thankful for finally getting some MLS minutes, but above all else, I want to win, we want to win these games, and it’s definitely a sour taste in the mouth at the end of the day.”

The best save of the night came in the 51st minute when a chance by Ariel Lassiter at an open net was headed away by Aegren at the goal line.

Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender finished t mawith fives saves on six shots on target to earn a clean sheet. Marcinkowski and Bersano combined for

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished the match with 13 corners kicks. Inter Miami had seven.

The Earthquakes are now 5-5-5 in MLS play under interim head coach Alex Covelo.

Seventeen-year-old Homegrown midfielder Niko Tsakiris made his first MLS appearance since April 2.

Rookie defender Oskar Ågren made his second career start.

UP NEXT: San Jose travels to the Lone Star state to take on Austin FC on Saturday 8/6 at 6:00pm at Q2 Stadium.