San Jose Earthquakes take a walk into the tunnel towards their dressing room as they battled the Vancouver Whitecaps at BC Place in Vancouver on Sun Aug 20, 2023 (@SJEarthquakes photo)

by Torben Rolfsen

VANCOUVER, CANADA -The San Jose Earthquakes went north of the border Sunday night and came away with a crucial 1-0 win against the Vancouver Whitecaps, who they have been neck and neck with in the West Conference playoff race.

The Earthquakes scored on a quick counter-attack late in the first half in the 43rd minute with captain Cristian Espinoza finishing off a nice passing play from Jeremy Ebobisse and Jamiro Monteiro.

The teams went back and forth for most of the first half, with San Jose goalkeeper Daniel De Sousa Brito making a couple of nice stops. Of the two goal areas, Brito’s was a bit busier in both halves.

The host Whitecaps stepped up the pressure in the second half but just couldn’t bring it home. Vancouver hit the post up high on a free kick in the 80th minute after a yellow card was handed to the Earthquakes after a hard tackle.

The big winners on the day in the West playoff race were San Jose and Minnesota, who beat New York City FC 2-0 to leapfrog into the thick of the playoff picture.

The losers were Vancouver, and Austin FC, which was clobbered 6-3 by first place St. Louis City and passed by the Quakes for fifth. The top nine in each conference make the playoffs, and 1-thru-7 avoid the one-off wildcard game.

Announced attendance in BC Place Stadium (who had the roof closed due to wildfire smoke) was 16,765.

Torben Rolfsen is one of the hosts of The Rolfsen Report: Comedy of Sport on TSN and on iheart radio and does reporting work at http://www.sportsradioservice.com