The San Jose Earthquakes celebrate victory over the Colorado Rapids at Dicks Sporting News Park in Commerce City Col on Sat May 11, 2024 (San Jose Earthquakes X photo)

By William Espy

The San Jose Earthquakes looked to continue their recent strong run of form against the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado for some rainy night soccer. San Jose defeated LAFC in their most recent league game at Levi’s Park and drew the game before that against Nashville. The Quakes remain undefeated through three games with a 3-2 win over the Rapids on Saturday night.

Add in an additional victory against the Oakland Roots in the US Open Cup, and the Earthquakes have been playing much better recently than they did to start the season. Meanwhile, Colorado finds themselves fifth in the Western Conference entering the night.

If San Jose wanted to walk away with a point, or three, they were going to have to overcome a major obstacle. Hernan Lopez, great nephew of Diego Maradona, was making his first start in the MLS.

San Jose Starting XI:Yarbrough, Costa, Wilson, Rodrigues, Akapo, Tsakiris, Gruezo, Pellegrino, Lopez, Espinoza, Ebobisse

Colorado Starting XI: Steffen, Rosenberry, Bombito, Maxso, Vines, Bassett, Larraz, Fernandez, Mihailovic, Cabral, Navarro

Colorado got out to a very early lead, or so they thought in the seventh minute, but the play was called offside. In the 10th minute, Yarbrough was forced to make a goalline save as the Rapids once again nearly made it 1-0 but failed to convert following a cross.

Colorado could’ve easily had a 2-0 lead just ten minutes in, but the Quakes had been able to keep it 0-0 for the time being. The first yellow card of the night was handed out to Djordje Mihailovic who elbowed Vitor Costa while attempting a challenge for the ball.

In the 26th minute, once again Colorado seemingly took the lead when Omir Fernandez got the ball past William Yarbrough with a great finish. However, the goal would be overturned because Kevin Cabral was offside and interfered with Carlos Akapo, preventing him from making a defensive play on the ball.

As a result, Colorado had their second goal of the half overturned and the game remained in a deadlock. That wouldn’t remain the case for long though, as in the 33rd minute Rafael Navarro would score off of a deflection following a corner kick to give the Rapids a 1-0 lead. Fernandez did get his goal later in the half as well, in the 42nd minute a shot outside of the box slid past Yarbrough and made it 2-0 for the home team.

A few minutes later, Amahl Pellegrino scored after a scramble in front of the net. Steffen made a save for the Rapids, Jeremy Ebobisse’s shot off of the rebound was deflected by a defender in front directly to Pellegrino who put it away to make it 2-1.

It’s worth noting, the play was started by a fantastic pass by Lopez who was playing very well in his first MLS start. Colorado had a third goal called off due to offsides during the 49th minute when a header found the back of the netting.

Lopez tied it up with his first career MLS goal off of a corner when the ball was deflected and he volleyed it past Zach Steffen to make it 2-2 before halftime. It was a wild first half, with quite a bit of offense and certainly, there will be some controversy about the amount of overturned calls but after the first 45 minutes, it was a brand new game.

In the 56th minute, Yarbrough had a collision with his teammate, Carlos Gruezo that brought some concern from the official and medical staff but he remained in the game. Cristian Espinoza would break the tie in the 66th minute after a nice passing play which left him with only the keeper to beat and it was three unanswered goals for the Earthquakes, who now led 3-2 with less than a half-hour remaining.

At one point, it seemed as if Colorado was going to easily walk away with the win but in less than 30 minutes of game time, San Jose went from down 2-0 to up 3-2, shocking the home crowd. Shortly after the goal, the Quakes got two quick yellow cards. As a result, they needed to be very careful and ensure that they didn’t have a defender get booked for a second time.

Despite quite a few opportunities for Colorado to tie it up, they would be unable to and the Earthquakes would walk away with a win moving them out of last place in the Western Conference, passing both the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers who will play one another tomorrow afternoon.