Category: MLS

The Colorado Rapids and San Jose Earthquakes played to a draw on Saturday night at Avaya Stadium in San Jose (USA Today photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif- Drastic changes to the starting lineup almost paid off for Matias Almeyda.

Colorado Rapids Kai Kamara headed in a ball off a corner kick in the 81st minute as the set piece allowed the Rapids to earn a 1-1 draw with the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday evening at Earthquakes Stadium.

San Jose is winless in three straight games since coming back from Orlando and started the first phase of teams returning to play in home markets. Colorado’s winless streak reached a season high at six games.

Quakes head coach Matias Almeyda went looking for answers after an embarrassing 5-1 loss to LAFC this past Wednesday as he dramatically shook up his lineup with six changes to the starting lineup. In was Chris Wondolowski, and Danny Hoesen up front, while three quarters of the back line was switched, including Orlando Alanis, who returned from an injury.

It was the Quakes’ first at Earthquakes Stadium since March 7, nearly six months since their most recent home game. The match is the first live sporting event in Santa Clara County since the onset of COVID-19.

Both teams had early scoring chances in the first half but weren’t able to cash in any of their opportunities as they headed into halftime tied at zero.

Colorado (2-3-3) came close to breaking the deadlock in the 54th minute when Diego Rubio was open on the right slot but his shot hit off the right post.

San Jose (2-3-3) capitalized on a gift from Colorado just four minute later when Sam Vines conceded a penalty kick for the Quakes when a Christian Espinoza cross attempt went off his hand in the 58 minute.

Wondo finished off the penalty the kick right down the middle as Rapids goalkeeper guessed wrong to the left side. The MLS all-time leading goal scorer now has three goals on the season and 162 for his career.

Colorado woke up offensively as they controlled possession for the final 30 minutes of the second half and generated quality scoring chances. Quakes goalkeeper Daniel Vega came up with some key saves during that stretch, including a diving save off a header by Cole Bassett in the 77th minute.

The Rapids tenacity finally paid off with Kamara’s 129th career goal as the set piece has been the Quakes Achilles heel ever since they came back from Orlando and is an issue Almedya’s squad has yet to remedied.

San Jose best chance to go ahead late in the game came at the 84th minute when Alanis’ free kick from 20 yards out just sailed high over the net resulting in a free kick for Colorado.

GAMES NOTES: Wondolowski was named Man of the Match.

San Jose had seven corner kicks. Colorado had eight.

San Jose had four yellow card. Colorado had three.

The Quakes are recognizing an honorary captain at each of the team’s next two home matches, that included tonight. Honorary captains were selected with program partner Austen Everett Foundation. Tonight’s honorary captain was 10-year-old Santiago Lopez from San Jose. He was diagnosed on Thanksgiving 2019 with a rare form of brain cancer called DIPG. He had have a custom player card created and shared on Instagram. He also received a goody bag with a customized Earthquakes jersey, plush toys and soccer balls, with gear given to his sibling as well. The club recently captured and sent Santiago a video message from his favorite Quakes player Andy Rios.

UP NEXT: The Quakes travel up to Seattle take on the Sounders on Thursday 9/10 at 7:00pm at Century Link Field.

The Final score tells it all as LAFC remains unbeaten with a 5-1 win over the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday night (@SJEarthquakes photo)

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ September 2, 2020

~ San Jose and LAFC went the way it has gone Wednesday, with the latter still unbeaten in now five games engaged with the former.

57th minute substitute Danny Hoesen and Cristian Espinoza connected however, with no time left, in minute 92 giving LAFC the 5-1 win over San Jose. This avoided a matching of the worst loss between the two teams March 30, 2019 where LAFC were victorious 5-0.

The Quakes did not help themselves though, this time, in that giving the ball away led to two goals. LACF outshot San Jose 19-9. 

Rossi scored the lone goal of the first half in the 21st minute.

After a 33rd minute yellow to Diego Palacios, considering his kicking position, Yueill´s shot just glanced over the top of the net.

San Jose´s Florian Jungwirth tackled Bradley Wright-Phillips before Rossiś goal and Judson was able to stop a breakaway by him in the 43rd minute. 

Wright-Phillips´s attack right at the start of the second half gave the Quakes a glimpse of what was to come as he would score soon and LAFC´s lead would grow larger by bounds. 

Tanner Beason, in his second start, gave the ball away to Rossi, and then Beason found himself in a foot race with Wright-Phillips. Wright-Phillips went ahead and keeper Daniel Vega slid to stop him. Wright-Phillips remained standing to clean up in an empty net in the 49th minute. He finished with a game-high six shots. 

Vega got his hand high to save a free kick from Brian Rodríguez in the 58th minute. 

In the 64th minute, Rodríguez again with ample room was stopped, but as he slid surrounded by two defenders, he was able to knock the ball through Jungwirth´s legs upon second touch to José Cifuentes. The Ecuadorian then turned around and looped the ball towards the net for his first MLS goal and a 3-0 lead.

Rossi made it 4-0 in the 69th minute. Palacios´s kick went off Jungwirth´s foot as Rossi swooped in before Vega after running past Beason for his second half goal.

Cifuentes´s teammate Danny Musovski also got in on the action with his first MLS goal in the 83rd minute.

Up Next: San Jose looks to recover on the weekend Saturday 7:30pm verus the Colorado Rapids.

The San Jose Earthquakes and the Los Angeles Galaxy get into a mad scramble for the football in the Cali Clasico on Sat Aug 29th in Carson City (espn.com photo)

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ August 29, 2020

~ Los Angeles Galaxy´s Lletget gave his team their first and final lead in the 82nd minute Saturday. This broke a three-game unbeaten streak the Earthquakes held in the California Clasico. The last four matches now have seen at least one team with three goals. 

Meanwhile, San Jose´s 16-year old Cade Cowell and Tanner Beason (also his debut) made their first MLS starts and both made an impact. 

It was the Earthquakes´ first match since outside the Orlando Bubble after Wednesday´s match was postponed due to racial injustice sit outs and their first contest since Magnus Eriksson went back to Sweden. 

The Galaxy really amped up their shots in the second half, with over half of them on target. 

San Jose led early. In the 11th minute, Tommy Thompson threw the ball in to Cristian Espinoza who kicked the ball back to Thompson. Thompson then ran to the goal line, made a perfect pass to Vako from the edge of the penalty box, and with no hesitation, Vako spun the ball past goalie David Bingham to notch his second tally of the year.

In the 32nd minute, Cristian Pavón was eventually able to shake off Thompson as they neared the goal entering the penalty box. With keeper Daniel Vega at the corner of the goal, Pavón then made a sliding sweep around kick that Beason was able to knock down at the goal line, no hands required, to save the score. Though that prompted Los Angeles´ś Ethan Zubak to put his hands to his head in disbelief, the Galaxy were for the most part undeterred as they scored in the following minute. 

Daniel Steres put the teams into a 1-1 tie as Lletget assisted with one of his three total corners in the first half.  

Pavon was the only with multiple shots in the first half as Los Angeles largely controlled possession after Vakoś goal. Pavon finished the match with a game-high six shots. 

The Galaxy´s Rolf Feltscher took a yellow card in the 52nd minute. Quakes’ Jackson Yuelil faked the kick before deferring to Cristian Espinoza. 

Los Angeles obtained a second yellow card in the 56th minute. 

It was then Cowell´s time to shine, as he won a one-on-one battle with Feltscher after a pass from Vako. Cowell got into position with two defenders near him and one of his teammates and found his spot to give his team a 2-1 lead in the 59th minute with warranted emotion as the youngest player ever on San Jose. 

Both teams were increasing their intensity as the Galaxy tried five shots in between the 64th and 66th minutes.   

Beason committed a handball in the 70th minute and Pavón was able to concert on the penalty kick in the 72nd minute to retie the game.

Danny Hoseen and Vako exchanged places in the 82nd minute, and in that same minute, Lletget sealed the game off a corner, which at first was debated for being a handball. 

Up Next: San Jose will face the other Southern California team LAFC midweek at 7:30pm. 

The San Jose Earthquakes tweeted a message “It was an incredible journey” they went 3-0-1 going into Saturday’s night’s game against Minnesota FC but were eliminated in the quarterfinal in a 4-1 loss. (@SJEarthquakes photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

ORLANDO, Fla— Kryptonite is kryptonite.

For the The San Jose Earthquakes their kryptonite is Minnesota FC. The Loons established its game early and never took their foot off the gas pedal in a 4-1 victory in a quarterfinals match of the MLS Is Back tournament on Saturday evening at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

San Jose has lost four consecutive games against Minnesota, including a 5-2 loss back in March at Earthquakes Stadium, dating back to last year and are 0-4 during head coach Matias Almeyda’s tenure with the Quakes.

The Cinderella run for San Jose came to an end after spending five weeks in the citrus city. They now head back to Silicon Valley to regroup while Minnesota FC head to a semifinal matchup with Orlando City FC on Thursday.

The Loons took control of the game scoring two goals in a 90 second span at the 20th minute.

Hassani Dotson sent a cross in to the left side of the box where Jose Aja headed the ball back into the middle where an unmarked Robin Lod finished the play with a right-footed chip into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.

Before the Quakes could even blink, Minnesota FC’s Dotson dribbled in from right to left with a shot on goal that Quakes goalkeeper Daniel Vega wasn’t able to control and Jacori Hayes buried the rebound into the upper right corner for a two-goal lead. It was Hayes’ first goal in a Minnesota FC uniform.

“We were outplayed by the opponent. It’s the fourth time they played us and the fourth time they beat us. In these instances, unfortunately you have to get your bags and go home. And even though I didn’t want to lose, I had illusions to keep going. All the people that were here, the players, the staff, the executives, people back home, I thank everybody for the effort,” Almeyda said.

Despite controlling the possession game in the first half 70%-30%, San Jose looked flat-footed in the first 45 minutes as Minnesota looked steps ahead playing their style of game.

San Jose changed the momentum of the game briefly at the beginning of the second half when Cristian Espinoza sent a ball into the box where Tommy Thompson’s chip went off the wrist of Hayes. After VAR review a penalty shot was awarded to the Quakes.

Once again Magnus Eriksson was the man from 12 yards out as he slammed home the shot past Minnesota FC goalkeeper Tyler Miller for his third penalty conversion of the tournament in the 50th minute. Eriksson is now a perfect eight for eight on penalty shots.

Six minutes later Minnesota FC regained their two-goal lead and ended any chance of a San Jose comeback. Lod made a pass from midfield over to Luis Amarilla. The Minnesota FC striker then dribbled the ball unchallenged all the way down inside the box before drilling a shot past Vega from 12 yards out for a 3-1 lead.

“I am really proud of the steps forward that we’ve taken in this tournament. “It was a huge commitment for us to be the first team here, and to stay as long as we did. I think it’s a testament to where this team is at. We’re confident and I think the best is yet to come. We have plenty of lessons to take, whether it’s the comeback win against Vancouver, or the convincing win against Chicago, or now those result against Minnesota. We’re going to take the good with the bad and were focusing on the future. It’s like I said, I think the best is yet to come”, said Thompson.

The Loons finished off the scoring to ice the game in the 86th minute. Dotson made a run along the right wing and centered the ball into the middle where Marlon Hairston tapped in the ball into an open net.

Miller only needed to make three saves in earning the victory. Vega made nine saves in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose had 6 corner kicks. Minnesota FC had 5.

San Jose were issued four yellow cards in the match (Chris Wondolowski, Jackson Yueill, Andy Rios and Judson).

The Earthquakes depart the MLS is Back Tournament with a 3-1-1 overall record, including a 2-0-1 record in Group-Stage play that counts towards the regular-season standings.

San Jose held >60% possession in all five of their matches in the tournament.

Eriksson and Wondolowski each finished with a team-high three goals during the competition.

Midfielder Jack Skahan made his Earthquakes debut, entering as a substitute in the 67th minute.

Vega and defender Guram Kashia each played all 450 minutes of the tournament.