~ Ned Grabavoy played a part in each of his teams’ goals, as New York City FC won over the San Jose Earthquakes in the teams’ first-ever meeting Saturday, 3-2.
It was the first time Grabavoy got on the goal scoring column this season. The last time Grabavoy scored two goals in a game was May 19, 2013.
Both of the teams’ leading scorers scored in the game as all of the goals came in the second half.
Grabavoy inadvertently assisted on his first goal of the year. He passed the ball to David Villa before Villa returned it to him, as Grabavoy scored the game’s first goal in the 51st minute.
In the 63rd minute, Grabavoy scored his second goal of the match from a cross by Frank Lampard.
Villa then made things look even more daunting two minutes later, when he scored past a flying David Bingham. It was Villa’s team-leading 16th goal.
San Jose did not give up though. However, New York City matched their intensity.
After a corner kick that a New York City player hit, the ball hung in the air before Quincy Amarikwa headed it in to make it 3-1 in the 72nd minute.
Amarikwa later got pulled down for a penalty, resulting in a penalty kick by Chris Wondolowski. The conversion was Wondolowski’s sixth out of six penalty attempts for the season and his team-leading 15th goal, to make it 3-2 in the 76th minute.
Game notes: The Quakes resume play September 27 at 4pm versus Real Salt Lake.
The San Jose Earthquakes have been stuck in quicksand the last two matches, earning consecutive draws, the latest one being a 1-1 tie with the Montreal Impact at Avaya Stadium on Wednesday night.
Despite the Impact playing down a man for about half the game after Ambroise Oyongo tripped up Matias Perez Garcia and earned a red card, the Earthquakes failed to net more than the one goal and missed an opportunity to gain some much-needed ground in the Western Conference playoff race.
It was all good early when Chris Wondolowski struck 35 minutes into the match. Impact goalkeeper Eric Kronberg’s toss resulted in a turnover and wound up in the back of the net after a right-footed strike by Wondolowski.
The red card for the Impact’s Oyongo came in the 49th minute, but the Impact managed to equalize despite being down a man.
With his left foot, Kyle Bekker netted his first goal of the season in the 64th minute, sending a curling shot that evaded Earthquakes keeper David Bingham, who probably came too far out of the box. On a bounce, the ball skipped into the goal to even the score.
Despite late pressure from the Earthquakes, who outshot the Impact 16-8, had 11 shots on target, and out possessed the Impact 63.8 percent to 36.2 percent, the game ended in a disappointing draw.
San Jose has 40 points, one back of Portland in the West for the sixth and final playoff spot with five matches to play. Up next will be a matchup against NYCFC on Saturday in New York City.
Riding a hot streak of five wins in six matches, the San Jose Earthquakes were denied of a victory on Saturday night that would have vaulted them back into the playoff picture.
Instead, with a 1-1 draw against the Seattle Sounders at Avaya Stadium, the Earthquakes settled for a point and remain two points back of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Two second half goals provided the scoring for the match — Fatai Alashe in the 70th minute for San Jose and Obafemi Martins in the 82nd minute for Seattle.
Alashe scored on a header off a free kick from the right of the box by Matias Perez Garcia. Perez Garcia’s chip found Alashe, who headed it past Stefan Frei to give the Earthquakes a temporary lead.
But Martins answered, netting home a rebound after a terrific save by David Bingham off a header by Zach Scott. Martins spoiled Bingham’s effort and evened the score at 1-1.
It would remain that way through stoppage time in a disappointing outing for an Earthquakes team hoping for a pivotal victory.
The Earthquakes held a 10-7 lead in the shot totals and possession was fairly even. San Jose also was awarded more corner kicks (7-2), but weren’t able to capitalize.
Next up for San Jose will be the Montreal Impact on Sept. 16 at Avaya Stadium.
SAN JOSE, Calif. – If the San Jose Earthquakes expected to continue their three-game win streak, let alone the run of 270-plus minutes without yielding a goal, to continue Friday night at Avaya Stadium they’d need their A-game. Facing in-state rivals the Los Angeles Galaxy in the third and deciding leg of the California Clasico between the first two California-based MLS Sides, the Quakes needed to find a way to slow one of the MLS’ most potent offenses and red-hot sides down.
“That’s life in MLS,” said Quakes coach Dominic Kinnear. “It’s a league of streaks.”
San Jose did just that, extending its own streak to four-straight triumphs, topping the Western Conference leaders 1-0 to move ahead of Settle into the fifth spot in the table.
“I’m really happy with this group,” said Kinnear. “The last three weeks we’ve been good. We’ve followed those performances up with a good level of consistency. That’s the reason why we’re winning games.”
Shea Salinas scored and David Bingham made 4 saves to pick up a quartet of clean sheets in as many games. The Quakes earned the crown as Clasico victors, beating LA 3-1 at Stanford Stadium June 27th before being thrashed in Carson 5-2 on July 17th.
The Galaxy entered Friday’s match having scored a league-leading 49 goals over 27 games backed by imports like Steven Gerrard and MLS mainstay Robbie Keane. Despite coming into play with the 2nd most saves in the MLS (86) and ranking third in shutouts (9), Bingham and San Jose had their hands full keeping an LA squad off the board and out of the win column for a fifth-straight match.
“If anybody has been awake,” said Kinnear. “If anyone has been alive in the last five years in soccer, you know those players already. You want to show them you belong, that you’re a good player. If you step on the field and you’re just looking at the names, you’re going to be in for a long night. They’re not good players, they’re great players.”
The road-weary Quakes now find themselves with the upper hand in the closing weeks of the MLS season. They finish up the season with 6 of 8 matches at home as they look to lock up a playoff spot for the first time since 2012 when San Jose won the Supporters Shield with a league-best 19 wins.
A dogged effort by midfielder Shea Salinas put the Quakes on top 1-0 in the 19th minute. Forward Quincy Amarikwa headed a shot onto Galaxy keep Donovan Ricketts, but the MLS vet got his gloves on the bid. Amarikwa’s header proved too strong for a clean grab, instead popping the ball into the air. Salinas capitalized, hitting the goal box on a dead sprint, to head the loose ball into the top right corner of the net for a 1-0 lead.
“Marvell made a great cross and Quincy fought it,” said Salinas of his goal. “Ricketts made a great save. God just put me in the right place and I was able to put it in the back of the net.”
“He just looks confident,” said Kinnear of Salinas and his two-game goal streak. “I think he feels that, no matter who the defender is playing against him, he feels he can beat them.”
“The Quakes started the second half holding most of the momentum, but found themselves further in control after the officials sent Leonardo off with a red card. The Galaxy defender hauled Amarikwa down from behind in the 47th minute to put his team down a man for almost half the contest. LA handcuffed itself in the 74th minute Dave Romney was given a yellow card as well. While the Quakes didn’t score with the man-advantage, they ran the Galaxy ragged with the edge.
After building the streak by breaking Eastern Conference Leaders D.C. United and Sporting Kansas City, third best in the West, the Quakes can make it 5 against the scuffling Philadelphia Union next Saturday. The Union currently sits one win ahead of Chicago as the leg of the Eastern Conference table.
“Teams can come here and beat anyone on any given day,” said Bingham. “We have to continue to play well.”
~ San Jose followed Wednesday’s performance with another impressive win, as they put together their longest win streak of the season Saturday, beating D.C. United 2-0.
All of the Quakes’ victories were clean sheets, as goalie David Bingham faced the most action of the win streak Saturday, four shots on goal and four saves.
Compared to the last time these two teams met, shots were one-sided again, 23-9, but this time by more and the losing team outshot the winner. Chris Wondolowski also scored.
San Jose got their momentum rolling with another early goal. Not too long after teammate Quincy Amarikwa’s shot missed, Wondolowski scored his 101st team goal in the 4th minute. He has now had goals in consecutive games for the first time since the end of May.
D.C. United responded after the goal but were not able to execute.
Shea Salinas made it 2-0 in his 101st start, assisted by Amarikwa in the 52nd minute It was Salinas’ first goal since May 16. Amarikwa has either scored or assisted now in four straight games.
D.C. United’s Alvaro Saborio had the most shots and shots on goal out of all on the pitch, five and two respectively.
Game notes: The Quakes now aim for revenge against the third-best in MLS, the Los Angeles Galaxy, August 28 at 8pm in the California Clasico season finale. Los Angeles beat San Jose 5-2 last meeting.
SAN JOSE, Calif. – On a night when the City of San Jose’s Department of Environmental Services sponsored the match with blurbs regarding littering and pollution, it was the San Jose Earthquakes who properly disposed of the unwanted Friday. In blanking the visiting Colorado Rapids 1-0 at Avaya Stadium, the Quakes (8-10-5) tossed away a six-game unbeaten stretch to pick up their first win since June 20th.
Clarence Goodson, returning from injury, netted the game-winner in the 53rd minute and goalkeeper David Bingham collected the clean sheet to keep San Jose out of the bottom leg of the Western Conference table and pull within three points of Seattle for the final playoff spot. Colorado (5-9-9) meanwhile, falls five points back of San Jose in last place in the conference.
“I’m really happy with the effort,” said Quakes coach Dominic Kinnear. “The guys were good. A real good goal, a lot of second efforts on that part of it. It would have been nice to have gotten a second to kind of ease the pressure on us a little bit, but any time you shut out a team it gives you a chance to win and one goal was enough for us tonight.”
The contest wasn’t without its drawbacks. Defender Jordan Stewart played an integral part in withstanding an early Rapids onslaught, but exited the contest in the 27th minute with an Achilles injury. While the severity of the injury is unknown, it appears he’ll be absent from the San Jose roster for a sizeable period of time.
“He’s a great soccer player and an even greater person,” said Wondolowski. “True professional in every sense of the word. I’m definitely going to miss him, he’s a good friend. He’s been playing great this whole season. Shaun Francis did a great job stepping in there.”
Another Quake was hampered by injury, but isn’t expected to miss any time. Matias Perez Garcia was limited to 50 minutes with a hamstring ailment before being replaced by recent acquisition Marc Pelosi.
“You could tell it was kind of hindering him a little bit,” said Kinnear. “We tried to hopefully get him going a little bit at halftime, and it just wasn’t happening.”
Goodson looked like he put behind his left leg injury in a fantastic effort that included stalwart defense and the winning score. Chris Wondolowski, playing closer to midfield in a new alignment for Kinnear, managed to place the ball at Quincy Amarikwa’s left foot. Amarikwa lofted it to the right post where Goodson could cash it in for the 1-0 lead.
“I’m not going to miss too many of those,” said Goodson on Amarikwa’s perfect feed. “He said get back there so I got back there. That’s such a good ball. It was a slam dunk.”
While Goodson was making his first MLS appearance since July 26, another player for San Jose was making his MLS debut. Midfielder Anibal Godoy made his debut after touching down in the United States just 24 hours earlier.
“He was brilliant tonight,” said Wondolowski. “He covered some serious ground tonight.”
Godoy landed in Los Angeles Thursday night from his native Panama, spent the night in SoCal before flying up to the Bay Area on the morning of the match. There was no hesitation for Kinnear to insert the International into the line-up and allow him to play a full 90 minutes.
“At this time in the season when you bring in a player like him,” said Kinnear. “Or you bring in somebody new that you think can help the team, he’s not here to blend in and to work his way into the game.
Godoy, contrary to the expected, said he felt very comfortable in his maiden match with the Quakes, in large part due to the cohesion of the group.
“I felt like I had played with this team for 15 games,” said Godoy after the match through a translator. Godoy was familiar with some Quakes players previously and noted that their team communication made it easy to jump in.
On paper it still is only one match for Godoy, but he’ll get another chance to work on team chemistry on Wednesday when the Quakes head to Kansas City followed by a Saturday match in D.C. From there, Godoy and his Quakes mates will return home for a four-game homestand amidst their playoff push.
“This group of guys knows if we can stay hungry and stay united, we can win some matches,” said Godoy. “Today we demonstrated that we are a solid squad and if we continue to play like this we will reach our goal.”
~ The Houston Dynamo recovered from a late San Jose goal to preserve the Quakes’ winless streak, Saturday 2-1.
San Jose went down to 10 men after Fatai Alashe received a second yellow and thus red card. The Quakes’ now have a six-game winless streak, this being their second loss versus the Dynamo during that time.
Houston also scored two goals the last time the teams met as the home team won for the first time this season matchup.
Both teams were coming off a draw.
The Quakes had five yellows in the match.
The Dynamo’s Damarcus Beasley scored his first of the season, beating goalie David Bingham at the near corner of the goal mouth in the 55th minute. Giles Barnes gave the assist.
With a foul against Barnes in the 58th minute, there was talk about Marc Pelosi possibly getting another yellow. He already had one in the 34th minute.
Pelosi went down in the front of the goal before a possible scoring opportunity, but there was no call.
Alashe was sent off in the 60th minute. His first yellow came in the 43rd minute.
It took several touches, but an aggressive set piece, starting with a corner by Tommy Thompson, leveled the game in the 70th minute. Shaun Francis had the assisting header, as the ball went past goalie Joe Willis to Quincy Amarikwa with the chest shot. Amarikwa was back to his scoring ways, with his third goal in four games to avoid the shutout.
However, the Dynamo’s Boniek Garcia, playing for the first time since June 5 where he also assisted, got the second assist, as Sheanon Williams slid the ball past Bingham and to Alex Lima on the other side. The game winner came at the 76th minute.
Game notes: Houston was without starting goalie Tyler Deric, Nathan Sturgis and Ricardo Clark. San Jose had the same lineup as last week, with the exception of Pelosi playing for Matias Perez Garcia. Tuesday, the Quakes announced that former captain Ramiro Corrales will be the newest inductee into the team’s Hall of Fame and that Khari Stephenson was loaned to the North American Soccer League’s San Antonio Scorpions. Wednesday, they announced the acquisition of Anibal Godoy, Panama midfielder. San Jose plays Colorado August 14 at 8pm.
Aug 2, 2015; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski (8, right) kicks the ball against Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell (24, left) during the first half at Avaya Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
By: Eric He
SAN JOSE — While it wasn’t three points, the San Jose Earthquakes snapped their four-game MLS losing streak with a 0-0 draw with the Portland Timbers at Avaya Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The scoreless contest did not lack excitement, featuring plenty of chances and a penalty kick that went awry, but nonetheless both teams will leave with a point in hand.
“A point is better than the last month,” said Quakes head coach Dominic Kinnear. “So we’re happy about that. We definitely had some chances. Obviously you’d love to have the win. I thought overall our game was better today. That should be the standard we set for the rest of the season.”
Portland opened the second half with a dangerous scoring opportunity as Fanendo Adi banged one off the left goalpost.
San Jose followed with some chances of its own. Matias-Perez Garcia created several corner kicks and crosses. A header by Victor Bernandez on a cross by Marvell Wynne sailed just wide, and a right footed bullet by Shaun Francis in the 63rd minute narrowly missed the net.
“We possessed the ball fairly well,” noted Chris Wondolowski. “We created opportunities, but we didn’t really make the keeper work. There were too many chances that we hit off target and we need to be a little more clinical in the final third.”
Added Kinnear: “At times we had good build-up play but let ourselves off the hook by rushing the shot or making the wrong decision. I thought we had our chance to be due for a goal today.”
The Quakes wound up with 55.7 percent of the possession on Sunday afternoon.
Not even a penalty kick could break the tie. Timbers’ midfielder Diego Valeri was tripped up by Francis in the box, but his penalty hit off the crossbar as the Quakes dodged a bullet.
“Luckily, it went my way,” Quakes goaltender David Bingham said. “If it was a hair lower I felt like I would’ve covered it.”
The first half was scoreless, although the Quakes held the majority of the possession and pressure.
Their best chance came early on in the seventh minute. Wondolowski had a point-blank opportunity with no one between him and Timbers goaltender Adam Kwarasey after a nice entry feed from Shea Salinas, but Wondolowski was denied at the doorstep.
The Quakes’ superstar blamed himself for not finishing it off.
“What a great ball by Shea,” Wondolowksi remarked. “Found me perfectly. My touch just got stuck under me. I tried poking it and the keeper made a good kick save. My first touch let me down.”
The 34th minute saw Salinas try to score one himself, lofting a ball on goal that went over the outstretched arms of Kwarasey but wide of the net.
Despite outshooting the Timbers 7-5 in the first half and controlling over half of the possession, the teams entered the locker room tied at halftime.
“It’s disappointing,” said Bingham. “We let them off the hook tonight. I felt like we were the better team throughout the night. Credit to them; they didn’t give up throughout the game, so they did well. If we could’ve been a little sharper here and there we should’ve gotten three points.”
Couldn’t wait for August
It was a rough July for the Quakes, who dropped all seven of their matches — four MLS, two international friendlies, and a U.S. Open Cup Round of 16 match against the Galaxy. Their four-game losing streak was the longest in MLS this season.
Most recently, San Jose dropped a 3-1 decision up at BC Place in Vancouver to the Whitecaps.
“Right now, we are playing well, but the results are going against us,” said Kinnear after the loss on July 21. “We have to go back to basic stuff and just talk about it, look at our mistakes and go back to working hard.”
More Quotables
“No one likes losing games. We need to win games if we want to get in the playoffs, especially in-conference games.”
– Midfielder Jordan Stewart
“We’ve got to stop tying games. We still have a belief we can make the playoffs. You have to put your chances away and that changes the whole dynamic of the game, especially mine in the beginning.”
– Wondolowski
“Passing the ball to the correct team was very helpful. Finding Matias [Perez Garcia’s] feet a little more. We moved the ball better…we got isolated one-on-one. Shea [Salinas] was very effective in the first half. At times we were running the ball a little too much, but I thought defensively we were better. Our commitment to defending was better and overall our attitude was better.”
– Kinnear on adjustments
“Keep encouraging them [to shoot]. Sometimes you’ve got to go where it hurts. An ugly goal can maybe open the floodgates a little bit. Sometimes it needs to be a perfect chance and sometimes it needs to be a bounce of luck. I’m not really caring too much how it goes in or who it goes in from.”
– Kinnear on how he can improve offensive production
Notes
Entering Sunday afternoon, recently acquired forward Quincy Amarikwa had scored three goals in his last two matches. … The Quakes sit at ninth in the West with 26 points, six back of a playoff spot. … When the Quakes and Timbers last played on July 5th, the Timbers scratched out a 1-0 win with a stoppage time goal over the shorthanded Quakes. … The Quakes’ next game is on the road on Aug. 8 against the Dynamo in Houston.
~ The Vancouver Whitecaps preserved their undefeated streak against San Jose at BC Place with a 3-1 win Sunday.
Both were winless in their last three games. Now, with this result, the Quakes have conceded multiple goals in their last three games, while Vancouver has not.
San Jose’s Clarence Goodson was injured in the 11th minute and Paulo Renato came in for him in the 13th minute.
The first two goals for the Whitecaps were a long time coming for both players, both scoring their first of the season.
Mauro Rosales had the longer streak. He scored in the 5th minute for the first time since October 9, 2013. That goal came against Vancouver as this was his first goal for the Whitecaps.
In the 32nd minute, Kendall Waston scored his first since September 10, 2014. That goal also came at home versus the Earthquakes. This goal came off a corner kick from Rosales as Waston headed the kick in to double Vancouver’s lead. It was the first goal off a corner this season, Cam Tucker of the Vancouver Metro reported.
After Octavio Rivero narrowly missed a goal in the 51st minute, Renato committed a penalty in the 56th minute. Then, Rivero scored his team-leading eighth goal on the ensuing kick. It was his second penalty kick converted this season as Rivero tripled the lead. The Whitecaps have made all three they have taken. It was Rivero’s first goal since June 27, but he has had at least one shot on goal in each game since then.
San Jose’s Cordell Cato played for the first time since June 27 and started for the first time since June 7. He had a shot on goal in the 76th minute.
Teammate Shea Salinas’ shot was similarly caught by keeper David Ousted in the 80th minute, when Salinas kicked from inside the box.
In the 81st minute, Salinas shot again from just outside the box, similar to Cato, but this time the ball hit the crossbar and then the line.
Finally, in the 90th minute, the Quakes were able to avoid a shutout. Quincy Amarikwa, after fighting off defenders and passing to Salinas, then found himself alone. Once he received the ball back from Salinas, Amarikwa scored his third goal in two games.
Game notes: Vancouver was without Darren Mattocks, who scored Jamaica’s goal in the Gold Cup. San Jose meanwhile welcomed back Chris Wondolowski, a day after he started in the third-place game. Wondolowski was held without a shot in the game for the first time since April 5. The Quakes hope to get back on track when they host the Portland Timbers on August 2 at 2pm. The Timbers started San Jose’s winless streak back on July 5.
SAN JOSE, Calif.—18,000 fans showed up to Avaya Stadium on Tuesday night to see global megapower, Manchester United take on the San Jose Earthquakes as part of the Guinness International Champions Cup. It marks the second game for both clubs, as they each have played Club America to start the tournament. San Jose lost 2-1 to Club America a week ago in San Jose. Man U is coming off of a 1-0 victory.
The match marks the first time Manchester United has ever played the Earthquakes, giving San Jose soccer fans a great chance to see legends such as Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata, and Bastian Schweinstager up close.
Earthquakes coach, Dominic Kinnear, wanted to make sure his players weren’t star struck out on the pitch going up against some of the worlds best.“I told them before the game to go out and enjoy it, but it’s important that we make a game out of it”.
They did just that as,the Red Devils came out victorious with a 3-1 victory, though the Quakes did have chances. Manchester United coach, Louis van Gaal, mentioned that he thought San Jose was the better team in the first 15 minutes. Man U finally got on the board in the 32nd minute. Mata rocketed a shot from the top of the box that pinged off of the lower right post and in.
Manchester United added their second just five minutes later, as they took advantage off a bad pass from Jean Baptist Pierazzi. Man of the match, Memphis Depay got the steal and tucked the ball into the right hand corner of the net to make it 2-nil.
The Earthquakes were able to get on the board before half, as a beautiful play by Shea Salinas at the touch line set up Fatai Alashe who hammered it past Sam Johnstone to make it 2-1 going into halftime.
The second half saw a lot of the reserves come into the match for both sides, as the International Champions Cup doesn’t restrict the amount of substitutions a team can use.Among those reserves was newly acquired Bastian Schweinsteiger for Manchester United.Playing in just his second match for the Red Devils, he was not impressive according to van Gaal. “We played very bad in the second half, Schweinstegier included”.
Manchester United’s loan goal in the second half came in the 61st minute when Jesse Lingered crossed it from the right side and found the head of Andreas Pereira in the middle of the box who was able to get it past David Bingham.
The Quakes came close to adding another in the 70th minute, when newly signed Marc Pelosi fired a rocket just missing the top left corner. Kinnear liked the play of Pelosi in his first match, “He did okay, I would have liked to see him score though”.
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