~ 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”.
~ The San Jose Earthquakes ended their scoring drought, but extended their winless drought, as the Los Angeles Galaxy won the second matchup of the California Clasico with exclamation points, 5-2 Friday.
Robbie Keane scored the first of Los Angeles’ five straight goals. Two of his goals were penalty kicks, and it was his second straight MLS game with a hat trick, which he last accomplished on July 4th.
San Jose’s scoring drought ended in the 22nd minute, but they have now lost three straight MLS games, four including their ICC match.
San Jose got off to a promising start. Every time Los Angeles was close, the Quakes would knock the ball away with stout defense.
Quincy Amarikwa may have missed his first opportunity in the 12th minute, but he did not miss his next two for San Jose.
Off a free kick, Amarikwa ended the Quakes’ drought with his first goal since rejoining the team. Sanna Nyassi crossed the ball and Amarikwa received it at the top of the box as the ball slid past goalie Brian Rowe.
Amarikwa’s brace goal came in the 25th minute, two goals in his second game of his second stint with San Jose. Clarence Goodson gave the assist.
Going by the crowd, there were two plays they felt should have been called, one being the Quakes rolling over a Los Angeles player and another play at the endline.
The Galaxy eventually got a penalty kick as Tommy Thompson was called for a penalty against Steven Gerrard, who made his MLS debut until the 87th minute.
Keane cut the lead in half, shooting past goalie David Bingham.
Gerrard then scored his first MLS goal in the 37th minute, as the ball eventually found its way to him from the other side. That resulted in two goals for each team in an active first half.
In the second half however, momentum went mostly to Los Angeles, as they scored three more goals. San Jose went without a shot on goal in the second half while the Galaxy kept making breakways toward goal. Gerrard first had a run. On the second one, the pass from Keane went to Sebastian Lletget, whose shot hit the crossbar and went out.
Los Angeles had more similar close calls later.
Shea Salinas drew a yellow card against Gerrard in the 55th minute. The Quakes had three yellows in the second half.
Keane and Gerrard connected on a free kick in the 64th minute for Keane’s middle goal
In the waning minutes, Bingham made a save, then in going for the loose ball, ended up knocking Bagio Husidic to the ground for Keane’s second penalty goal. Gerrard had scored right before the penalty made it null.
Lletget capped the game off in the 92nd minute. Robbie Rogers got the assist. Los Angeles has scored at least five goals in three of their last five games.
Game notes: Before the game, it was announced that San Jose had signed Marc Pelos,i Bay Area native, from the youth national team. Both teams were missing a player, the Galaxy Omar Gonzalez and the Quakes Chris Wondolowski, due to Gold Cup action. The Quakes face the Vancouver Whitecaps in their next MLS action on July 26 at 4pm.
Cast: Joe Lami (host), Mary Lisa Walsh, Ben Leonard, Jeremy Harness, Matt Harrington, Lee Leonard (producer) the cast got to enjoy San Jose’s favorite place for Asian Fusion. Owner Ashwini and General Manager Irma invite you to try some of M’s favorite recommendations the lobster thermador, the vegetable samosas, king crab, calamari, cream corn soup, fried prawns, Nonya Shrimp Por Phia, M Style Water Chestnuts, and San Jose’s favorite the hot and sour soup.
Ashwini and Irma invite you to enjoy Friday and Saturday night DJ dancing on the M Lounge and Restaurant floor starting at 9:30PM. Happy Hour is 3:00PM-7:00PM and 9:00PM to closing everyday. M Lounge and Restaurant located at the corner of Second and San Fernando in downtown San Jose at 88 Second Street. Open everyday Monday to Thursday 11 AM-11PM and Fridays and Saturdays 11AM-12AM. We loved M Lounge and Restaurant you will too stop by for lunch and dinner daily.
It only took ten minutes for the Houston Dynamo to get on the board on Friday night, as they easily defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0.Ricardo Clark had a diving header for his fourth goal of the season.It was set up on a beautiful cross from the left side by Alexander Lopez that floated into the middle of the box, where Clark dove past Quakes’ defender Shaun Francis for the 1-0 lead.
The Quakes best chance came in the 32nd minute on a free kick.Following a yellow card issued to Dynamo goalie, Tyler Deric, for delay of game, the free kick was set up at the top of the semi-circle. Victor Bernandez received a tap pass from Matias Perez Garcia and rocketed a right footer directly into the corner crossbar on the right side.
Bernandez had another outstanding play in the 56th minute, but this time it was on defense. Clark was going for his second goal of the match, as he kicked a bounce shot past Quakes’ goalie David Bingham, but Bernandez was able to get in front of the shot to keep the deficit at one.
Quakes’ head coach, Dominic Kinnear, commented on Bernandez play “Victor’s been consistent and good all year”.
San Jose had trouble stringing together passes in the final third, which eventually led to their demise, as they were unable to find the back of the net.
The Dynamo put the nail in the coffin in the 81st minute, after a mistake on defense from Fatai Alashe. Alashe tried to kick it back to Bingham, but the kick wasn’t strong enough leaving Bingham out high and dry. It led to a two on none, where Leonel Miranda passed it across the box to Will Bruin, who had a tap in goal for his eighth goal of the year.
Kinnear put the loss on himself, “I’ll take the blame for this one.I think that every once in a while a coach doesn’t prepare his team properly.I don’t think we played well tonight and I think I had a lot to do with it”.
San Jose was without captain and leading, Chris Wondolowski, as he has been called up for international duty to participate in the Gold Cup for the United States Men’s National Team.
Just minutes away from escaping Portland in a scoreless draw, the shorthanded San Jose Earthquakes were felled by a stoppage time goal by Jack Jewsbury in a 1-0 defeat to the Timbers.
Off a free kick by Diego Valeri from the left of the box, Jewsbury knocked redirected the deflected ball into the net, a fortuitous bounce that cost the Earthquakes a point.
It seemed like luck would favor San Jose in this game. In the 87th minute, Timbers forward Gaston Fernandez headed a cross by defenseman Alvas Powell past David Bingham, but was whistled down for a narrow offside.
The Earthquakes themselves were a victim of the referee’s decisions. Tommy Thompson was knocked down in the area in the 83rd minute after a fantastic run, but the penalty didn’t come.
Instead, San Jose, which fought and clawed enough to deserve a draw, will head home with nothing.
The Earthquakes were playing shorthanded without Chris Wondolowski and Cordell Cato (Gold Cup), Sanna Nyassi (suspension) and Matias Perez Garcia (undisclosed injury), so a draw would have been more than ideal.
A couple of controversial calls went against both teams in the first half.
In the 24th minute, a header by Quakes forward Mark Sherrod off a corner kick was deflected away off the goal line by Powell, but it appeared to be a handball that wasn’t called.
In the 40th minute, Timbers midfielder Valeri burst in and shot one past Bingham, but it was called back due to an offsides that the referee on the sideline missed.
The Timbers sustained pressure for the majority of the first half, generating chances and controlling pressure. But Bingham stood tall in net and the shorthanded Quakes were able to withstand the onslaught.
Notes
The Earthquakes were outshot 23-7, including 7-2 in shots on target. …They have never beaten the Timbers in the MLS era. … The game’s start time was delayed six hours from 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM PST because of an unbearable heat wave in Portland. … The Earthquakes remain on the outside looking in on the playoff picture with 25 points. … Their next game will be on Friday at home against Houston.
