Tag: Cordell Cato

San Jose Earthquakes Saturday game wrap: Wondo’s 90th minute goal saves the day for Quakes in 1-1 draw with Seattle

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sjearthquakes.com photo: San Jose goaltender David Bingham (right) congratulates Hall of Famer Joe Cannon (left) on Saturday night at Avaya Stadium

by-Ana Kieu

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Earthquakes settled for a 1-1 draw with the Seattle Sounders FC at Avaya Stadium Saturday.

Following a 2-1 loss to NYCFC at Yankee Stadium, the Earthquakes returned to San Jose to host the Sounders in a Saturday night game. Thus, home-field advantage was a positive thing. Also, in honor of Hall of Fame night, 5,000 fans received a free Joe Cannon t-shirt.

The Earthquakes had a couple of chances in the first half. Their first chance came at the 14th minute when Nick Lima set up Anibal Godoy, whose scoring attempt was cleared by Stefan Frei. Two minutes later, Simon Dawkins got a shot off at the edge of six-yard box, but his attempt trickled just past the far post.

“As far as the performance,” Lima recalled. “It was hard. The second half, we weren’t on top of our game, but it was a game where you’d expect toughness from both teams…There were a few moments, like when we went down and gave up a goal. It hurts and it’s hard to deal with, but we fought back and got a goal in return…I almost thought we had a chance to win it, but you know, it’s gotta be a full 90 minutes. It was their game, but we gotta move on and focus on Friday’s game.”

Godoy received a yellow card at the 33rd minute. He also made a promising kick from the left field, but was called offside at the 38th minute.

Krazy George rallied up the crowd at the 41st minute. The Earthquakes had another chance when Marco Urena kicked the ball into the net, but it was denied by Frei.

The match was scoreless after the first half. San Jose held a halftime ceremony to induct Cannon to the Hall of Fame. Cannon’s former teammates also took the time out to congratulate him on his induction.

Once again, the Earthquakes had some chances in the second half. Urena’s kick at the 51st minute had potential, but it was just a bit too high.

The Earthquakes made their first substitution of the match at the 66th minute. Cordell Cato made his first appearance of the season, replacing Dawkins.

Godoy executed a kick from outside of the box at the 71st minute, but it went just wide of the net.

The Earthquakes made another substitution at the 80th minute. Shea Salinas replaced Jahmir Hyka. Then, Fatai Alashe received a yellow card at the 83rd minute.

“There’s a lot of emotion that goes through your head,” Alashe said.

Sounders FC broke the scoreless deadlock in the 84th minute as Nicolas Lodeiro finished a play for a 1-0 lead.

However, the Seattle lead was short-lived. The Earthquakes tied the match 1-1 at the 90th minute after Chris Wondolowski scored his second goal of the season.

“It’s still a bit frustrating that we slipped and gave up two points,” Wondolowski said when asked about the final result. “But it’s nice to have that character and fight and come back and you don’t want to take that for granted.”

Three minutes of stoppage time were added to the clock after two, 45-minute halves. The Earthquakes (2-1-2) wanted to score the go-ahead goal to earn a 2-1 win, but they settled for one point after coming back for a late 1-1 draw with Sounders FC (1-3-1).

“We had a great game regardless,” Shaun Francis said. “We’ll do our best to learn from it and prepare for next Friday’s game.”

“There’s a lot of guys who had good performances tonight,” Earthquakes head coach Dominic Kinnear said. “I felt like both teams had it in them.”

Notes
Injured: OUT: F Quincy Amarikwa (knee surgery), D Marvell Wynne (heart abnormality), M Marc Pelosi (left knee injury), D Harold Cummings (leg surgery)

Suspended: Victor Bernardez (red card)

Int’l Duty: None

Up Next
The Earthquakes host Dallas FC (3-1-0) next Friday at 7:45 p.m. PST on UniMas. London Marq will have exclusive game coverage from Ayaya Stadium next Friday for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Quakes “Survive the Storm” for Second Win of 2014

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By Matthew Harrington

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — On a night when the San Jose Earthquakes turned back the clock, donning kits similar to their original NASL iterations in their first season in 1974, the best ally for the club to prove the victors turned out to be a forward ticking timer. The Earthquakes scored the first two goals then weathered an FC Dallas barrage to cling to a 2-1 lead and collect three points at Buck Shaw Stadium Saturday night.

“We survived the storm,” remarked defender Jordan Stewart.

Midfielder Cordell Cato connected on his first goal of the season for the Quakes (2-3-4) beating Dallas goalkeeper Raul Fernandez in the 25th minute. The Quakes were also beneficiaries of an opponent own goal. San Jose played down a man for more than half the game after officials sent Shea Salinas off with a red card in the 45th minute.

“That was quite a night,” said San Jose coach Mark Watson. “To use the old cliché, it was a tale of two halves. I thought in the first half we played well, got the goal and had a chance to make it two-nil. The second half was just about sticking together defending and seeing the game out.”

After receiving a perfect header from Clarence Goodson, Cato found himself on breakaway staring down only Dallas keeper Fernandez. Cato struck a low shot to the left passed Fernandez for a 1-0 lead in the 25th minute. San Jose netminder Jon Busch was awarded the second assist on the marker, his first career helper, after firing a pass up-field to Goodson.

“I saw a big body up there, I thought it was Alan (Gordon),” said Busch. “I saw a big body and I just said I’m just going to hit it down the middle to one of the big bodies and something good will happen. And something good did happen.”

San Jose honored former player, coach and general manager Johnny Moore by inducting him into the team’s Hall of Fame Saturday. It was a big night for the former wearer of number 8, but his present day counterpart nearly stole some of his thunder. On a Quakes free kick in the 73rd minute, Chris Wondolowski appeared to net the second goal of the game. The replay showed that, despite the perfect placement, Wondolowski’s left foot narrowly missed the ball. Instead, it was ruled a Dallas own goal off the boot of David Texeira for a Quakes 2-0 edge.

“To be honest, it was nice to get a bounce our way,” said Wondolowski of the own goal. “On Wednesday night (a 0-0 tie against Colorado at Buck Shaw) we didn’t get those bounces. We’ve been unlucky this season so it was nice to get a bounce.”

FC Dallas pressured San Jose throughout the night with forwards Fabian Castillo and Blas Perez combining on a number of Grade-A chances that Busch and company turned aside, including a chance in the 57th minute that crossed over the goal line but somehow managed to stay out.

“We do drills like that in training during the week,” said Busch. “You make the first save and get across the goal. I was fortunate enough that I got it quick enough and was able to make a play on the second shot that came off the post and came all the way across.”

Dallas finally broke through in the 76th minute after Michel beat Busch on a perfectly placed from just outside the penalty box. The Dallas midfielder tucked a perfect ball right into the top left corner for the sole visiting tally, his fifth of the season. Busch bounced back to hold the score and seal the win.

“I wish I could say I’m shocked,” said Wondolowski. “I see it every day. He does a great job. He’s a great goalie.”

Busch credited his teammates for playing strong in front of him.

“We needed this one badly,” said the keeper. “I can’t be prouder of the boys, they just battled through a lot of adversity. You take a red card just before halftime against a very good possession team, so you know you’re going to take wave after wave.”

With the Quakes already fighting an uphill battle, down a man with five other players booked for yellow cards, the deck appeared further stacked in Dallas’ favor when a generous six minutes of stoppage time were added at the end of play. The only major delay in the second half came when Alan Gordon went down in the 56th minute, but he quickly moved to the sideline along with the Earthquakes trainer before being subbed out in favor of J.J. Koval. Gordon told the media after the game that he doesn’t expect to miss any time and just suffered from dead legs Saturday night.

“I thought it was a long time,” said Watson. “The referee said the Alan Gordon injury was three minutes. There’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t change your mind, but I thought it was a little bit too much.”

Dallas took full advantage of the extra time, putting a salvo of shots on Busch to try to steal a point on the road. Despite a few close calls, the Quakes managed to pull out the victory for their second win this season, both coming at Buck Shaw Stadium.

“I think it shows the character this team has,” said Watson. “We’ve always had that. I thought tonight was a perfect example of that. Under extreme circumstances, all the things going on, we kept fighting and battling.”

The Quakes look to build off Saturday’s adversity laden win when they travel to Seattle to face the Sounders at the inhospitable CenturyLink Field next Saturday.

“Hopefully this gets us going,” said Busch. “We had a similar performance the other night, just couldn’t get the goal we needed. Tonight we got the two goals we needed. Hopefully we can take from this and move forward.”

The Quakes may soon be moving forward without the club’s all-time leading scorer. Chris Wondolowski may soon be joining the United States Men’s National Team for World Cup duty, including a May 27th tune-up at Candle Stick Park against Azerbaijan.

“We got a win, that was good.” Said Wondolowski. “If I am leaving, I wish I was leaving with us in first place. It is what it is. I know these guys are going to do a great job.”

Gordon’s Last-Second Score Draws Earthquakes Even With Toluca in First Leg of Champions League Quarterfinals

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By Matthew Harrington

SANTA CLARA, Calif.-The San Jose Earthquakes “never say die” attitude almost created an international incident, with the Quakes introducing their “Goonies” attitude to the opening leg to the CONCACAFA Champions League quarterfinal matchup against Deportivo Toluca FC. Despite having the better of the chances at Buck Shaw Stadium Tuesday night, it took the Earthquakes a last-second goal from Alan Gordon to head to Toluca with the aggregate score even, 1-1.

“That’s how soccer goes sometimes,” said Gordon after the match. “To be able to battle back and to show ourselves we still have that, we’re always going to have that. It’s in our DNA to come back and get results. It’s really good for our confidence moving forward. We played a good team and we played them well.”

Toluca dominated the possession game, hogging the ball for over 64.8 percent of play, true to the technical styling of most dominant Mexican sides. Despite the ownership of action, Los Diablos Rojos failed to force Earthquakes keeper Jon Busch into action for much of the game. The Quakes defense blocked 4 of 10 Toluca shots while the other five bids were off target excluding the lone Diablos goal. In total, the Quakes finished with seven shots on goal to one for Toluca. San Jose also took five corners to none for the away side.

“I think our team was superior to them,” said Toluca coach Jose Cardozo through a translator, reflecting on the controlling, technical approach of his squad. “On the field we had a team that was playing soccer and another team that was just shooting at the goal area.”

Earthquakes coach Mark Watson, however, didn’t think the shot choice kept the Quakes off the board, but rather the finish. Tuesday marked the first time San Jose took the pitch for a truly meaningful contest, with the MLS regular season set to kick off later this week.

“I thought we created lot of chances,” said Watson, reinforcing throughout his press conference that many of his players were not quite in game-shape just yet. “I think in a normal game, if you take that number of chance, on a different night, on a better night we would have finished those. I think there were goals we left on the table.”

Diablos midfielder Gabriel Velasco Gutierrez opened play in the 14th minute, ripping the first dangerous salvo to officially christen the start of the series. His kick from just inside the penalty box sailed over the outstretched hand of Busch and up over the crossbar by just under a foot, garnering a collective sigh for the Quakes supporters in the crowd.

The Quakes nearly took the early edge when team captain Chris Wondolowski raced up the pitch, feeding a streaking Cordell Cato on the wing. The lightning-fast Cato wheeled the ball over to Sam Cronin who booted a chance that Toluca netminder Alfredo Talavera just tipped over the crossbar.

The first goal of the quarterfinals came off the foot of Toluca forward Raul Nava Lopez after a Jason Hernandez miscue. Nava, entering play with four Champions League goals to lead Los Diablos Rojo, fired a flawless shot that beat a diving Busch to his right side to muddy his clean sheet in the 67th minute.

“We held a very good team to very few good chances,” said Watson. “I felt bad for Jason. It just came off the side of his foot. It was a fantastic finish, world-class. You have to tip your hat to (Nava). Collectively it was a very good defensive effort.”

Quakes forward Steven Lenhart nearly put his side on the sheet in the 79th minute, heading a cross feed off the cross bar and out. Chris Wondolowski followed up with a shot of his own that was blocked aside by a Diablo defender. The visitors then cleared it out of play after a number of Quakes took a stab at the loose ball before it was cleared out of play and out of danger.

Again San Jose appeared to have the answering tally but denial reared its head just four minutes from the end of regular time. Lenhart strung a pass across the goal box to Alan Gordon. The pass ended up just a step behind Gordon who couldn’t pull the trigger for a clean look. The book remained open on Gordon’s narrative as hero of the day, however, as he found a way to avoid rejection during the four-plus minute allotment of injury time.

“I think it was right after they scored, right in that moment,” pondered Gordon on the moment when his team mustered up the morale to believe. “It was in that moment, when that stuff happens. It feels like the ball isn’t going to go back into the net. But we didn’t put our heads down. We kept going. We got together in the middle of the field like we usually do and looked each other in the eye. We made a conscious effort to see it through, all the way to the end.”

In the final minute of play (or 30 seconds after play should have ended according to a frustrated Cardozo’s viewpoint post-match) Shea Salinas lofted the ball up for a challenge in the Toluca goal box. It was Gordon connecting on the header nearly unguarded, redirecting it just past Talavera to dramatically knot the teams at a goal apiece.

“You don’t usually expect to get goals like that in the MLS,” said Gordon. “You usually expect to get grabbed and pulled. I was a little surprised to be untouched. It was great, a good feeling.”

When the Earthquakes travel to Estadio Nemesio Diaz for the second leg March 19th, they will head to hostile territory on even footing, knowing that the winner on the pitch will be the one advancing to the Champions League semifinals. The challenge will be greater, considering Toluca fielded a mix of starters and reserves Tuesday but will more likely trot out a majority of the starters in game two with the home crowd hungry for victory. Toluca is already midway through its season in the Mexican league and wary of injuries in non-league play.

“It’s tough to go in to Mexico and get results,” said Gordon. “For us to go in there down 1-0 (in the aggregate) would have been a huge mountain. Now we’re in a one-game series. We’re looking for the result in Mexico. There’s no reason we should think that we can’t.”

Gordon, who sat out most of the preseason, saw the goal Tuesday as a positive sign that he’s ready to perform when it counts, including Saturday’s MLS season opener at Buck Shaw Stadium against Real Salt Lake.

“It was really our first run,” said Gordon. “The preseason is the preseason. It took me awhile to figure out preseason goals don’t count for anything. I joke with the guys that I’m in the preseason hall of fame. It never got me any goals in the regular season. Now I switch it up and don’t play any games in the preseason.”