By: Eric He
SAN JOSE – The San Jose Earthquakes’ winless streak reached seven matches on Friday night with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of FC Dallas at Avaya Stadium.
The away team scored the match’s lone goal in the 51st minute off the foot of Maximiliano Urruti, who delivered a bicycle-kick strike to put FC Dallas ahead six minutes into the second half.
The Quakes had their chances in the match, outshooting Dallas 12-7, but were unable to capitalize and find the equalizer. A ball put in the net in the 68th minute was waved off due to goaltender interference. Matias Perez Garcia’s long-range shot in the 70th minute skipped all the way through, but went wide.
“When we were down 1-0, our whole focus was to get that equalizer until the final whistle because we thought we were going to get [it],” midfielder Anibal Godoy said, via a translator. “We’ve done it over the last couple of games, especially at home. But it didn’t work out for us.”
A quality chance for Simon Dawkins 12 minutes later from the left was turned aside by FC Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz. And Perez Garcia’s poor ball handling despite having room at midfield in the 89th minute was all she wrote for the Quakes, who have been shutout in back-to-back matches.
“Right now we’re just not scoring enough goals,” head coach Dominic Kinnear said. “We’re playing from behind. It’s easier said than done to go out there and get the first goal. It’s a frustrating period for us right now. We’re a little bit disappointed in ourselves.”
The first half featured plenty of action but no goals. Urruti, the forward who had the bulk of the opportunities for FC Dallas, nearly put his club ahead in the 19th minute when he broke in alone, but Quakes’ goaltender David Bingham deflected it just enough to glance off the crossbar.
San Jose was inches away as well. A free kick by Godoy in the 32nd minute clanked off the post. Ten minutes later, Shea Salinas received a cross at point-blank range but his attempt was denied by Seitz. A header by Quincy Amarikwa on the ensuing corner kick sailed just high.
“This game we had a lot of chances,” Salinas said. “We hit the post. We had a bunch of other times where we were in on goal and it just wasn’t falling our way.”
The two teams went into halftime scoreless, but it didn’t take long for FC Dallas to seize control out of the break.
“We knew they were good in the counterattack and lost the ball in the middle of the field in the counterattack and they scored on us,” Salinas said on Urruti’s goal, which was set up on the rush by a long centering feed that was knocked down, deflected off Quakes’ defender Victor Bernardez, and right to Urruti, who timed his bicycle kick perfectly.
San Jose out-possessed FC Dallas, 54.2 percent to 45.8, and had eight corner kicks to FC Dallas’ five. But it wasn’t enough to get on the scoresheet.
“It’s getting that goal,” Kinnear said. “We’re lacking goals right now. To win games we need to score.”
This is the Quakes’ first loss in Avaya Stadium in 2016; the last defeat came in September of last year. It came at a bad time too, with the team looking to break out of a stale stretch of winless matches and stay afloat in the playoff picture. The Quakes remain at 22 points and eighth in the Western Conference; with a win, they would have been tied for fifth.
“We’re missing opportunities here,” Kinnear said. “Other teams have something to say about it, but we’re good enough to take these opportunities presented for us and put pressure on other teams.”
He added: “Things aren’t falling for us right now but that doesn’t mean we give up; we work harder.”
Next up, San Jose takes on Toronto FC a week from Saturday at home.
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