Photo credit: @SJEarthquakes
By: Ana Kieu
The San Jose Earthquakes thought 2019 would be a better year under first-year head coach Matias Almeyda, but it turned out to be a high hope, as the team dropped back-to-back home matches–a 2-1 loss to the Montreal Impact on March 2nd and a 3-0 shutout to the Minnesota United FC on March 9th–to start the season.
San Jose, however, decided to try their luck in Harrison, N.J. against the New York Red Bulls, who won their third Supporters’ Shield in 2018 after winning their final five games as well as qualifying for the 2019 CONCACAF Champions League. New York’s current head coach Chris Armas replaced Jesse Marsch, who left the coaching gig after three and a half seasons.
It was gameday in the East Coast and the Quakes fanbase caught the livestream on Twitter at 12:30 pm PT. Though, the diehard Quakes fans saved their seats in section 220 in the Red Bull Arena.
Moreover, the Wondo watch was in full effect as Quakes captain Chris Wondolowski entered the match with 144 goals. Wondo’s goal was to score his 145th goal to tie Landon Donovan’s 145 career regular season goals.
Unfortunately, Wondo never scored his 145th goal, but at least the Earthquakes avoided a shutout, thanks to Cristian Espinoza’s first goal as a Quakes forward. Espinoza was loaned to the Quakes on a season-long loan by Villareal CF on January 2nd. San Jose took an early 1-0 lead at the fifth minute.
But the mere 1-0 halftime lead was as far as the Quakes could go. The Red Bulls scored three unanswered goals in the second half. So it wasn’t much of a greeting when the Quakes’ Twitter announced to the Twitterverse that they were back for the second half.
It all started with a shot and Alex Muyl kicked in a shot past Quakes goalkeeper Daniel Vega to tie the match 1-1 at the 51st minute. After that, Magnus Eriksson was just inches away from his second goal of the season and San Jose was unable to score a go-ahead goal at the 55th minute.
The Quakes made their first substitution of the match, swapping Nick Lima for Marcos Lopez at the 62nd minute. That, however, didn’t help San Jose’s cause because Muyl scored his second goal of the match for a 2-1 Red Bulls lead at the 71st minute.
Muyl’s go-ahead goal was the reason why the Quakes made their second substitution of the match, swapping Judson for Danny Hoesen. Moreover, San Jose made their third and final substitution of the match, swapping Vako for Jackson Yueill at the 78th minute. But neither helped as the Red Bulls scored not only one, but two late goals to call it a day. Bradley Wright-Phillips made it 3-1 Red Bulls at the 85th minute and Daniel Royer wrapped up the scoring with a down-to-the-wire goal to extend the Red Bulls’ lead to 4-1 at the 89th minute. The Quakes fell to the Red Bulls 4-1 in N.J.
The Quakes have a much-needed week off before they host LAFC on March 30th at 12:30 pm PT.
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