Photo courtesy of San Jose Earthquakes.
By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)
After picking up only their fourth win of the season the Earthquakes looked to keep the good times rolling against Kansas City on Saturday evening.
The Earthquakes came out in a 3-4-3 with William Yarbrough in between the pipes. On the other side of the field Kansas City started in a 4-2-3-1 with Tim Melia getting the start in goal.
Kansas City was quick to get the upper hand in the match as they had a couple solid looks before the 20-minute mark.
At the 37-minute mark the Earthquakes were given the first yellow of the match as Benjamin Kikanovic was given one for a bad foul.
Only a minute later Sporting KC was handed a yellow with Tim Leibold being given the card for a bad foul as well.
Right before the first half came to a close, Kanas City got the first shot on goal in the match as Alan Pulido was denied by Yarbrough.
The second half of the match gave fans some action early on as at the 48th minute Erik Thommy put Kansas City on the board. It was a breakdown defensively from the Earthquakes but also just a nice move from Thommy who faked the shot made a nice cut and deposited the ball in the net.
With the momentum clearly in their favor Sporting KC struck again at the 57-minute mark as Alan Pulido scored off a beautiful feed from Nemanja Radoja.
The Earthquakes would make some late subs bringing on Jack Skahan and Paul Judd in exchange for Jeremy Ebobisse and Cristian Espinoza.
One of those subs ended up paying off as Skahan got the ball on the rush and passed it into the net off of one of the Kansas City defenders cutting the deficit in half. Khiry Shelton was the defender who the ball went in off of.
Not long after the goal the Earthquakes were given their second yellow of the game as Skahan was given one for a bad foul.
Still down by a goal San Jose was desperately looking to tie the game and they had a great look as Preston Judd got the ball right in the center of the box. Judd unfortunately though spiked the ball wide of the goal and the Earthquakes ended up failing to tie the game.
With the loss San Jose falls to 4-17-2 and Sporting KC moves up to 6-13-5.
The Earthquakes won’t have much time to rest as they take on Houston on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at home.
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