The San Jose Earthquakes lost 3-1 to the Portland Timbers at Providence Park to drop to sixth in the west; here is the good, the bad, and the ugly (the GBU Report) for the match.

GBU Report: Earthquakes vs Portland Timbers

The Good

• Unlike their first match-up in which the Quakes were statistically dominated, the Quakes did the dominating: 602 passes, 63% possession, 16 shots, 32 crosses, 85% passing, 13 chances, four corners. But like last game, the home team found a way to win.
• Forward Chris Wondolowski scored his 115th MLS goal; leaving him alone in fourth all-time. He has six goals in seven games so far this season.
• Forward Quincy Amarikwa had five shots, two on goal, his highest shot totals for the season.

The Bad

• Forward Chris Wondolowski was limited to one run-of-play shot all night. It took Nat Borchers grabbing Wondo’s jersey and pulling him down for Wondo to get his second shot, a penalty kick goal in stoppage time.
• The Quakes ran a flat 4-4-2 formation against a PTFC squad missing Dairon Asprilla, Darlington Nagbe, Alvas Powell, and Liam Ridgewell. Goalkeeper Adam Larsen Kawarsey and midfielder Darren Mattocks also had to leave due to injury. While the formation resulted in a lot of possession, it lacked an attack which challenged the team’s non-starters. The Quakes relied upon crosses (32) instead of through-balls and dribbles, causing little problems for the Portland defense: 28 clearances, 13 blocked shots.
• Midfielder Simon Dawkins had five shots total, none of which were on frame, although he did have a blocked shot in stoppage time which had a decent chance of being the equalizer. Pressure may be mounting for the new designated player to start producing as he has just one assist, zero goals in 414 minutes of play this season, and has yet to put a shot on goal.
• Left-back Kip Colvey’s inexperience was apparent as he was caught off guard on the counter-attack numerous times. Colvey also attempted to clear a ball in the box rather than challenge forward Jack McInerney for possession, resulting in a clear shot for McInerney with Colvey’s momentum taking him way out of position.
• Center-back Clarence Goodson’s absence was noticeable as Fanendo Adi scored two goals despite being a second half sub. Adi was unmarked for both of his goals. In their previous meeting, Goodson only allowed Adi one shot on frame for the full 90.

The Ugly

• All three Portland goals came on the counter-attack, which was able to exploit three defensive non-starters (Sarkodie, Imperiale, Colvey) on the back-line. Portland could/should have had four goals, but Jack McInerney missed wide while one-on-one with Quakes goalkeeper David Bingham on a (you guessed it!) Portland counter-attack at 77′ after beating Kip Colvey down the middle. The counterattack was the Quakes kryptonite, and a more experienced back-line would have done better against it.
• Despite the Quakes having an edge on shots (16-13), the Timbers had the edge on shots on target (5-4), including Wondo’s PK. Kwarasey and his replacement Jake Gleeson were never challenged. A 25% shot-on-goal conversion rate is simply atrocious.

The Earthquakes’ next match will be against Sporting Kansas City at Avaya Stadium on Sunday, April 24th and 12:30pm.

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