The San Jose Earthquakes drew the New England Revolution 0-0 at Avaya Stadium on Wednesday night. The result puts San Jose even with the Portland Timbers at sixth overall in the West, with San Jose holding a game in hand.
Earthquakes Draw Revolution 0-0
The Good
The Quakes managed their sixth shutout of the season. If San Jose plans to make a playoff run, it will certainly be down to their defense to step up and carry the team.
Forward Henok Goitom looks to be the real deal. It took less than a minute for the newest Quakes signing to put a shot on goal. It was the only shot on target recorded for San Jose. When asked if Goitom might start, Head Coach Dom Kinnear simply said “Yeah.”
The Bad
Where’s Wondo? The Quakes’ leading goal scorer and captain/forward Chris Wondolowski saw 23 touches, one shot off target, and only completed 59% of his 17 passes. Wondo has scored just two goals in his previous 13 matches. The captain reflected “Executing [shots] needs to be a lot better . . . I expect them to go in, and they haven’t been, and that’s on me.”
Statistically, the Quakes were outplayed at home. The Revolution led in total shots (12-7), shots on target (3-1), and chances created (10-6) despite San Jose having three early set piece opportunities. Revolution forward Kei Kamara hit the woodwork in the 60th minute as well. The Quakes could have easily lost their second in a row at home.
The Ugly
The Quakes have one point in two home games versus teams with worse records. While San Jose should be making a playoff run, they might be running themselves out of contention with potentially five dropped points.
The results are eerily similar to last year. In September, the Quakes lost to then-last-place Philadelphia Union, and a week and a half later tied the Montreal Impact at home, a team also with fewer points at the time. The results haunted the team as the Quakes missed out on the playoffs by four points. If history is repeating itself, these two recent results do not bode well for San Jose.
The flat 4-4-2 is falling—well—flat. The Quakes failed to score a goal, and are ranked dead-last in the West in overall goals: 26. Kinnear seemed reluctant to change the formation. “It’s a formation we’ve been playing for most of the season . . . maybe it’s tired legs.”
The Earthquakes will attempt to rebound this Saturday as they take on Columbus Crew SC in Columbus at 7:30pm Eastern time.
