COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – San Jose earned another road point on Friday night, drawing with the Colorado Rapids 1-1 on a rain-soaked pitch at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. The team proved his depth and versatility, starting four players – midfielders Khari Stephenson, Tommy Thompson and Cordell Cato and defender Paulo Renato – that didn’t start for the team in their 1-0 victory over Houston just four days ago.
In the fourth minute, Quakes keeper David Bingham booted a long ball that skipped off the head of forward Adam Jahn towards Chris Wondolowski. Making a darting run through the middle, Wondolowski was able to create some separation, but the ball was played slightly too long and was defended by keeper Clint Irwin, whose sliding effort prevented an early goal for San Jose.
The Quakes Close Out Road Trip With Draw in Colorado
The Quakes, however, were able to break the deadlock in the 19th minute. Following a cleared corner kick, midfielder Sanna Nyassi jumped and headed the ball across the box, where Wondolowski was standing unmarked at the back post. Wondolowski brought the bouncing ball down, calmly cut back onto his left foot, evading Clint Irwin’s diving save attempt, and slipped it just inside the near post. It marked his team-leading fifth goal of the season and 98th of his career.
Just before halftime, Bingham was called into action, making a clutch save on a breakaway to keep things 1-0 heading into halftime.
Three minutes into the second half, Quakes midfielder Cordell Cato nearly doubled the road-side’s advantage. Attacking with pace from the left wing, Cato was able to beat his defender at the edge of the 18-yard box and blasted a right-footed shot, which was parried away by Irwin.
Colorado continued to put pressure on San Jose’s goal for much of the second half, but were unable to find the back of the net until three minutes into stoppage time. Bingham came out to punch away a corner kick, but his clearance went to James Riley, who headed the ball far post, just over the head of several leaping defenders.
The game ended in a 1-1 draw, despite a furious attempt by both teams to alter the score line late.
San Jose returns home to take on the Columbus Crew on Saturday, May 16, beginning at 7:30 p.m. PT. It marks the team’s first home match since defeating Vancouver Whitecaps FC 1-0 on April 11. The match will be broadcast live on CSN+, 1370 KZSF and 1590 KLIV.
The team will be looking to build on its successful road trip, earning five points in three games over eight days. San Jose is 2-1-2 over its last five matches, despite four of those contests being away from home.
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MLS Regular Season
San Jose Earthquakes 1-1 Colorado Rapids
May 8, 2015 – Dick’s Sporting Goods Park
Attendance: 14,169
Scoring Summary: SJ – Chris Wondolowski (Sanna Nyassi) 19; James Riley (unassisted) 90+3
Misconduct Summary: COL – Drew Moor (caution) 26; COL – Sam Cronin (caution) 52; SJ – David Bingham (caution) 90+1.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: David Bingham, Marvell Wynne, Victor Bernardez, Paulo Renato, Cordell Cato, Khari Stephenson, Sanna Nyassi (Jordan Stewart 67), Tommy Thompson (Matias Perez Garcia 72), Chris Wondolowski, Shea Salinas (Leandro Barrera 84), Adam Jahn.
SHOTS: 10; SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; SAVES: 5; FOULS: 12; CORNER KICKS: 5; OFFSIDES: 1.
COLORADO RAPIDS: Clint Irwin, James Riley, Drew Moor, Axel Sjoberg, Michael Harrington, Gabriel Torres, Sam Cronin (Charles Eloundou 74), Lucas Pittinari, Dillon Powers, Juan Ramirez, Dominique Badji (Vicente Sanchez 45).
SHOTS: 18; SHOTS ON GOAL: 6; SAVES: 3; FOULS: 10; CORNER KICKS: 12; OFFSIDES: 4.
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On coming out of the road trip with 5 points:
“Yeah, to go unbeaten on a road trip, three games in eight days, when you look at the conditions we played in which is altitude, a little bit of heat and humidity, and then back up to higher altitude, it’s positive. Here at the end, we could have been 2 nil up and then we could have been 2-1 down, so it was a funny last little eight minutes to the game there, but I give a ton of credit to the team and the amount of effort they put into these three games. I think it’s very positive for us.”
On getting concerned at Colorado’s pressure at the end of the game:
“Well, we were giving the ball away at the very end of the first half. We had a real good first half and we made a couple of boo-boos there that David [Bingham] had to bail us out a little bit. In saying that, I thought we did okay. We kind of ran out of gas a little bit, you could tell we were a little bit tired, but we sure did have a good chance to maybe push ahead 2-0 there. You’re kind of holding on, and hoping you get a good break and we did get that one break, but fair play to Drew Moor for making a good effort and breaking up that play. Then we are just holding on, like I said, you know, you could be up 2-0, you’re walking off the field happy or you could, is it Sanchez, the guy who takes their set pieces? The guy whips in a great ball and there are a lot of bodies in there and when a guy can hit it with that kind of consistency, it’s going to cause problems for you, and it definitely did.”
On how he tried to break things down early:
“We wanted to hold the ball. We wanted to start well. Every game that we have played on the road this little trip here, we have gotten a corner in the first five minutes, we have gotten a little chance in the first five minutes and I think we wanted to try and continue that. It was good to try and pressure them and have good possession. I thought our possession in the first 35-40 minutes was really good. Our passing out of pressure was good our movement was good and that was reason why I thought we had such a good first half.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI
On emotions after the game:
“A bit exhausted, we had three road games in a week in tough places -altitude, heat, humidity and altitude – so to come away with a point, we will take it, but it’s very frustrating to lose in the lead, especially late in the game on a set piece as well. We take pride in that: being very strong on set pieces and in our defensive third, so it’s a little bitter taste in our mouth, but we will still take it. You can definitely see that we had a lot of tired legs. We tried to mix up the lineup, but still those last 10-15 minutes we were just kind of trying to stay organized, trying to stay compact and you can tell we weren’t quite all there.”
On his goal:
“It was corner kick, I tried losing my marker far post and the ball kind of popped out and Sanna Nyassi did a great job of heading it back in and found me and I was just able to finish, so great play by Sanna.”
On the instinct involved on his fake shot before scoring:
“I definitely saw Clint Irwin; he came out and made himself really big. I had to readjust and usually I’m going to try that first time, but kind of readjust and bring it down and then was able to take a touch inside.”
On the five points taken from the trip being positive:
“Yeah, overall, we will definitely take five points. If you told us at the beginning of the trip that we would take five points, we would be a very bit happy doing that, but again, still tough losing it late. I’m really proud of the guys; it’s a lot of tough work. They left it all out there on the field and it showed. There’s a lot of hard work going on and I think that’s what we pride ourselves on and, again, just proud of these guys for doing that. We will take those five points right now.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES GOALKEEPER DAVID BINGHAM
On the last goal:
“It’s been a long road trip, so the last about 20 minutes, we were pretty tired. We were extremely hard to break down though, I thought, throughout the game. We did well minimizing their chances. It’s a bit unfortunate they go out on a set piece, that’s kind of our bread and butter for ourselves, but props to them, they fought the whole game. Five points and we are disappointed from this road trip, I think it shows the character of this team and always wanting to come away with the three points even though this is the last game of a three-game, seven-day week so it shows character on our part.”
On what happened specifically on the goal:
“It was a great ball whipped in, a lot of guys in front of me come out, I get my fist to it and then I think it was [James] Riley if I’m not mistaken lofts it up into the back corner and their guy gets a little bump on our defender back there and puts him off and, unfortunate no-call, but it happens.”
On his feelings after the road trip:
“I think we are happy with the points, I think we are disappointed with two of the results that happened. Realistically, we possibly could have come away with nine points if we had a perfect week. With the conditions that we played in – going from altitude, to humidity back to altitude – I think five points, I think any team would take that. But like I said before, it shows the testament to this team, we are getting five points and are we are very disappointed with ourselves, we think we can do better than that.”
Photo Courtesy of Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
