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SJ Earthquakes beat Sacramento Republic on penalties in US Open Cup

By on June 16, 2015

Three battles were waged at Avaya Stadium last night: two on the pitch and a third off it, in the stands. While the San Jose Earthquakes and Sacramento met in the US Open Cup, two opposition fanbases bashed head-to-head in the stands. Sacramento astonishingly were the victors of two. From busses, the Sacramento Republic fanbase made the two-hour trip down south in spades to meet in the only professional Bay Area derby. Their commitment to the team meant that theirs was the only full section at Avaya Stadium. The others, for the first time this season, remained not half-full. The official attendance was 13,196 including a few thousand Sacramento fans. In regulation time, too, Sacramento put in an outstanding performance, and were up 2-0 at one point.

But the third was the deciding battle and the one that will draw all the headlines. And it was no more than a crapshoot: penalties. Quakes goalkeeper Bryan Meredith, who saved two penalties, said it was “lucky” he dove the right way, although admitting he dove too early in Sacramento’s first two successful kicks.

Emrah Klimenta was a hero for Sacramento in regulation time, scoring once and winning a penalty, but let up a chance to win in penalties. Whatever happened in the hundred-and-twenty minutes of regulation time, the penalties defined the story. “(We feel) incredibly unfortunate not to win, even on penalty kicks,” Sacramento coach Preki said.

It would have been quite simple. The winners of the 2014 USL — commonly considered the US’ third division — were cruising 2-0 against a Quakes team of substitutes with fifteen minutes to go. At times the gulf in class was stark but Sacramento made up for it with their heart and intensity. To go as far as they did was an achievement in itself.

Only Chris Wondolowski, the Quakes’ only US international at the 2014 World Cup, could rewrite the script in the Quakes’ favor. Rodrigo Lopez, Sacramento’s top scorer, said it was Wondolowski’s presence, not luck, tactics, or anything in between that brought the Quakes back from a 2-0 deficit. Indeed, Wondolowski scored both of the Quakes’ comeback goals.

“[Meredith] was amazing. He and Wondo [Chris Wondolowski] were for sure the heroes of the game today. You save one PK in a PK shootout, you’re already a hero. You save two, they’re building statues of you.” — Quakes forward Mark Sherrod

Although Wondolowski started, key Quakes names such as Fatai Alashe, Shea Salinas, Jordan Stewart and Clarence Goodson were all rested. Yet the game went into extra-time and Wondolowski played all one-hunted-and-twenty minutes — so much for resting. Kinnear was so caught up in the match that afterwards he said he hadn’t even begun thinking about their weekend MLS match against the Seattle Sounders. However, Kinnear also said he wasn’t surprised that the match was a tight game and went all the way to penalties.

“They came out ready,” he said of Sacramento’s performance.  “We did not come out with the right amount of attitude. Give credit [to Sacramento]. And we knew it was going to happen. These games are always that way. It’s one of those where sometimes it’s not about who plays the best soccer, it’s who fights the hardest. And I thought we really came out a little passive, and at five minutes they were jumping on second balls, they were bright, and they deserved to be ahead. I thought after that we did pretty well. Same thing coming out of halftime, first five minutes or so we were a little bit sleepy and we got punished for it and then we really had to claw our way back into the game… If you asked me what the score was going to be tonight – if you had said we’re going to penalty kicks, I wouldn’t have been surprised.”

Off the pitch, the battle began an hour before the match as some 3,000-or-so Sacramento fans poured into Avaya Stadium from buses. They filled their small section of the stadium; however, it was the only full part. For the first time this season, Quakes fans failed to fill up the 18,000-seater although the ultras there brought out the flags to challenge their opposite’s singing.

On the pitch, a war was waged from kickoff. The Quakes pressed high up the pitch as Sacramento dominated possession in the opening. The home side set up in a 4-3-1-2 and Sacramento in a 4-3-2-1. The clock hadn’t hit the fourth minute when Lopez lobbed a beautiful ball over the top of San Jose’s defense to Klimenta, whose first touch took him right into the box. However, Francis clipped Klimenta and Sacramento drew a penalty. Lopez buried the spot-kick, opting for power over placement.

The war off the field corresponded with the flow of the actual game. San Jose began to wrestle control of the game as their fanbase won the chanting war. In the ninth minute Leandro Barrera cut in from the left and combined in a beautiful one-two with Mark Sherrod, only for Sacramento goalkeeper Patrick McLain to be quick off his line to smother Barrera’s bad touch. Four minutes later Sherrod saw his first-time effort from Marvell Wynne’s deep cross poked out of the near post by McLain, then Chris Wondolowski found himself in on goal only to take too much time in his finish and find himself smothered by Sacramento defenders.

Sacramento fans went quiet around the fifteenth minute. The Quakes began to dominated possession and the differences in class became stark to see. Sacramento could hard find a way out of their own half as the sun set on Avaya; but most importantly, they still had the lead.

Sacramento fans soon brought their flags back out as their team fought their way back into the match towards the end of the first half. For the first time since the opening ten minutes, they established lengthy periods of possession and on the brink of the half, Shaun Francis and Khari Stephenson were forced into goal-line blocks to stop two quick-fire Sacramento efforts. Ivan Mirkovic also saw a low fifteen yard volley saved by the strong hand of Meredith.

In the fifty-third minute, Klimenta was put through down the right wing by Lopez and without the cover of Koval, was allowed to run in on goal and tuck a low effort between Meredith’s legs. The Quakes went down two goals to their rivals. And while the fans kept chanting through to the end of the ninety minutes, this time the Quakes struggled to respond. Sacramento dominated possession in the closing stages and Justin Braun came close to making it three in the sixty-ninth minute, dragging a low effort across the goal from the right side of the box.

When the Quakes got one back with fifteen minutes to go, it was rather against the run of play. Bernardez’s cross was met by Fucito, whose low effort was saved by McLain — however, Wondolowski was there to deliver the goods with a tap in.

The Quakes didn’t particularly look like equalizing, but Wondolowski nicked ahead of his marker to flick Wynne’s near-post cross from the right into the back of the net.  The equalizer took Sacramento into their first extra-time in club history.  It was an open affair. Tired legs began to kick in and Khari Stephenson spent the entirety of the break stretching his left-hamstring. Adnan Gabeljic bored Meredith into a parried save to deny a blazed twenty-five yard effort then Agustin Cazarez saw his low effort from the edge of the box saved. But neither side could break the deadlock.

Granted, it was Sacramento’s first penalty shoot-out in the history of the club and the Earthquakes had actually practiced spot-kicks in the previous day’s training.”We practiced them yesterday, actually,” he told Football Every Day.  “Each guy got a penalty, and then when we went up, I think the one thing we didn’t plan on was going eight deep.”

The Republic had not, and Preki admitted their goal was to win in regulation time.

Wondolowski cooly tucked his spot-kick home and Lopez leveled. Bernardez put his head down and drove his spot-kick into the roof of the net; but Nemanja Vukotic finished his as well. And while McLain stopped Stephenson’s Meredith blocked Mickey Daly’s similar spot-kick. But McLain was on form and put up a strong arm to stop Pierazzi’s decent effort and Gilberto cooly put Sacramento up.

Tommy Thompson was in the pivotal fifth position for the Quakes, needing to score, but he had missed the previous’ days penalty training after flying back from Australia for a US youth tournament. Nonetheless, he buried his spot-kick, explaining that he noticed the goalkeeper jumped too early, so waited for his reaction. It worked, Meredith saved again and Koval then scored to put all the pressure on David Estrada — who scored.

“It’s hard to explain how I feel during it (a shootout),” Meredith said.  “But once you make a save you kind of get into the groove and kind of settle yourself down and feel a lot more comfortable.”

Berrera came up and tucked a brilliant effort home. The pressure was on Gabeljic. The pressure was back with the Quakes for the eighth round — on Francis, who scored.  James Kiffe then blazed one high over the crossbar and the Quakes won. At the end, Wondolowski told fans half-jokingly, “it was too exciting.”

Update: Thanks to Zupkuck on Reddit for a factual correction

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.