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The anatomy of a penalty shootout: Quakes 6-5 Sacramento

By on June 18, 2015

Dominic Kinnear had amazing foresight. “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,” said Kinnear, granted, speaking in hindsight after his San Jose Earthquakes’ 6-5 penalties win over Sacramento Republic.

In fact, he included penalties in Monday’s training. “We practiced them yesterday actually,” Kinnear told Football Every Day. “Each guy got a penalty and then when we went up I think the one thing we didn’t really plan on was going eight deep…but everyone got a chance to take a penalty and there were some real good ones.”

The Sacramento Republic, however, didn’t practice penalties. Head coach Preki told Football Every Day: “No, our goal was to win in regulation time. We had a game on Saturday then we had a very short session yesterday — we just wanted to get off the field and get out of the sun and make sure we had plenty of energy for tonight.”

It’s a crapshoot, really, as Preki lamented, “I felt incredibly unfortunate not to win even on penalty kicks.”

Sacramento’s main front-man Rodrigo Lopez would’ve preferred to play on and bare through the cramps. “Why would you want to go to penalties? We knew we had a game,” he told Football Every Day.

“Towards the end I was cramping…but during the game we didn’t want that, we wanted to go for the win.”

But Kinnear knew he wanted US Men’s National Team veteran Chris Wondolowski to take the first. “If we went first…you have a good feeling Wondolowski’s going to make it and all of a sudden it put’s a little bit of pressure on Sacramento.”

Otherwise, Kinnear said, “there was no strategy, don’t give me that much credit.”

Preki hardly even got involved, saying: “I didn’t make the penalty lineup, they (the players) did. I just asked them who wanted to take it. Those [who went up] are the people that raised their hands.”

But from his vantage point on the sidelines, Kinnear had little control over the proceedings. Wondolowski buried his first penalty before Rodrigo Lopez, Sacramento’s top scorer, equalized. Victor Bernandez and Nemanja Vukovic scored as well. The former blasted his shot into the roof of the net — Kinnear said, “I loved it. He got full contact — you knew he was going to go up there and hit it as hard as he could and sometimes that’s the best way to do it. Sometimes with the side-footer, you don’t get enough power on it.”

Bryan Meredith, the Quakes’ goalkeeper, wasn’t satisfied with the opening. He said he felt as if he dove too early during Sacramento’s first two penalties, so stalled before diving for the third. It worked and he blocked Mickey Daly’s effort; crucially, too, as Khari Stephenson had just seen his penalties stopped as well.

Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi missed and Gilberto Santos scored. The pressure was on Tommy Thompson, the teenager, who had to make the Quakes’ fifth penalty. Kinnear said of putting Tommy fifth: ”I had a couple guys written down, I said ‘Tommy, you good?’ He said yes. I said, ‘Okay, you’re five.’”

Thompson awoke Monday morning in New Zealand. He had been a part of the US’ U-20 World Cup squad and went out in the Quarterfinals on penalties to Serbia on Sunday night. The 19-year-old witnessed his team lose 5-6 after being subsisted in the 108th minute. As such, he actually relished taking the crucial penalty. “Actually, that’s what I was thinking. Getting pulled in the 108th minute was tough when we ended up losing in the PKs so I wanted to avenge our loss.”

Thompson’s flight landed Monday about “three or four PM” and missed the Quakes’ training. The very training they practiced penalties. “Nah, I got here, Fatai picked me up at the airport and then just basically slept until it was time to come here,” Thompson told Football Every Day.

Nonetheless, he coolly scored. Emrah Klimenta, Sacramento’s hero in regulation time, still had a chance to win it for the Republic; but Meredith has a secret way of saving penalties (although he didn’t start spilling the beans after the match). However, he did reveal part of his mindset: “I try not to take it too seriously I guess it’s hard to explain how I feel during it. But once you make a save you get into the groove and settle yourself down and feel a lot more comfortable.” Meredith saved Klimenta’s spot-kick.

“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 said after the match.

It went to sudden death, where JJ Koval, Leandro Berrera, and Shuan Francis all scored for the Quakes. Preki admitted that, “in that time after five, everybody has to take it. Whoever feels most comfortable in that moment will take it.” David Estrada and Adnan Gabelic equalized but James Kiffe, their eighth taker, blazed his high over the crossbar. And so Sacramento heartbreakingly crashed out of the US Open Cup. Whatever happened in the one-hundred-and-twenty minutes of open play, the penalties defined the match.

In the Earthquakes locker room, the players pumped pop music loudly.

Sacramento’s mood, though, was in stark contrast. “It’s part of the game, it’s a cruel game — it’s just unfortunate,” Lopez said. “We’ve found ways to throw games away and not just in the league but the Open Cup as well and it sucks.”

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.