SJ Earthquakes 0-1 LA Galaxy: US Open Cup rematch lacks fireworks

For Dominic Kinnear, it didn’t matter that that the team he fielded only had a combined 1,365 minutes played in MLS, discounting Sanna Nyassi, compared to Chris Wondolowski’s 1,358 minutes.. Nor that the team might not have had time to gel. That was little excuse for his San Jose Earthquakes allowing a goal to the LA Galaxy within five minutes.

“[If] you start the game slow, you can get punished for it and suddenly you’re chasing the game,” Kinnear said. “It doesn’t matter how many chances you get or if you’re the better team, you need to start off the game quickly. I thought we might have learned our lesson in the game against Sacramento, because that was the same thing that happened. Obviously, [tonight] we’re playing against a better team and even though we worked hard and got ourselves in front of goal and got ourselves some chances, it’s the start that comes back to haunt us.”

If only the Quakes could have back those opening fifteen minutes. They kicked off but for the next ten minutes, Kinnear’s men hardly saw the ball. The play was sloppy and even for a team filled with substitutes, the Quakes lacked sharpness. The LA Galaxy weren’t amazing either, but the Quakes’ start was nightmare. It climaxed when Kenney Walker’s lobbed pass caught JJ Koval ball-watching and put Jose Villarreal in on goal. With a cool volley across his body from fifteen yards, Villarreal made no mistake of capitalizing.

“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve played together…you stay with runners,” Kinnear said of his defense’s job. “ I’m just very surprised that we gave up such an easy chance [so early].”

In the ninth minute, Ignacio Maganto cut in from the right and drove a low, near-post effort on goal forcing Meredith to remain on his toes. Twenty-three minutes in, Villarreal’s near-post free-kick just lacked the extra dip to squeeze into the top right corner.

Credit is due to LA. Without a previous win away from Stubhub Center since August 20, 2014, they did their job. When the Quakes admirably wrestled their way back into the match, Bruce Arena’s men weathered the storm for eighty-seven minutes. Yet stepping back, this was a US Open Cup match, a competition which both sides clearly take lightly, starting teams full of reserves. Both Arena and Kinnear admitted it was a very useful evaluation of their fringe players. The Round of 16 (or Conference semifinal) win can be taken in that context, or in the way that the Galaxy just took a massive step closer to getting their hands on one of the only trophies American club football has to offer.

For the Quakes, the passes slowly cleaned themselves up to a level at least enough to get by. However, without Chris Wondolowski, who carried the Quakes past Sacramento Republic in the previous round of the US Open Cup, the squad lacked a clinical touch up front. Sherrod headed Pierazzi’s crossed free-kick home in the thirtieth minute, only for the goal to be called back as offside. Barrera then curled beautiful effort inches wide from twenty-five yards out.

“[I] kind of changed our formation a tiny bit but I thought we were more aggressive, we passed the ball better, our movement off the ball was better and second balls were ours. I thought in the first half all second balls fell to them and they obviously got some chances out of it and got some possession. Where I thought in the second half we were around the ball a heck of a lot more and that’s the reason why we were knocking on the door for as long as we were.” — Quakes coach Kinnear on his halftime changes

All the Quakes players asked were unanimous in their view that another goal was coming, but the question remained: from whom? In the California Clasico at the weekend, it was Wondo who gave the Quakes a vital equalizer after going down early to LA.

“We had crosses, we had shots,” said Khari Stephenson. “We were in their half for 95% of the second half, but we needed to be more clinical in front of goal. We have to be better with our crosses and better with our finishing.”

The Quakes had five shots in the first half but their first effort on target came fifty minutes in, when Koval rose up to head Tommy Thompson’s corner on goal. Galaxy goalkeeper Bryan Rowe did well to get down low and make the save and just four minutes later, blocked a similar effort from Mark Sherrod. The home side was thoroughly dominant throughout the second half and Kinnear even threw on Fatai Alashe to convert into a 3-5-2, but failed to find the back of the net. Sanna Nyassi came close with a twenty-five-yard effort that sizzled inches wide of the goal, before Leonardo Barrera smacked a low effort into the side netting at the far post from Cordell Cato’s cross. Nyassi shot over in the dying moments of the game but the Quakes lacked when it really mattered.

When asked who he thought could fill in for the goals that Wondo, who is with the US’ Gold Cup squad, provides, Kinnear told Football Every Day: “Everybody. Everybody has to [step up]: Clarence, Victor [Bernardez], Fatai, [ect]. It’s always a team effort.” But today, no Quakes player had it in them to make that step up. Kinnear actually praised the performances of many on his team, which outshot LA fourteen to seven — it’s the result that’s disappointing.