Earthquakes Battle Manchester United to 0-0 Draw

Photo by Lyndsay Radnedge.

When MLS sides take a break in their seasons to play a mid-season friendlies against the European elite, there are typically  too many things working against the game to tell us much. But in a disappointing season that scraped rock bottom on and off the field in the last week, the San Jose Earthquakes were able to find plenty of positives as they kicked off a stretch of three games in seven days by holding English superpower Manchester United to a 0-0 draw Sunday afternoon at Levi’s Stadium.

“I think we handled it well. I told the guys before the game, of course it’s a friendly and for Manchester United next week they’ll be playing a much better team,” said Earthquakes Coach Mikael Stahre. “For us it was important to stay sharp in this game, not get smashed, and also create some chances and we did that. I’m a pretty happy coach right now.”

Photo by Lyndsay Radnedge.

With Manchester United playing without many of the superstars that featured at the World Cup in Russia, among them Paul Pogba, Romel Lukaku and David De Gea, San Jose was able to control much of the tempo in the game, out shooting Manchester United 11-6.

Defensively, a motivated Quakes side came out aggressive and set the tone through the match, looking sharper in the back than they have in many of their MLS matches. Between JT Marcinkowski and Matt Bersano, both making their official Quakes debuts in goal, the Quakes posted their first clean sheet since the preseason. The tone of the match having undertones of “just a friendly” was present in the first half, with some chippy plays and bad tackles, including in the 17th minute when Florian Jungwirth was given a yellow card for a tackle on Manchester United’s Alexis Sanchez that would have turned the head of 49ers Kyle Shanahan if he had been among the announced 32,549 in attendance.

“It’s always nice for them to play against Manchester United, even if it’s not the first team, even if it’s a group of players in Manchester United shirts.” said Manchester United Coach Jose Mourinho. “They were enthusiastic, they played serious and you could see that on the yellow cards and tactical fouls they made to stop counter attacks. They did it the way it has to be and I thank them for that because it was competitive.”

Photo by Lyndsay Radnedge.

With the friendly ahead of a double game week in MLS play, the Quakes played entirely different squads between the first and second halves, and also used the opportunity to give their younger players some minutes against the European giant. Homegrown players Jacob Akanyirige and Gilbert Fuentes, who at 16 is the youngest player to ever suit up for the Quakes, stepped onto the pitch for the first time as San Jose Earthquakes, giving fans some optimism for what the future looks like in San Jose.

The Quakes return to MLS play Wednesday when the also below the red line Seattle Sounders make their only appearance in San Jose this season. Saturday, the Quakes are back at Avaya Stadium once again when Real Salt Lake comes to town. Meanwhile, Manchester United continues their tour of the USA on Wednesday at the Rose Bowl when they take on Italian giants AC Milan.