San Jose, CA: The Earthquakes host the Vancouver Whitecaps at Avaya Stadium; August 25, 2018.

If you’ve ever had a dream, maybe even a day in real life, that is going really well and then all of a sudden things just go really wrong, really fast and you are powerless to stop it, that was the night the San Jose Earthquakes had. Another brilliant first half effort wasted as the Vancouver Whitecaps rallied with three rapid fire goals in the second half to grab an improbable 3-2 win Saturday Night in an MLS Rivalry Week showdown at Avaya Stadium.

“We had a really good feeling when we stepped onto the field this evening.” said Earthquakes Coach Mikael Stahre. “We came out perfect and scored two early goals and played really well.”

“We were soft in the first 20 minutes.” said Whitecaps Coach Carl Robinson. “They won every second ball, the won every header and they wanted it more.”

Much like last week against Toronto FC, the Quakes were on the front foot early, but this time they were rewarded when Jamir Hyka picked off an Aaron Maund clearance and fired home a low liner from the top of the box to give the Quakes an early lead.

The euphoria at Avaya Stadium continued when Danny Hoesen was fouled inside the box. After Referee Baldomero Toledo initially called it outside the box, VAR came to his rescue and awarded the Quakes a penalty, which Magnus Eriksson slotted home to give the Quakes a 2-0 lead less than 20 minutes in.

San Jose, CA: The Earthquakes host the Vancouver Whitecaps at Avaya Stadium; August 25, 2018.

It appeared San Jose was firmly in the drivers seat for their first home win since March, especially early in the second half, when a string of three yellow cards were given to a Vancouver team teetering on the edge of losing its composure. But with the red line looking farther and farther away, the Whitecaps pulled something out of nothing in the 59th minute when Yordy Reyna sent a free kick into the box that deflected and then took a fluky bounce over Andrew Tarbell to cut the deficit in half.

“When we conceded the first goal, we lost everything. We lost the shape, the power, the willingness to play,” said Stahre. “We stopped playing in both directions and we gave them the opportunities to use their strengths, it was a shock for us all.”

The shock continued two minutes later when Kei Kamara knifed the Quakes backline with a brilliant through ball to find Cristian Techera, who cut back on Guram Kashia and beat Tarbell to improbably tie the game at two.

With the momentum clearly shifted and the fans at Avaya Stadium getting restless, the Caps completed the comeback in the 68th minute when a long ball found Yordy Reyna in behind the Quakes backline. Reyna found an open Kei Kamara who got one past Tarbell to give Vancouver their 3-2 lead.

“The players spoke up at halftime and admitted they weren’t in the races,” said Robinson. “I raised my voice as well and they responded great. They’ve got to believe that they are good players because when they produce performances like that, especially in the second half, we’re not nice to play against.”

San Jose, CA: The Earthquakes host the Vancouver Whitecaps at Avaya Stadium; August 25, 2018.

From there, a lifeless Earthquakes side attacked the goal with something that could not quite be described as a “token effort,” limping to another loss and raising both the levels of apathy and anger among the fan base.

“We have had a pretty rough season, the confidence is maybe not on top, but when we’re up 2-0 we need to play more organized and play better than today,” said Earthquakes Midfielder Magnus Eriksson. “We were pretty naive today and eventually we lost the game.”

The two teams will renew their rivalry next Saturday in Vancouver, but first the Earthquakes have a midweek matchup with FC Dallas on Wednesday Night at Avaya Stadium.