by John Marshall
The Earthquakes ended their 16 game winless with a fantastic performance in Seattle. San Jose pressured Seattle in the midfield throughout the match, and managed to stiffle the dangerous Sounders’ attack before it could gather steam. And as it turned out, even down a man San Jose was still able to control the game. Innocent Emeghara made his first start for the club and netted his first goal in MLS which would turn out to be the game winner. Captain, Chris Wondolowski, was not to be out done though as he managed a brace against the defending Supporters’ Shield champions.
But enough recap, lets get to the ratings.

Ratings based on a 1-10 scale:

1. Horrible
2. Awful
3. Poor
4. Flawed
5. Adequate
6. Good
7. Very good
8. Great
9. Superb
10. World Class

David Bingham: 8
I don’t think David can be much to blame on either goal. He made the first save before his defense let him down on the Dempsey goal and the Martins goal the defense again really left him in an unfortunate situation. Besides the goals, Bingham was fantastic. He made crucial saves and his aggressiveness might have saved a goal or two when his defense look to be beat. He probably needs to take less risks and be a bit less aggressive but still a great showing.

Marvell Wynne: 9
Any team who doesn’t take Marvell Wynne as a legitimate offensive threat is going to look foolish after the match. Wynne was fantastic in defense but the most impressive aspect of his game was his service into the box. He put a near perfect ball into Wondo for the first goal and he created several other chances during the match.

Victor Bernardez: 6
It’s tough to give Victor a 6 when he played so well in defense but his red card was easily avoidable even if its unintentional. There was no need to go for that ball with studs showing right to Seattle’s Michael Azira. That said the team will miss his services next week because he is invaluable to the Quakes’ back line.

Paulo Renato: 6
This wasn’t Paulo’s best showing, although it is still early in the season. Renato did well for majority of the match but he lost Dempsey on the first Seattle goal and then went down in the 64’ with an injury. I would probably have given him a 7 had he finished the match.

Shaun Francis: 6
Would probably have given Francis a 7 (sounding like a broken record now I know) but his lack of concentration kept Andy Rose onside and then he left Martins wide open for an easy tap in. Don’t get me wrong, Francis still had a good game but that series of play left a bad taste in my mouth.

Fatai Alashe: 7
I’ll be the first to admit to say I was surprised to see Alashe getting his first start against Seattle of all clubs but the rookie did nothing but impress. He made several defensive stops and held his own against Seattle. He still has things to learn as he made some rookie mistakes but the future is bright for Fatai.

J.J. Koval: 8
Speaking of another young gun, J.J. Koval was really impressive in central mid. Koval was forcing turnovers and intercepting passes and was a very large thorn in Seattle’s side.

Sanna Nyassi: 7
Again Nyassi showed his impressive speed for San Jose. Sanna is going to give opponents fits throughout the season because of it and the Quakes offense will be all the better because of it. Minimized mistakes and did his job well on the wings in both offense and defense.

Matias Perez Garcia: 6
I think this will be one of MPG’s poorer games this year, if only because he wasn’t able to stay involved in the attack. That said he still looked dangerous and created some nice chances on his own but his limited minutes, due to being sacrificed to bring on another defender once Bernardez was shown a red, makes me feel like a 6 is adequate.

Innocent Emeghara: 9 MOTM
Now you might be saying to yourself, “Wondo scored 2 goals! Why isn’t he MOTM?!?” and that is a valid point but what made his performance stand out to me was how well he defended as well as attacked. He was lined up across from Marco Pappa and Tyrone Mears, which is Seattle’s more dangerous wing, and time after time he turned them away. And then let us not forget about Brad Evans’ ankles after Innocent made a sweet cutback to send him sliding to the artificial turf, and then he capped it with a fantastic goal. You can’t perform better in your first start than that.

Chris Wondolowski: 9
Lets start with the chest control on the first goal by Wondo. That control and then the composure to put the ball in the back of the net is a perfect reminder of why he was in Brazil last summer. Sure he got a bit lucky on the second goal thanks to a really bad back pass by Evans to Frei but again he made the most of his opportunity and gave San Jose the lead at the very start of the second half. Then he slotted back into midfield after Renato came off and played great defense as well.

Substitutions

Ty Harden (for Garcia 57’): 5
Made sense for Dominic Kinnear to bring on Harden after Bernardez was sent off and Ty did his job at the back, although it was nothing special. He could have done better defending Andy Rose on the Martins goal but other than that not much of note from Harden although the defensive unit stayed strong during the Sounders last-ditch efforts.

Adam Jahn (for Renato 64’): 7
Adam Jahn has really shown a ton of improvement this season and tonight he was rewarded with an assist on Emeghara’s goal. He pestered Seattle’s back four late in the game to try and run down the clock. He’s going to get his goals this year even if he is stuck behind 3 designated players.

Shea Salinas (for Nyassi 72’): 6
Really Shea didn’t get a lot of time to make an impact in the match. He was mostly brought on to get fresh legs on the field as San Jose tried to protect a 3-1 lead.