San Jose Earthquakes defender Jordan Stewart (3) gets a head on the ball. Photo credit John Hefti.
Neither team had a spectacular performance on Sunday when the San Jose Earthquakes hosted the Portland Timbers, and the 0-0 scoreline is as exciting to read as the match was for long periods of time. Both teams squandered great chances to put their team on the board, first Wondolowski’s touch failing him in front of goal early in the match and later Diego Valeri missing a penalty kick off the front of the crossbar with less than 20 minutes to play, and left the teams with a proper scoreline for a game some thought was undeserving of a goal. San Jose’s defense did well to return to form in keeping a clean sheet and lead the player ratings for this match.
Ratings are based on a 1-10 scale:
- Horrible
- Awful
- Poor
- Flawed
- Adequate
- Good
- Very good
- Great
- Superb
- World Class
David Bingham: 8 MotM
San Jose did well to keep Portland’s chances to a minimum and made Bingham’s job a little easier but he still had to come up with a huge save on Lucas Melano in the 73’ to keep the game tied and also should get some credit for the mind games he played on Valeri’s penalty to get the Timber to hit it high.
Marvell Wynne: 7
Victor Bernardez: 6
Jordan Stewart: 7
Shaun Francis: 5
Solid performance from the defense as whole. Had a few communication issues at times but for the majority of the match they did very well to contain the Portland counter attack and keep a clean sheet. Bernardez gets a slightly lower score because of his uncertainty on a number of clearances and Francis gets the lowest of the group because he conceded the penalty kick on an unnecessary tackle on Valeri.
Fatai Alashe: 6
The rookie again had a strong performance as the lone defensive midfielder. At one point it looked like he was going to be able to take on the Timber defense by himself and although his shot turned out to be harmless, seeing his confidence grow is a great sign for the Quakes.
Matias Perez Garcia: 4
It’s possible Garcia is still struggling with a nagging injury, but he just didn’t look crisp on Sunday. His many of his crosses were inaccurate, his one shot never troubled the keeper, and he gave up possession too many times in the attack.
Chris Wondolowski: 5
Everyone is going to be talking about Wondo’s chance in the 7’ when he beat the offside trap and was given a perfect ball by Salinas only to step on top of the ball instead of controlling it. The poor touch gave Timbers’ keeper Adam Larsen Kwarasey plenty of time to close down on Wondo and stifle the shot attempt. It’s clear that Wondolowski still isn’t entirely comfortable playing as a midfielder and that he still isn’t sure how to maximize his attack from there.
Quincy Amarikwa: 6
Amarikwa did very well to bring some life into the offense while Wondolowski was away with the National Team, but that form didn’t come out on Sunday. He had a number of chances at a scoring opportunity but failed to do anything with them. Still lead the team in shots on target albeit a measly 2 shots.
Shea Salinas: 6
The most impressive stat for Shea was that even though he came off with 12 minutes to go, he still lead the team in touches and passes while maintaining an 88.5% passing accuracy. He and Cato both did very well to create chances for the offense.
Cordell Cato: 6
Led the team in chances created even in limited touches and minutes and lead the team in tackles showing that he is still an effective defender as well. Played very well until being subbed off in the 64’ for Nyassi who was nowhere near as effective as Cato.
Substitutions
Sanna Nyassi (for Cato 64’): 4
Nyassi has a bad habit of getting sucked into the center of the pitch when he’s supposed to be on the wing. It was because of this that he was out of position and then over committed to try and intercept a wide pass that led to the chance for Melano.
Marc Pelosi (for Salinas 78’): Incomplete
Tommy Thompson (for Garcia 82’): Incomplete
Both Thompson and Pelosi came on too late in the match to make much impact.
San Jose Earthquakes
Portland Timbers
