The old phrase “the more things change, the more they remain the same” held true for the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday Night, as three second half goals proved to be their undoing against a Minnesota United squad looking to make some waves in the MLS Western Conference.
“The level of performance was what was expected and if we play like that it’s normally enough to win games,” said Minnesota United Manager Adrian Heath. “It was a really good performance, I’m pleased with the group, I’m pleased that it was a clean sheet and it’s a great start.”
With the towering center back pairing of Michael Boxall and Ike Opara shutting down any air traffic into the box, Earthquakes Manager Matias Almeyda devised a game plan that was reliant on lower crosses designed to get on the feet of Chris Wondolowski, which was nearly successful late in the first half when Wondolowski banged what would have been his record tying 145th MLS goal off the post. Unfortunately for San Jose, that was one of the few times the team was able to keep with the game plan.
“We messed up the path.,” said Almeyda. “The game should have been down low and we planned to not cross as much and combine on the outside and combine with our outside midfielders and forwards. We did it two or three times and then we ended up giving about twenty high crosses and that isn’t our game.”
The game was deadlocked until early in the second half when VAR determined that Marcos Lopez got a hand on a ball in the box, leading a penalty kick which Darwin Quintero slotted home to open the scoring.
With many questions about how the new look Quakes would handle adversity, an early answer to that test came just three minutes later, when Quintero got the ball on the counter and found Miguel Ibarra on the break, beating Daniel Vega far post to double the lead.
With time running down and the Avaya Stadium crowd getting restless, the dreaded own goal came when Harold Cummings directed a Minnesota free kick past an unmarked back post to give the Loons their third on the night.
With the Quakes once again searching for answers, Minnesota United is turning some heads early, taking six points from their first two road games to start the season and looking to announce their arrival as a legitimate MLS side.
“I’ve said this before, and I don’t wish this to disrespect anyone, but we’ve got a team now that’s comparable with a lot of teams. We haven’t had that in the past,” said Heath. “Suddenly, people think, ‘Well, he knows what he’s doing.’ I’ve always known what I was doing, but when you go on the field, and the opposition’s got a better team than you do nine times out of ten, it normally comes through. Now we’ve got a team that can compete.”
Minnesota continues their season opening five game road swing next Saturday when they take on the LA Galaxy while San Jose takes their show on the road for the first time this season when they travel to New York to take on the Red Bulls.
San Jose Earthquakes
Minnesota United FC
