Photo by Greg Little, Prost Amerika
by John Marshall
The San Jose Earthquakes and Real Salt Lake played to a wild and at times bizarre 1-1 draw at Rio Tinto Stadium. Both teams struggled with sloppy play and it showed on the stat sheets. San Jose only completed 60% of their passes compared to RSL’s 74% and were out possessed 62-38% in the match. Despite this, they still found themselves with the lead after the first 45 and kept Real to zero shots on goal for the match.
It was a back and forth first 15 minutes as both Real and San Jose struggled to maintain possession and control the match.
The breakthrough would come in the 19’ as a Shea Salinas shot came off of defenders to an offside Chris Wondolowski who put his shot in the back of the net. It was a strange sequence as even Wondo thought he was offside and he didn’t celebrate the goal at first. The flag stayed down though and San Jose found themselves up 1-0.
The home crowd grew restless as the half went on, unhappy with the calls made by the head referee and the frustration seemed to spill onto the field as play got more and more physical.
The frustration came to a head when Kyle Beckerman, already on a yellow, made a late challenge on Matias Perez Garcia who was protecting a ball rolling out of bounds. Beckerman tried to get the ball but instead kicked MPG in the knee, leading to calls for a second yellow for the RSL midfielder.
Salt Lake out possessed San Jose for the majority for the first 30 minutes but only had one wide shot to show for it as they struggled to connect in the final third and the Quakes’ defense stood firm.
In the 41’ Real midfielder Javier Morales would be subbed off for Jordan Allen as it seemed an earlier head knock needed more attention than Morales initially thought.
The half would end 1-0 for the Quakes although being out possessed 60-30% by the home side.
Wondo would have a fantastic chance in the 49’ to put the Quakes up 2-0 when a set piece cross went through the box to him wide open at the right side of the goal. Wondo hesitated on the shot as he tried to control it and the RSL defense was able to get back in time to block his shot.
In the 57’ Innocent was subbed off apparently due to an injury and Adam Jahn would replace him.
Salt Lake would make their second sub in the 63’, replacing Olmes Garcia with Devon Sandoval looking to create a more attacking presence as they fought for the equalizer.
Sloppy play by Real’s defense in the 71’ gave Adam Jahn a chance to add to the lead thanks to Chris Wondolowski dispossessing Jamison Olave but Nick Rimando was up to the task and made a nice save.
Jahn may be ruing the missed opportunity as a seconds later Real would tie the match on an own goal by Victor Bernardez as he attempted to clear a cross from Sandoval. His shanked clearance went over the head of keeper David Bingham as he came out to contest the cross and the ball trickled into the back of the net.
After the tying goal the match opened wide up as both teams looked to find the game winner late. San Jose would get fresh legs on by bringing Tommy Thompson into the match for Sanna Nyassi in the 75’.
Devon Sandoval tried to break the tie with a bicycle kick in the 80’ but could not catch it cleanly and the ball skipped wide of the net, allowing Real to make their final substitute of the night, bringing on Sebastian Salcedo for Luke Mulholland.
With 5 minutes left in the match, San Jose played their last card as they brought on JJ Koval in the 85’ for MPG.
As the 90’ passed the 4th official added an extra 6 minutes on to the match and in the 94’ San Jose nearly capitalized on the opportunity as a headed corner by JJ Koval just missed the target on a run that found him with a free chance at goal. No doubt Koval will want that chance back as he really should have scored the game winner for the Quakes.
In the end there would be no goals in the last minutes of this bizarre match and both teams would have to settle for the draw. With the draw, both San Jose and Salt Lake sit at 10 points on the season, tied with Houston and Kansas City for 5th in the Western Conference.
