San Jose Earthquakes 1-2 New York Red Bulls - Quakes out of US Open Cup
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Cold Night At Buck Shaw
Tonight's nice fresh evening in Santa Clara quickly turned to a cold dark night.
It only took 1 minute to the New York Red Bulls to win possession and score the first goal of the game after, again, after a poor clearance from the Quakes (Davide Somma, this time) on a corner kick.
Eric Denton, captain for one night - Photo: Nap - TheProjectFC
With a lot of key players injured, Frank Yallop's main goal tonight was to avoid any other injury or suspension. The objective was apparently reached and, with Quincy Amarikwa's good individual performance, it is the only good news of the day for the Quakes.
San Jose's Head Coach didn't want to win this game at all cost. The lineup and the attitude of some players confirmed that. But when you give the opportunity to young players to show what they can do against a competitive opposition, you expect to get something positive out of the experience.
Yes, Amarikwa confirmed that he represents a credible option as a starter, but this was the only satisfaction. Mike Zaher (left back) was completely overwhelmed most of the time, Brandon McDonald (center midfield) didn't have any impact, Davide Somma (center forward) was transparent and Andrew Weber (goalkeeper) never seemed to be reassuring his defense.
Even worse, the usual starters weren't better. Shea Salinas and Chris Leitch on the right wing had a nightmare trying to stop Macoumba Kandji and ran into each other every time they tried to switch positions, Eric Denton (captain and central defender tonight) is definitely not a central defender and Simon Elliott's performance was hardly above the team's average.
Along with Amarikwa, only Kelly Gray played at a decent level tonight, doing his defensive job with calm and efficiency, as often.
No need to say this was not enough to win the game.
However, the Quakes at least had the good idea to resist to New York's domination in the rest of the first half and then had their chance in the second.
Between Pablo Campos' presence (replacing Somma at half time) and Macoumba Kandji's substitution (by Matthew Mbuta, 56') which event had the biggest influence on the better Quake's period in the first 30 minutes of the second half.
Nothing brilliant, but they had the ball more often and created more interesting situations during these 30 minutes than during the rest of the game.
And with a little luck, they even managed to completely come back in the game. After a bad throw from New York in their own half, Salinas quickly understood the referee's call, caught the ball and threw it to Campos, probably before the Red Bulls' defenders had time to really understand what was going on. Campos entered the 18, resisted to Danleigh Borman's return and beat Danny Cepero.
Campos' celebration after scoring the equalizer was very demonstrative. After running toward the Ultras and kissing the Earhquakes' badge on his shirt in front of them, he ran toward the bench and hugged Frank Yallop.
With this goal, he thought he was offering his team the right to play 30 extra minutes, or maybe even better if they could take advantage of the momentum.
Unfortunately for the local team, 5 minutes later, New York started to hold the ball again, dominated the rest of the game and logically scored the winning goal 10 minutes before the end. Mike Zaher was too far from Dominic Oduro to prevent him from offering a gift to John Wolyniec, alone in the box (1-2, 80')
The night felt even colder in the final 10 minutes and, if it was not enough bad news for the Quakes' fans, Nick Garcia and Jamil Roberts are both stuck at home with the flu, both questionable for next Saturday's game against Chivas...
...It's freezing now, time to go home!
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