San Jose Earthquakes 1-1 Los Angeles Galaxy - Match Report

After 2 poor performances and without Darren Huckerby (thigh injury), the San Jose Earthquakes needed to beat their best enemies to avoid being left to far behind the playoff places.

^{Bryan Jordan is first on the ball and scores the equalizer in front - Photo: Nap - TheProjectFC}

The game started well for the Quakes who had the first good situations and quickly cashed in one of them. While LA was trying (and having a lot of difficulty) to keep the ball on the ground, the Quakes took advantage of the situation to play long balls to their forwards and, on one of them, Chris Leitch found Pablo Campos right in the middle, surprisingly left alone by Galaxy's defense. Alone in front of Donovan Ricketts, Campos had all the time to place his low shot away from LA's goalkeeper (1-0, 5')

^{Pablo Campos scored and played well inthe first half before sinking with the rest of his team oin the second
Photo: Nap - TheProjectFC}

Until late in the evening, San Jose fans thought this would be enough. Their team didn't play well, but beating the Galaxy is the only thing that matters and, as Nick Garcia said after the game, the result and the number of points you get are the only things that matter in the end of the season.

The inability of LA to create chances despite their domination was helping the local defense having a quiet evening.

The Quakes had a few chances to double their score in the first half, but very quickly they seemed to lack confidence to continue attacking and were clearly already trying to keep the score, even trying to waste time very early in the first half.

Los Angeles' domination in the second half became more and more worrying. Without being really close to scoring, their presence in the Quakes' half of the field was bringing the ball in the box more and more often and the back line seemed to be nervous at times, which Frank Yallop confirmed at the press conference after the game.

Eventually, Landon Donovan managed to place a beautiful cross that made a difference. After Sean Franklin, very good tonight, obtained a corner kick on the left side of Joe Cannon's goal, San Jose's defense tried to clear the ball high and far. It fell back in Dema Kovalenko's feet, only 25 yards from the goal, who found Donovan on the right. The most booed Galaxy player tonight (Beckham not being there) had some space and time to control and cross with his left foot toward the goal. It was perfect for Bryan Jordan whose header beat Cannon (1-1, 76')

^{San Jose fans didn't forget to send a friendly message to their rivals - Photo: Nap - TheProjectFC}

The most worrying part for the Earthquakes is that they couldn't react and it is the Galaxy who had the best chances in the final minutes and could have won the game.

Frank Yallop was very disappointed after the game, recognizing that his team wasn't playing well, that being only in the beginning of the season couldn't be an excuse anymore.

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San Jose Earthquakes - LA Galaxy - Post-Game interviews

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Post-game interviews