Uninspired Performance and Defensive Mistakes Cost the Quakes 3 Points
Dwayne De Rosario can celebrate. He played only 45 minutes and scored 2 goals, offering the victory to his team. Photo: Vincent Guglielmina for The Bay Soccer
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Facing a non-spectacular but very solid side, the San Jose Earthquakes were never able to put the ball on the ground and find an answer to Toronto's physical challenge. Worse, they also offered three goals to their opponents who didn't need to create anything to pick up an easy win.
The Quakes had their chance in the last 30 minutes, after they came back from 0-2 to 1-2. They had a few really good chances to save one point, but it came too late and Toronto logically killed the game in the last minute of the additional time.
Coming out so flat, their best chance would have been to keep the score to 0-0 as long as possible and hope to get lucky on one of their few chances, but individual mistakes, (maybe caused by the sun in the first half), prevented them to even really have a chance to win tonight.
Only Bobby Convey, Chris Wondolowski, maybe Ramiro Corrales and at times Brad Ring1 showed the necessary energy to win one on one challenges.
The two extremities of the team, Joe Cannon and Ryan Johnson, had a terrible night. The goalkeeper, miss hitting almost all of his clearance kicks and involved in Toronto's 3 goals, had the worst performance of the night, which was unexpected after a very good start this season.
Johnson ran a lot, as usual, but he doesn't seem able to win any of the long balls sent to him which was where he was precious in 2008. This starts to be worrying as this kind of performances tend to repeat since the beginning of the season.
The game started with both teams playing long balls and losing most of them. No one wanted to take risks. However, Toronto was more aggressive on the second balls and won a few of them in the last 30 yards, which gave them a few good opportunities for long shots.
None of them were really dangerous, but they were the first alert for the Quakes.
This would probably have continued the same way until the break and the score at half time would have been 0-0 if it was not for a bad communication between Joe Cannon and Jason Hernandez, combined with a long hesitation from the defender and a slow reaction time by the keeper who also had the sunset altering his vision.
On a long ball from Stefan Frei, inside his own box, Hernandez first misjudged the trajectory and waited for the rebound to head it to Cannon. Then Cannon should have anticipated Hernandez' mistake and come quicker to the ball...Instead of that, Hernandez' header landed in Chad Barrett's feet who just had to push the ball into the net (0-1, 31')
Both teams then seemed to wait for the break, Toronto to preserve their lead, San Jose to try to regroup and start the second half with more energy.
Not everything was negative and some good combinations on the left side between Corrales, Convey and Wondolowski created a few good chances. One of them ended with a short cross from Convey which found Gjertsen whose volley at the six-yard line required a superb reflex save from Stefan Frei, the ex-UC Berkeley goalkeeper (23rd)
Stefan Frei (ex-UC Berkeley and San Jose Frogs) made a few good save, helping his team to win in front of his friends and family.
Photo: Dani (www.danivernonphoto.com) for The Bay Soccer
This was not enough and, surprisingly, the local team, started the second half the same way they had played the first one: Without any inspiration.
They had a good chance in the 47th minute when Wondolowski' header was saved on his line by Frei but they also continued to make unusual mistakes and one of them offered the second goal to Dwayne De Rosario.
On a long ball from Dan Gargan (probably too long), Bobby Burling let De Rosario accelerate in his back. Joe Cannon stepped twice towards the ball that he probably could have reached first, but he changed his mind both times which allowed Toronto's captain to win the ball while the keeper was backing up, out of position. The ex-Earthquake didn't miss the opportunity (0-2, 66')
The game was almost over but, 10 minutes later, Bobby Convey took a corner kick from the left to the far post where Ramiro Corrales scored an unexpected goal which brought his team back in the game (1-2, 76')
With 12 minutes to go, the Quakes finally showed a more offensive spirit. They also switched to a 4-3-3 with Ryan Johnson, Scott Sealy and Cornell Glen upfront and two midfielders with offensive aptitudes (Bobby Convey and Chris Wondolowski) on each side of Brandon McDonald, the only true defensive midfielder remaining.
In 15 minutes, the Quakes created more chances than in the first 75. Saving a point would have looked like a miracle but they were close to make it happen. Even Joe Cannon ran into the opposite box to try to make up for his mistakes earlier on the game.
Joe Cannon trying to score the equalizer. Photo: Dani (www.danivernonphoto.com) for The Bay Soccer
However, instead of running back to his goal after a first free kick by Convey, he stayed there for at least 2 minutes. Convey obtained a second free kick around 35 yards from the goal and Cannon was still there and almost won the ball in a good shooting position. When his team lost the ball, it was too late and a long ball to De Rosario allowed him to push the ball in the empty goal for the second time of the night (1-3, 90+4)
This ended a sad night for the Quakes who will absolutely need to have a more confident performance next Wednesday against Columbus crew if they want to avoid a second home loss in 2 games.
1 Brad Ring was replacing Andre Luiz who told us that Frank Yallop asked him to rest tonight in order to preserve his fragile knee. Nothing worrying though and he should start the game against Columbus Crew next Wednesday (June 2nd, 7pm at Buck Shaw Stadium)
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Scoring Summary: TFC – Chad Barrett (unassisted) 31; TFC - Dwayne De Rosario (Dan Gargan) 66; SJ - Ramiro Corrales (Bobby Convey) 76; TFC -- Dwayne De Rosario (Nick LaBrocca) 94+.
Misconduct Summary: TFC – Martin Saric (caution) 8; TFC – Chad Barrett (caution) 31; SJ -- Bobby Convey (caution) 89; TFC -- Julian de Guzman (caution) 93+.
San Jose Earthquakes – Joe Cannon, Ramiro Corrales, Jason Hernandez, Bobby Burling, Chris Leitch (Scott Sealy 77), Bobby Convey, Brandon McDonald, Brad Ring (Cornell Glen 59), Joey Gjertsen (Arturo Alvarez 46), Ryan Johnson, Chris Wondolowski.
Statistics: Shots: 16; Shots on Goal: 7; Fouls: 9; Offsides: 2; Corners: 6.
Toronto FC – Stefan Frei, Nick Garcia, Nana Attakora, Adrian Cann, Dan Gargan, Amadou Sanyang, Nick LaBrocca, Martin Saric (Julian de Guzman 46), Jacob Peterson, Chad Barrett (Sam Cronin 82), O’Brian White (Dwayne De Rosario 46).
Statistics: Shots: 9; Shots on Goal: 3; Fouls: 12; Offsides: 3; Corners: 5.
