Galaxy End The Quakes' Season On A Sour Note
The Quakes season was brought to a sour end on Saturday night as the club dropped their finale 2-0 to the Los Angeles Galaxy allowing their arch rivals to earn the top seed in the Western Conference Playoffs.
The Earthquakes went in a completely different direction, finishing last in the Western Conference. The result gives the Earthquakes 30 points on the season, 3 short of their tally from last season.
San Jose was unable to get going early as the Galaxy controlled the lion share of possession and also dominated the amount of chances early. Despite their wealth of chances, the Galaxy took the lead on what could best be described a fluke goal.
In the 24th minute, a Landon Donovan cross in bounced off the foot of San Jose defender Bobby Burling and found its way past a diving Joe Cannon for a 1 nil Galaxy lead. "It was just a lucky play but if you put pressure on people then you put them in awkward positions and those things happen" said Donovan.
The Quakes had a chance to strike right back two minutes later with a Brandon McDonald header that was saved by Galaxy keeper Donovan Ricketts to keep the Galaxy ahead. The match stayed that way until the 77th minute when the Galaxy delievered their final blow.
With the Earthquakes pushing for the equalizer the Galaxy were able to catch San Jose on the counter. Cutting through the Earthquakes defense, the Galaxy put on a beautiful run across field that saw Chris Klein connect with Landon Donovan who was able to put it through the legs of San Jose goalkeeper Joe Cannon capping a disappointing end to the Earthquakes season.
"We are not happy with this, and we wanted to end the season on a better note. I thought we pushed really hard for an equalizer, which we didn’t get and unfortunately fell behind 2-0, so it is very disappointing. We weren’t really able to create much, and were unable to really break through at all." Said Cannon after the match.
Although the club regressed in the standings, Head Coach Frank Yallop was able to get the positives coming off the 2009 season, "The last 12 games including tonight we've performed well and had some good reasons and some indifferent ones but we should have more points. I just look at it as a building block for next season. We need to remember that it's not a sprint, its a marathon but the signs are good for next season and I'm excited about that" said Yallop.
Although the Quakes finish the season at the bottom of the standings, the MLS has proven to be a league where a club can bounce back the next season. For evidence of that the Quakes can look no further than the Galaxy who went from one of the league's worst records in 2008 to the top team in the Western Conference in 2009.
Adam Serrano is the main contributor at BerkeleySportsBlog.com
