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Earthquakes edge FC Dallas after missed PK

QuakesDallas (Getty)

The San Jose Earthquakes looked well on their way to another home victory on Wednesday night before a late FC Dallas rally threatened to spoil the party at Buck Shaw Stadium.

Dallas couldn't complete the comeback though. Defender Jair Benitez failed to make that happen when he sent a stoppage time penalty kick over the crossbar, dooming FC Dallas to a 2-1 loss.

Earthquakes midfielder Marvin Chavez burned his former team with a 12th-minute strike to open the scoring. Alan Gordon added his own tally just before halftime to give San Jose a 2-0 lead. The Earthquakes had a golden opportunity to make the score 3-0, but a Chris Wondolowski penalty kick was waived off due to enchroachment in the penalty area by Justin Morrow.

Dallas looked destined to be blown away, but made things interesting in the 89th minute when defender Hernan Pertuz pulled one back. Dallas looked like they might complete the comeback after Simon Dawkins took down Zach Loyd in the penalty area. Unfortunately for the visitors, a lack of attacking players on the field for Dallas meant Benitez was forced to take the penalty kick, which he promptly missed just before the final whistle.

Here are the match highlights:

 

What did you think of the match? Surprised to see the Earthquakes nearly blow a two-goal lead? Disappointed with Brek Shea's behavior after being taken off? Starting to wonder how much longer Schellas Hyndman will have as head coach?

Share your thoughts below.

 

Comments

  1. Hyndman said himself he should have had someone else take te PK. It’s obviously with the benifit of hindsight, but most coaches stick to their guns and say “it was unlucky.” Yallop didn’t say someone else should have taken Wondo’s. As far as discipline, this is a team with 5 red cards, which is too much at this stage in the season. That, along with the outbreaks for substitutions (Brek’s certainly wasn’t the first this season) and lack of on field focus shows a lack of discipline.

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  2. I saw just the opposite and the possesion stats agree with me. SJ spent most of their efforts trying to kick the ball over the top to Wondo or Chavez. FC Dallas was a mixed bag at times playing nice posession and at others plagued by poor passing/touch.

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  3. Maybe Perez is the difference then … based purely on their style of play and the flow of the match, I thought that they looked disjointed, on different pages with each other and ready to come apart at any moment – a much different feel to their game than I saw last year.
    By contrast, SJ (not nearly my favorite team) looked like a team with a plan and a purpose to what they were doing.

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  4. So you know for a fact that Benetiz wasn’t the best PK taker on the field for FCD at the time of the foul? Previous goals scored or not scored isn’t a factor in judging the quality of someone taking PKs. Perhaps he has shown in practices he is the best of those remaining on the field.
    The point is ANYONE can miss a PK especially with a result on the line. It happened to Wondo without the pressure of a result. Only hindsight makes the decision appear to be a bad one.
    DH is digging his own grave by “openly” airing his issues. A smart player would simply ask his coach and management.
    Brek’s frustration is building up due to his own poor play. He needs to get his head back to earth and realize he isn’t a superstar, yet.
    Please be more specific about the discipline problems that have been there all year, I am not aware of them

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  5. Wondo has been hot this year, thats not an issue. The fiasco is that they let a player who has never scored in MLS take a game tying PK with better options on the field. DH is definitely past his prime, but has openly said that FCD has yet to discuss with him what the trade means for him. There have been disciplinary problems all year, and Brek’s frustration is just another indicator of that. Injuries are one thing, but there is obviously an underlying problem with this team. As a coach, you have to address those issues, and the results show that SH hasn’t.

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  6. And I don’t have a problem with struggling with form, even players of Fernando Torres caliber can struggle, but the petulance is wearing thin.

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  7. penalty fiasco? The guy missed a pk, how exactly is this a fiasco? Wondo missed one too, what a fiasco!

    What off the field situations are you talking about? DH’s failure to accept that his best days are gone by and it’s time to move over?
    Brek’s immature actions last night?

    These are the fault of SH, how?

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  8. Credit to dallas for battling to the end – and agree they had most of the posession in both halves) but without Morrow’s mistake on the PK (and wondo’s failure to score a 2nd time) this game really would’ve been over with a lot of time to spare. Lucky at the end!

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  9. Injuries are one thing, but his handling of in game situations and off the field situations, highlighted by the penalty fiasco last night, has been questionable.

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  10. I hope Shea realizes his mistake and apologizes for his behavior. He was crap last night and was lucky he wasn’t pulled at half.
    Lots of talent, just needs to get his head back into the game.

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  11. for the Schellas out folks… you do realize most of your best players have been injured for good chunks of the year… John, Ferreira, Shea (turf toe), and Ihemulu? Crazy talk to fire Hyndman.

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  12. As an FCD fan, I’ve been pretty patient with Hyndman, but I don’t know how much longer I can defend him for. Absolutely no excuse for Benitez to take the PK there. Brek seems to be unsettled, Daniel Hernandez still hasn’t been confronted about what is essentially a direct replacement. This is hard to watch.

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  13. Ummm…if it’s horrible to play large swaths of the game and dominate in corners, shots, and shots on goal, than yes, Dallas played horrible. I think if Perez were in the game last night, FCD wins. Of course, you could say that about a lot of the games they’ve been in for the last month. If and when he comes back, they’ll go on a run.

    Good point on the officiating- I thought it was uncharacteristically good. FCD got screwed on something similar earlier this year with Pappa offside on a PK. That’s 2 stops for Big Cat this year, for those keeping score at home.

    It would be easy to find fault in the subs, but Brek and David are both coming off of injuries, and they’re playing 2 this week. Down 2-nil, it made sense to cut losses and home in on Saturday. San Jose’s catching the breaks this year. Can they really count on Alan Gordon providing game winners for the duration?

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  14. Couple of thoughts …
    First, I thought Dallas looked terrible for most of the match. I know they haven’t been getting results this year, but I was taken aback by what a mess they looked for large chunks of this match. What happened to this team?
    Second, we all give the MLS officials plenty of knocks throughout the year, but I have to tip my cap to Stott for making two tough, but correct calls – the violation on SJ’s PK and the last minute PK call that went against SJ at the end of the match. Lots of officials would have swallowed their whistle on those, particulaly since both calls went against the home team. Keep it up!

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  15. Why Benitez why not Castillo hell Rodriguez did well to go Castillo a goal last time why not him, really even Hartman could have done it

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