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Earthquakes, Crew settle for draw in physical battle

Chris Wondolowski Sam Cronin

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By DAN KARELL

Federico Higuain’s late first-half goal was canceled out by Chris Wondolowski’s early second-half header as the San Jose Earthquakes and Columbus Crew settled for a 1-1 draw on Sunday afternoon at Buck Shaw Stadium.

Despite a defeat to Toronto FC last week, Crew head coach Gregg Berhalter went with the exact same starting 11, and while they came out in the opening 20 minutes with more energy, they failed to find any targets in the box on crosses. Fullbacks Josh Williams and Waylon Francis found plenty of space forward but their crossing let them down on a number of occasions.

As San Jose began to impose themselves in the game and nearly took the lead through a Shea Salinas redirected shot in the box, the Crew found their scoring shoes just before halftime.

A long diagonal pass in the from right to left by Crew midfielder Hector Jimenez in the 44th minute was taken down by Francis. His first touch took him towards goal and though it was heavy, Francis’ speed allowed him to get behind the Earthquakes defense and create an opportunity.

With Dom Oduro making a near-post run, Francis cut the ball back to Higuain, and the Designated Player fired a low strike past Jon Busch for a 1-0 lead.

Into the second half, the Earthquakes came out with much more energy and intensity, earning three corner kicks in the first six minutes. The Earthquakes brought on Yannick Djalo and the Portuguese international made a difference right away.

On the Quakes’ third corner of the half, Salinas sent in a beautifully curled ball that was met by Wondolowski, who guided a header home to tie the score in the 51st minute.

Djalo himself had a couple of chances to score in the second half, one chance hitting the far post off a corner and the second after flicking the ball over Jimenez’s head and putting a close-range strike wide.

As the game reached the later stages, it became more stretched, leading to counter-attack opportunities for both sides. Oduro had a chance to become the Crew’s latest hero with a left-footed shot in the 82nd minute, but it clanged off the crossbar. Wondolowski had one final chance in stoppage time but Crew goalkeeper Steve Clark watched the shot go wide from the moment it left Wondolowski’s foot.

Here are the game highlights:

Comments

  1. I saw this game in person, both teams played dirty. The ref let a lot of stuff go by. The difference was
    Higuain. He is truly way above the rest.
    JSantos

    Reply
  2. BoBo,

    Please make a specific reference to anything that similar that another player in the MLS has done. You know that you can’t, so STFU.

    If you are making a lame attempt to equate how Bernardez plays with what everyone saw today, you’re way off base. He’s aggressive and I think he often takes it too far, but he goes straight at people and doesn’t try to hit them in the face off of the ball as we saw from that punk today.

    I’m fan of the game and was anticipating seeing The Crew for the first time under Berhalter. What the punk did diminishes his team.

    And for reference, I’m no fan of Lenhart, he broke the face of player who I know, but I’d love to see him go up against the punk.

    Reply
  3. Funny that nobody above calls out the SJ players for their cheap shots. That CB thug had his share of cheap shots.

    However, I agree that dive was pretty funny. I hope the sniper was found. I loved Wondo’s expression when he was on the ground.

    Reply
    • Most of us have spent plenty of time calling out SJ for their style of play, in particular Lenhart who is beyond dirty. Regardless of what they did it doesn’t excuse what the Crew CB did today.

      Reply
  4. Gonzalez’s pathetic cheap shot, followed by his putrid attempt to get Wondolowski sent off is the most disgraceful behavior that I have seen in ages and likely the most egregious that I have observed in MLS. The stiffest sanction needs to be imposed on him as a clear indication by the league that this will not be tolerated. At the minimum, a 3 game suspension and a fine of 2 weeks wages (though a full month would be more appropriate).

    Tchani’s repeated low bridging of players jumping for balls must also be addressed. Clearly he’s tired of being out jumped by players 6″ shorter than he, so he chooses to dive underneath them while they’re in the air.

    Today was my first chance to see The Crew and Berhalter has made them a much better side. If he doesn’t address his players behavior, I doubt that I’ll be fan though.

    Reply
  5. How can this be considered a writeup of the game without making mention of what the Crew CB did? First he took a blatant cheapshot on Wondo and then faked being hit. Disgraceful.

    Reply
    • yep. The league should suspend him for 2 for the push/hit, and then for another 2 for faking it, and trying to draw a card on Wondo.

      Pathetic.

      Reply

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