Photo by Kelley L. Cox / USA Today Sports Images
By ADAM TROXTELL
Battling for a lifeline at the bottom of the Western Conference, the San Jose Earthquakes now have a leg up on their counterparts.
Clarence Goodson just about got his header to go across the line as the Earthquakes edged past the Colorado Rapids, 1-0, on Friday night. The result leaves the Rapids at the bottom of the West.
The Earthquakes, meanwhile, have kept playoff hopes alive by climbing to within three points of the sixth-place Seattle Sounders. It is also the Earthquakes’ first taste of victory since a win against the LA Galaxy back on June 27.
With Chris Wondolowski still looking to regain form since returning to the team, Quincy Amarikwa once again stepped into the void. Unfortunately for both teams, attacking prowess was missing for most of the evening.
Six shots were put on target the whole night, with the Earthquakes managing four. Their first good chance came in the 22nd minute when Shea Salinas worked the ball in to Amarikwa, but the final shot was saved by Clint Irwin at the near post.
Later, Salinas worked with both Wondolowski and Amarikwa to get inside the box, but his shot was blocked out for a corner.
Just after the second half, Goodson was able to get his effort over the goal line. Amarikwa provided, picking up a loose ball in the box and sending it across where his towering defender headed it off of the post and in.
The Rapids’ best opportunity of the match came in the 71st minute when Dillon Powers got his head to a long cross, but David Bingham was there for the stop.
Now on a three game skid, the Rapids hit the road to face the Chicago Fire next Saturday. The Earthquakes have a quicker turnaround, with Sporting KC awaiting on Wednesday.
He was on the bench
How’s Pelosi been doing?
Jim,
He’s getting pretty regular minutes as a sub. I do think that he’s a Kinnear kind of player. Good size and speed combo and his his case, decent skill. He’s high energy when he comes on, but unlike JJ Koval for example, he is smarter in his passing, tackling and movement off of the ball. You can tell that he was coached at a high level.
My perception is that Kinnear would like to play some combination of Alashe, Godoy and Pelosi in the center of midfield, though with Stewart likely out for good, Pelosi may have to play some leftback because Francis can’t be counted on to play as well as he did last night on a regular basis.
Good stuff, I agree.
It will be interesting to see what Kinnear does with the midfield with Alashe back and also once MPG is fully recovered from the hammy injury. I doubt Kinnear would play a diamond, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Alashe at the 6 with Godoy ahead of him….with MPG as a tucked in Rmid…with Pelosi at Lmid…Quincy up top with Wondo underneath. If he plays with a 5 player midfield…Alashe behind Godoy and Pelosi would be defensively very good…with good distribution…need to find a place for Wondo then… But Pelosi gives you more than Wondo in the midfield. Maybe Wondo back up top with Quincy at Lmid…with MPG tucked in on the right flank.
Pelosi is finding the game and growing in confidence every time he steps on the field… doesn’t seem out of place at all..looks good on the ball…unfortunately, his vision and ability to read the game are already beyond a good number of his teammates…Salinas and Nyassi especially are really slowing him down…just killing promising plays. Godoy and Pelosi looked good and had no issues with combo play…even though Godoy had no prior training with the Quakes… arriving only 10 hours before game time…shows the quality of both players.
Quincy has done well since getting out of chicago…er I mean bridgeview
San Jose’s best player last night and in many matches since he arrived.
This game was a good argument for relegation in MLS. Horrendous.
Diabolically bad soccer. I’ve never seen a professional match in which the referee was making calls in order to stop the players from acting foolish, but Chapman did that a few times last night. The most glaring example was when Moor and Bernardez tried mutual bicycle kicks and missed everything except each other. There was no foul, but that just needed to stop.
Yes, lets relegate both of these teams to the USL and promote the Republic and the Switchbacks. At least the latter two try to play the game.