After a 2-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders on Sunday, the San Jose Earthquakes bounced back nicely on Wednesday night.
Alberto Quintero’s two goals led the Earthquakes over the Houston Dynamo, 3-1, at Avaya Stadium on Thursday night.
It didn’t take long for Quintero and the Earthquakes to get on the board. Quintero was able to get on the end of a Chris Wondolowski cross inside the six-yard box to tap it by the Dynamo goalkeeper to give his side an early advantage in just the third minute.
The Earthquakes would hold that lead until just before half time, as Ricardo Clark leveled the match in the 43rd minute. The Dynamo took advantage by taking a quick free kick, catching the Earthquakes on their heels a bit. After a cross into the box, the ball eventually fell to Clark outside the box after a David Bingham save and Clark fired a firecracker into the right side of the net.
The Earthquakes would take the lead for good just five minutes into the second half from a goal by Anibal Godoy. It was the creative build up that lead to the goal, however, as the Earthquakes strung together a couple one touch passes.
Quintero would add his second of the game in the 70th minute, again from a pass from Wondolowski. Wednesday was the second two-assist game of Wondolowski’s career.
The Dynamo have just one win in their last eight games and are last in the Western Conference with eight points. With the win, the Earthquakes move into fourth place in the West and sit just two points behind FC Dallas for second place.
The Earthquakes return to action next Wednesday at the LA Galaxy on May 22. The Dynamo will host Real Salt Lake on Saturday.
MAN OF THE MATCH
Alberto Quintero scored just three minutes into the game to give the Earthquakes an early lead and his second goal (the team’s third) in the 70th minute gave the team a cushion for the remainder of the game. Quintero also assisted on Godoy’s goal.
MOMENT OF THE MATCH
The other goal scored by the Earthquake on Wednesday was from Anibal Godoy, and it was pretty. Through a series of beautiful one-touch passes through the midfield, Godoy found himself in on goal and finished with his left foot to the near post. The goal, which Godoy scored in the 50th minute, proved to be the game winner.
MOMENT TO FORGET
The Dynamo’s goal keeper Tyler Deric picked up a straight red card in the 79th minute. The Earthquake’s Simon Dawkins found himself in behind Deric at the top of the box. Deric then reached back and tripped Dawkins, leaving an easy decision for the referee. The red card was Deric’s league-leading second of the season.
CUNCEL DA SAESON
The Dynamo defense is horrible and at some point it needs to reflect on Jordan for all the poor winter signings. He didn’t even accidentally trip over someone decent.
The Dynamo routinely come out flat, don’t seem to use tactics suited to our lots of offense and no defense roster (why bother playing defensively with this bunch), and don’t seem to make subs and adjustments to change game flow. At some point that needs to reflect on Coyle even if he was handed a _____ sandwich by Jordan.
The Deric thing is a tempest in a teapot, game was already over. Just salt in the wound really. That being said, I’ve been telling anyone who would listen that the Dynamo do not have a championship quality keeper, and people fight me on it, but Willis is +2 GAA (that one’s obvious) and Deric is usually like 1.3 or 1.4. Deric is the better keeper despite this rash of reds, but I think he runs hot and cold, and is not the lockdown keeper we once had when Onstad was here. Dynamo fans are in serious denial and struggle to connect personnel decisions with table position, ie, if you accumulate the fan favorites or people who chat boards would say should be kept, you end up with roughly the team that sucks.
The Dynamo also need to sit down at some point and decide team identity, as well as, accepting our place as a budget team, how we intend to offset that without just moping. There are strategies for low budget teams. Do well with academy types. Keep your picks and draft well. Scout and sign veterans well. Some niches that improve the roster even if we can’t sign Dos Santos. Right now it just looks like a pile of other team’s B Team discards and some ageing veterans who never quite saw success in the finalist years. Really need to start from ground up and find “players” who can fit roles in a stylistic jigsaw. Right now it just feels like they sign any ol person. Even Dom worked to a strategy with personnel choices.