By RYAN TOLMICH
After a tough opening to their 2014 campaign, the San Jose Earthquakes were looking to pick up their first win Saturday when they visited the Colorado Rapids.
However, the Quakes were forced to settle for an always-difficult road point in a game where they were reduced to 10 men late.
It was Colorado who dominated for most of the contest, as the Rapids out-passed their opponents 478 to 290 while also earning ten corner kicks. However, neither team ever really threatened in the final third with the two sides combining for just one shot on goal.
The best opportunity of the match happened to come in the game’s opening minute off a San Jose corner kick when a header from the Earthquake’s Alan Gordon hit the crossbar.
A generally chippy affair finally reached its boiling point in the 87th minute when Earthquakes substitute Adam Jahn was sent off for a late challenge after only four minutes of game time. From there, it only got worse for the Quakes as both Yannick Djalo and Gordon left the game due to injury in the game’s final moments.
With the draw, the Earthquakes have now picked up just three points from their opening five contests, while Colorado improves their season total to 11.
The Earthquakes will look to get their first win next week when they host Chivas USA. The Rapids, meanwhile, head to Seattle in a battle of two of the Western Conference’s top teams.
Here are the match highlights:
Class from Gordon and Jahn (sp?): http://www.coloradorapids.com/video/2014/04/21/when-line-crossed-physical-sport
You can add this to the list of games effected by horrible referring. really getting old!
It is amazing how mediocre Colorado is when they are not being gifted PKs.
Which view of course was just recently borne out by PK-less victories in Vancouver and Toronto. Good work.
Toronto missing Bradley and Defoe and Vancouver down to ten men. Colorado is once again fortunate to always be on the receiving end of their opponents bad luck. They will still crumble when games matter just as they did in the playoffs last year.
Well as I remember you often doing in the past, as well, you’ve changed the topic so as to get out there the comment you really want to deliver, for whatever reason, rather than addressing what is in question.
The claim in question was that Colorado is mediocre without the help of PKs. Leavving aside the added implication of PKs that have been unwarranted (for which there also isn’t much evidence), there simply weren’t any PKs at all in either Vancouver or Toronto, where Colorado won their previous 2 matches. So not a very well founded claim.
I kinda wanted to yell at any Rapid player who passed to any player not named Dillon. It was the worst game I’ve ever see Sanchez play, Buddle couldn’t find any rhythm, and Watts looked downright amateur (he is 0/2 for looking like he can hack it in MLS). Can we never see labrocca again in any kind of role where he is expected to cross the ball or play anything other than a simple pass?
The refereeing again was atrocious. No wonder injuries are piling up for all the teams. This game was the worst refereeing I have seen all season.
Why doesn’t San Jose have a sponsor? Their Jersey looks ridiculous.
Rapids dominated but lacked quality in the final third. Would have like to see Torres given a shot earlier. Buddle looked terrible. Some nice moments from Serna though. He looks like he will be good.
It was, in a word, craptacular.