SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose Earthquakes limped home to Avaya Stadium this week, battered by a three-loss road trip and weakened by suspensions to their coach and two most prolific offensive stars. A two-game home-stand awaited them, and with their MLS Cup playoffs aspirations on the line, the Quakes had regrouped and were determined not to let the season slip away.
Up first was the Philadelphia Union, traveling all the way across the country on short rest following a tough 2-0 loss at the New York Red Bulls, safely qualified for the postseason and possibly ripe for a take-down. Clashes with Cascadia rivals Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers would be next, but for the Earthquakes, earning a result against Philly was their focus.
Their captain and emotional leader Chris Wondolowski, red carded in the previous game, a frustrating 3-1 loss at Atlanta United, couldn’t help his team on the field, so he took to the stands, For 90-plus minutes, he planned to stand with the San Jose Ultras to cheer and will his side to victory. It was no less than anyone expected of Wondo, the embodiment of Quakes soccer on and off the field.
With Matias Almeyda suspended for the fourth game of his rookie MLS season as head coach, the sideline decision making again fell to his staff, with assistants Omar Zarif and Benjamin Galindo orchestrating matters from the bench. The duo was in charge for the previous two home games, both victories, and they looked to add another to the list.
The Quakes started the night in seventh place in the Western Conference, tied with eighth place Portland, but in possession of the last playoffs spot by virtue of the third tie-breaker, total goals scored. They are their fans would be scoreboard watching all evening, as the Timbers were hosting the New England Revolution at the same time, a few hundred miles up the coast.
Off to an inauspicious start
Neither the Union nor the Quakes were exceptionally good to start the game, but San Jose did have the first best look of the night within the opening ten minutes. It could of, and the eyes of many should have, been a game-changing moment.
Carlos Fierro, who replaced the suspended Cristian Espinoza in the starting eleven, was taken down from behind by defender Kai Wagner in the seventh minute with only goalkeeper Andre Blake to beat, and the collective crowd held its breath as referee Baldomero Toldeo reached for his pocket to brandish a card. Yellow, and not red, and the Quakes immediately protested.
The VAR signaled to Toledo that he should review the play to determine if Wagner had denied Fierro an obvious goal scoring opportunity, a DOGSO for those into acronyms, and the referee retreated to the video replay screen to deliberate. Toledo affirmed his original decision on the play and signaled a free kick for San Jose. The players did not appear happy with the verdict.
The first yellow card to San Jose came in the 23rd minute, and it was a costly one. Judson, who’s been a mainstay at defensive midfielder throughout the summer, caught a sliding Marco Fabian on the foot in a 50-50 challenge, earning the caution from Toledo. There didn’t appear to be any malice in the play by Judson, and now the Quakes midfielder will be suspended for yellow card accumulation against Seattle on Sunday.
Fierro had additional reasons to feel aggrieved in the first half, as he tangled up with Kacper Przybylko in the 30th minute and was cleated on the forehead by the Union forward. The bloodied Fierro was able to continue, and Przybylko, who it appeared to inadvertently make contact as he stumbled backwards onto Fierro, escaped without a card.
Setbacks aside, the Earthquakes finally capitalized in the attacking third, as some excellent work from Magnus Eriksson and Danny Hoesen set up Jackson Yueill to score a tidy goal in the box in the 35th minute. In the terrace, Wondolowski ripped off his shirt in celebration, and the roar of the crowd quelled the dissatisfaction that had been building over the game’s first half hour.
Suffering through a second half slide
The Quakes one-goal lead appeared to grow to two early in the second half, when Eriksson followed a spilled save from Blake with a blast into the back of the net. The goal set off another delirious celebration among Wondo and the Ultras, and the players on the field and those warming up off to the side did the same.
But Toledo put hand to ear moments later, as VAR required a review for a possible offside infraction in the build up to the play. The sideline official had kept his flag down, as the policy asks in such close call situations, and upon review, it did show Hoesen was slightly ahead of the last defender on the initial entry pass. The goal was waved off, much to everyone in black and blue’s chagrin.
The Earthquakes appeared to make it 2-0 for a second time, when Hoesen poked home a cross from Judson in the 56th minute, but this one was called off for offside as well. VAR wasn’t necessary this time, as the assistant referee raised his flag on Tommy Thompson for interfering with the play as he was walking back from an offside position and was in the vicinity of the initial pass to Judson.
Rankles were again raised in the 57th minute when Florian Jungwirth and Przybylko got into a tit-for-tat. Jungwirth’s initial shoulder shove was met with a more forceful response by the Union striker, and Toledo put an end to the affair with a quick yellow for Przybylko.
With an hour of play in the books, the game looked destined to continue its slide to a 1-0 final result. And that is when Union head coach Jim Curtin made a crucial decision that swung the game in his team’s favor.
With Fabian tiring in the midfield, he brought in the dynamic Fabrice-Jean Picault to replace their designated player, and Philadelphia’s play was immediately improved. They began to stretch the man-marking Quakes all over the field and opened scoring opportunities on offense. San Jose’s advantage on the scoreboard finally disappeared in the 70th minute, when Union captain Alejandro Bedoya engineered a wonderful goal in the area to level the score at 1-1.
The stunned Earthquakes were slow to recover, and only six minutes later, the Union took the lead. Przybylko, the Union’s leading goal scoring, used his physical size to ward off Guram Kashia on a cross into the box from Picault and headed the ball past Daniel Vega to put the visitors ahead. The turn of events for San Jose seemed like it might be too much to handle.
But the Quakes, as is their way, didn’t give up on the game, and even if they were perhaps worn down by a summer of fast-paced man-marking pressing soccer, they pushed forward for an equalizer.
A clear and obvious error
San Jose got its lifeline, or so it seemed, in the 81st minute, when Andy Rios took a touch on the ball in the box before getting pushed out of bounds by defender Aurelien Collin, prompting Toledo to immediately point to the spot. Collin used his arm and shoulder to separate Rios from possession, not at all making a play on the ball.
The VAR again got involved, prompting Toledo to check his call for a clear and obvious error, and the referee made his third visit to the monitor of the evening. Replays showed that Collin altered Rios’ path with the contact, but Toledo determined the contact was incidental and no foul was committed. He dramatically walked back to the field and paused before signaling a goal kick to Philadelphia.
The decision prompted outrage from some fans in the nearest corner of Avaya Stadium, who began throwing debris on the field. The game was temporarily halted as a result of the poor behavior as the stadium public address announcer delivered a rebuke and helped restore order. Fans in the same area later turned to using a goal kick chant identified as offensive to the LGBTQ community instead.
The Quakes still had six minutes on the game clock, and another seven minutes of stoppage time, to find an equalizer, and they held possession for most of it. The Union, though, packed it in defensively and snuffed out the most promising attacks by San Jose. A shot from Hoesen that went just wide of the post was the closest the Earthquakes came to scoring, and the game ended 2-1 in favor of Philadelphia.
The loss snapped the Quakes home unbeaten streak at 12 games, and the four losses in a row matched a similar losing streak to open the season. And yet, despite the setback against the Union, San Jose still controls its own playoff destiny: beat Seattle and Portland on successive Sundays, and no matter the results of other games around the league, the Earthquakes are in the postseason.
Whatever perceived injustices the Earthquakes suffered on Wednesday night, they’ll have to put that behind them if they want to still be in it for MLS Cup.