Quakes ride Rapids in home stretch
San Jose hope for points, hosting opponents in seven of next nine games
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SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES vs. COLORADO RAPIDS
BUCK SHAW STADIUM, Santa Clara, Calif.
July 12, 2008 | 1 p.m. PT (CSN-BA; Altitude)
WEEK # 16 | GAME # 108
A key battle in the Western Conference is ahead on Saturday afternoon as two teams looking to move up in the standings meet when the San Jose Earthquakes entertain the Colorado Rapids. Coming off a four-game road swing and riding a five-game winless run, the Earthquakes now have a heavy stretch of home games, sitting just nine points out of the top spot in the division to begin the week. The Rapids are coming off a 4-0 rout of the New York Red Bulls that ended a four-game winless streak, beginning the week just two points off the pace.
REFEREE: Hilario Grajeda. SAR (bench): Frank Anderson; JAR (opposite): Jose Corro; 4th: Baldomero Toledo MLS Career: 15 games; FC/gm: 30.9; Y/gm: 3.8; R: 2; pens: 6
INJURY REPORT: SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES - OUT: FW Gavin Glinton (R adductor strain); FW Peguero Jean Philippe (R knee internal derangement); QUESTIONABLE: DF Ryan Cochrane (L ankle sprain); FW Jovan Kirovski (R foot stress fracture) ... COLORADO RAPIDS - OUT: GK Justin Hughes (L groin); DOUBTFUL: DF Mike Petke (R foot); PROBABLE: MF Christian Gomez (R leg)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: SJ: Ramiro Corrales, Eric Denton, Nick Garcia
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: SJ: Ryan Cochrane, Jason Hernandez, James Riley
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (41 meetings): Earthquakes 20 wins (1 shootout), 63 goals ... Rapids 16 wins (2 shootout), 57 goals ... Ties 5
AT SAN JOSE: (20 meetings): Earthquakes 10 wins (1 shootout), 38 goals ... Rapids 7 wins (1 shootout), 29 goals ... Ties 3
• This is the second of two meetings between the teams, the first ever meeting between the clubs at Buck Shaw Stadium.
• The Rapids have not defeated the Earthquakes since April 24, 2004, the first of four meetings that season. In the eight meetings since, San Jose has won five, with three draws.
• Throughout the first 10 years in the league, when both teams were in the Western Conference, they never once met in the MLS Cup Playoffs. In 2006, after the San Jose club moved to Houston and became the Dynamo, the Rapids and Dynamo met that year in the Western Conference Championship.
• Coaches record: Fernando Clavijo vs. SJ: P12 W3 L7 D2 ... Frank Yallop v COL: P18 W9 L8 D3
LAST MEETING (MLS):
4/19: COL 0, SJ 2 (O'Brien 43; Kamara 61)
• The Earthquakes scored their first goals - then won their first game - since returning to MLS in a 2-0 win at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in the first meeting this season.
• The Earthquakes owned the majority of the play and were rewarded two minutes before the halftime break. A pass from James Riley into space found Ronnie O'Brien outside the right corner of the box, and though Colorado goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul blocked his first shot, the Irishman was quickest to the rebound and potted it for San Jose's first goal since 2005.
• Just after the hour mark the Earthquakes sealed their first victory. Ned Grabavoy went on a surging run down the right before slipping an inside through ball for Kei Kamara. He cut inside of a Rapids defender before lashing a low shot that bounced off the inside of the left-hand post and into the goal.
• Here's Clavijo's team (4-4-1-1): Bouna Coundoul - Kosuke Kimura (Rafael Gomes 46), Facundo Erpen, Stephen Keel, Jose Burciaga Jr. - Terry Cooke, John DiRaimondo (Herculez Gomez 46), Nick LaBrocca, Colin Clark - Christian Gomez - Omar Cummings (Tom McManus 69). Substitutes Not Used: Kelly Gray, Jordan Harvey, Jacob Peterson, Chris Sharpe
• Here's Yallop's team (4-4-2): Joe Cannon - Jason Hernandez, Ryan Cochrane, Nick Garcia, James Riley - Ronnie O'Brien (Shea Salinas 62), Ned Grabavoy, Ramiro Corrales (Ryan Johnson 84), Ivan Guerrero - Gavin Glinton (Joe Vide 56), Kei Kamara. Substitutes Not Used: Preston Burpo, John Cunliffe, Eric Denton, Adam Smarte
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
A dramatic goal from Ante Razov gave Chivas USA a 1-0 victory against San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday evening at The Home Depot Center. The Quakes have 12 points from 15 matches on the season, sitting in seventh place in the Western Conference, six points behind sixth-place FC Dallas yet just nine points out of first place.
LAST MATCH
• Chivas USA were home for the fourth consecutive match, having following two losses with a win and a draw, while the Earthquakes were rounding out a four-game road swing, coming into the contest with a four-game winless streak.
• The Earthquakes narrowly missed a chance to take the lead in the 37th minute when a long-range blast from Ramiro Corrales beat Brad Guzan in the Chivas goal, but crashed off the base of the goalpost. Chivas also found the woodwork twice themselves, from a Bobby Burling header in the 41st minute, then a Razov effort midway through the second half.
• Then in the 88th minute, Chivas won a free kick straight out from goal. Razov whipped his effort over the San Jose wall and inside the right-hand post past Joe Cannon's despairing dive, for the game-winner.
• Earthquakes head coach Frank Yallop made one change to the team that played to a scoreless draw with the Chicago Fire the previous weekend. James Riley returned from suspension and came in at right back, as Kelly Gray moved into the midfield and Ned Grabavoy went to the substitutes' bench.
• Here's Yallop's team: (4-4-2): Joe Cannon - James Riley (Shea Salinas 89), Nick Garcia, Jason Hernandez, Eric Denton - Ronnie O'Brien, Ramiro Corrales (Ned Grabavoy 87), Kelly Gray, Ivan Guerrero (John Cunliffe 58) - Ryan Johnson, Kei Kamara. Substitutes Not Used: Jay Ayres, Dan Benton, Matt Hatzke, Adam Smarte
• "We allowed them to play too much, I think - we gave them too much respect in the first half. You can't let any team dictate the game like that," said Yallop. "That second half we thought we stepped in a little bit, created some good chances, but didn't take them."
TEAM NEWS
• It was the second 1-0 loss of the year for the Earthquakes, but it might have been the most frustrating yet, as they were shut out for the ninth time in 15 league games.
• "I guess it's been the story of our year: we have a pretty good chance when John [Cunliffe] just misses the target, and then a terrific free kick, to be honest," Yallop said. "But Joe was big tonight, Joe Cannon was excellent, and it took a good goal to beat him, and it was. Just the timing of it, right at the end of the game, was tough for us to get back in the match."
• Four different players lead the Quakes with just two goals on the season - true strikers Kei Kamara and John Cunliffe, converted striker Ryan Johnson and midfielder Ramiro Corrales.
• "We've had a few injuries at wrong times, especially up front, and I think that's the thing that's obviously been hurting us -- we can't score in the right times," Yallop said. "It's not just the guys that play up front, but it's important for them to be slipped in, in better positions, but just in general I think we need some help up there."
• The bright spot for San Jose this season might still lie ahead, as the Earthquakes kick off a run of seven home games in a nine-match stretch over two months, beginning with Saturday's game against the Colorado Rapids at Buck Shaw Stadium.
• "I think we should have had more points than what we've got, to be honest. Some of the games we've had, we should have gotten more points out of, but we're the bottom of the league, so the table doesn't lie," Yallop said. "We're doing something wrong by losing games, but I think you saw tonight that our spirit is very good. We don't lay over and die against anybody and that's a great building block for any team."
• The Quakes have 10 goals on the season, which would rank them tied for second in the MLS Golden Boot, behind LA's Landon Donovan (11 goals), level with Luciano Emilio (D.C. United) and Edson Buddle (LA). "We have individual players in this league who are outscoring us as a team," Cannon said.
• In addition, San Jose has scored just one goal total in its last five games. "Guys in the back are thinking they can't make a mistake," said Cannon. "The thought in our heads is that if we give up a goal, that's the game. I can't go up front and score goals. We're not creating enough. We're not scoring enough."
COLORADO RAPIDS
he Colorado Rapids snapped their winless run in impressive fashion, scoring four well-crafted goals in rolling to a 4-0 victory against the New York Red Bulls in yet another Fourth of July success at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. The Rapids have 19 points from 15 games, sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference, just two points behind the first-place tie between Chivas USA and the Los Angeles Galaxy entering the week.
LAST MATCH
• The Rapids were returning home riding a four-game winless streak after losing for the fifth consecutive match away from Commerce City, while the Red Bulls hadn't lost in three league games, with two road draws wrapped around a home win.
• In front of a record crowd on hand for the annual Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza, the Rapids scored two goals in each half. In the 24th minute, Facundo Erpen set Colin Clark free down the left, and his clipped cross into the goal area was turned home by Tom McManus. Then 12 minutes later, a sweeping move from left to right saw Terry Cooke drive a low cross into the box that Mehdi Ballouchy stabbed home first-time.
• The Rapids made it 3-0 four minutes after the break. Clark took a long ball on the left flank, and after winning possession, rounded Dane Richards to race into the box nearly unmolested before hammering a rasping drive from an angle that sailed high inside the far post.
• In the 68th minute, Colorado rounded off the victory, as Omar Cummings took a through ball, skipped between a pair of defenders at the top of the area and slotted home past Red Bulls 'keeper Jon Conway. With the win, the Rapids improved their record on July 4 to 11-1-1.
• Rapids head coach Fernando Clavijo made two changes to the team that lost 2-1 at the Columbus Crew the previous weekend. Mehdi Ballouchy made his first start of the year and Christian Gomez came back into the team from injury as Jordan Harvey and John DiRaimondo went to the substitutes' bench.
• Here's Clavijo's team (3-4-1-2): Bouna Coundoul - Ugo Ihemelu, Pablo Mastroeni, Facundo Erpen - Terry Cooke, Mehdi Ballouchy, Nick LaBrocca, Colin Clark - Christian Gomez (John DiRaimondo 52) - Conor Casey (Omar Cummings 46), Tom McManus (Herculez Gomez 72). Substitutes Not Used: Preston Burpo, Jordan Harvey, Kosuke Kimura, Jacob Peterson
• "Tonight reminds me of the first game of the year," Clavijo said. "I thought we'd played well throughout the last four or five games. We just couldn't score. The players are playing hard. Every game except maybe San Jose at home we had a chance to win, on the road or at home. Today we proved it. ... It was understood that playing good and playing hard was not good enough any more. We have to get results."
TEAM NEWS
• The game was very similar to the 4-0 victory against the LA Galaxy in the opener, when Terry Cooke (10), Christian Gomez (60), Omar Cummings (67) and Colin Clark (80) all scored.
• "Sadly we're capable of [playing like this every night]," said Clark, who had an assist on the first goal and scored the third. "Sometimes we don't show it. It was great tonight. The atmosphere was great. The Fourth of July Festival and everything was phenomenal. The fans were great and we did what we're capable of doing. If we consistently play better, we're not going to score four goals every game, but I have a feeling we're going to come away with much better results than we've been coming away with."
• After missing the Columbus match with an injury, Christian Gomez returned to the lineup, and Mehdi Ballouchy made his first start of 2008; all five of his appearances, all as a substitute, had come in the last eight matches of the season.
• "Today we made a couple of changes, with three in the back and bringing Mehdi (Ballouchy) into the midfield. This allowed Christian to be freer. We had a good attitude from the beginning, and we have to keep doing this. I've said it all along, we have a very good team, but you cannot win without scoring goals," Clavijo said.
• The win was a total team effort, with four different players - Tom McManus, Mehdi Ballouchy, Colin Clark and Omar Cummings - each scoring goals and six different players each earning an assist.
• "Everybody wanted to win," said goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul, who recorded his fifth shutout of the season. "If we play like this every single game, home or on the road, it'll be tough for us not to get a 'W.' Today it was a whole team effort from the goalie, the forwards, the guys on the bench, the fans, everybody pitched in. It was like a whole Colorado Rapids unity team win."
• Clavijo returned to a three-man back line and the result was a second consecutive shutout with the scheme; in between came the 2-1 loss to Columbus when the Rapids went with a back four.
• "We felt some pressure today, we hadn't had a win in a while, so we wanted to come out strong and be aggressive. We wanted to make sure we pressured them quickly when they had the ball, and I think we did a great job of that today," Mastroeni said. "We have the players on this team, one through 28 that can step in and make a difference; we just have to believe we can do it and do it more often."
• On Wednesday, the Rapids battled Tigres UANL to a scoreless draw through 90 minutes, then won 7-6 in a nine-round penalty shootout at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Colin Clark scored the game-winner.
• Here's Clavijo's team: Preston Burpo, Kosuke Kimura (Ugo Ihemelu 86), Stephen Keel (Mike Petke 45), Jordan Harvey (Facundo Erpen 77), Jose Luis Burciaga Jr., Jacob Peterson (Terry Cooke 74), Greg Dalby (John DiRaimondo 80), Ciaran O'Brien (Mehdi Ballouchy 63), Nico Colaluca (Colin Clark 67), Herculez Gomez (Conor Casey 81), Omar Cummings (Tom McManus 74)
• "We may not have looked as dangerous as we wanted, but we didn't allow Tigres to be dangerous," Clavijo said. "We played well. It was even the game for 90 minutes. It was a very clean game. We got exactly what we wanted from these kinds of games. I hope it was good for Tigres."
