Quakes bust out against Real Salt Lake

San Jose's Alvarez blasts home winner at Buck Shaw Stadium

Arturo Alvarez (center) celebrates his third goal of the season with his teammates. (J. Todd/Getty)

Cornell Glen opened the scoring in the 52nd minute, tallying on his home debut. But it was left to Alvarez to bring the house down 11 minutes later, with his blast from more than 25 yards cleanly beating Nick Rimando in the RSL goal.

The goal proved critical as RSL's Robbie Findley tallied in the 80th minute to bring the visitors within one, but a fabulous save in stoppage time from Quakes' keeper Joe Cannon preserved the victory. It also kept Real winless on the road in 2009.

With the Quakes playing their third game in eight days, San Jose manager Frank Yallop made four changes to his starting lineup, handing Glen and defender Mike Zaher their first starts as Earthquakes players, while defender Chris Leitch returned from suspension. Alvarez also resumed his spot on the right side of midfield.

For RSL, Tony Beltran didn't recover sufficiently from a right quadriceps strain, creating a spot for Chris Wingert to return to the lineup. And in a bid to create more offense, head coach Jason Kreis shook up his forward line, giving both Luis Miguel Escalada and Fabian Espindola their first starts of the season.

The early minutes were played out largely in midfield, but some quick thinking by Real's Kyle Beckerman in the sixth minute nearly saw RSL break on top. His crunching tackle on Ramiro Corrales near the top of the San Jose box saw the ball run to ex-Quakes midfielder Ned Grabavoy. His quick pass to Escalada gave the Argentinean a clear look at goal, but Cannon denied him with a sharp save.

Real continued to carry most of the early play, and the visitors' thought they had won a penalty in the 15th minute when Grabavoy's header appeared to hit San Jose defender Jason Hernandez in the arm, but referee Kevin Stott waved away their appeals.

The Quakes soon began to make more inroads into RSL territory, and Glen nearly put the home side on top in the 22nd minute, but his curling effort drifted just wide.

San Jose then forced a series of corners and should have gone ahead with at least one of them. In the 26th minute, Ramiro Corrales' header from an Elliott delivery was saved by Rimando at point blank range, with Robbie Russell clearing the rebound. Another Elliott service four minutes later found Ryan Johnson wide open at the back post, but his close-range header missed the target.

The match settled down over the next 10 minutes, but San Jose then finished the half with a flurry. Glen's header from a Chris Leitch cross forced another diving save from Rimando in the 42nd minute, and an overlapping run from Zaher a minute later saw his hard cross nearly result in an own goal.

The second half opened with some tepid play from both sides, but the match crackled to life in the 52nd minute. Zaher's cross from the left wing found Glen completely unmarked in the box, and he made no mistake, depositing his header past Rimando to give the home side the lead.

Almost immediately, Kreis brought on Findley and Yura Movsisyan for Escalada and Espindola, but sensing a chance to put the game away, the Quakes ratcheted up the pressure, even as Yallop surprisingly brought off Glen for Quincy Amarikwa.

Both Johnson and Bobby Convey came close to scoring, but it was finally left to Alvarez to extend the lead in the 63rd minute. The Quakes winger shook look loose on the right side, and in a move that is now his trademark, cut inside and unleashed a pile driver from 30 yards that settled into the upper left hand corner of the net.

Kreis then brought on Clint Mathis for Grabavoy, and while a change in RSL's fortunes wasn't immediate, they began to make some headway, eventually pulling a goal back in the 80th minute. Javier Morales slipped a through ball to Findley from the left wing, and the RSL striker evade three San Jose defenders before slipping the ball past Cannon for his sixth goal of the season.

Yallop brought on Aaron Pitchkolan for Jason Hernandez to shore up the Quakes defense, but San Jose had Cannon to thank for preserving the victory. Movsisyan's blast one minute into stoppage time looked set for the upper corner, but Cannon made a superb one-handed save preserve the lead, and help the Quakes hang on for a morale-boosting victory.

Jeff Carlisle is a contributor to MLSnet.com.

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