The San Jose Earthquakes might have gone down by multiple goals for the first time all season on Saturday, but new coach Dominic Kinnear wouldn’t let them be knocked out by the New England Revolution.
Even though Kinnear’s halftime roll of the dice -- bringing on Adam Jahn and Shea Salinas for JJ Koval and Sanna Nyassi -- failed to stave off a 2-1 defeat, it gave the Quakes a renewed sense of purpose after falling behind by a pair of Kelyn Rowe goals inside 37 minutes.
“We were down 2-0,” Jahn said. “There was really nothing to lose. Just make a statement, get back in the game.”
San Jose certainly did that. The Quakes got a goal back in the 62nd minute through Chris Wondolowski’s penalty kick -- earned by Clarence Goodson -- and almost found an equalizer at the death. Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi’s redirection of Wondolowski’s header from a corner kick sailed high in the 93rd.
“Give them credit: they came out ready, we came out a little bit sleepy, and that’s why we were down 2-0 at halftime,” Kinnear said. “We fought hard to get back into the game. . . . [In the] second half, you have to play better, because if you don’t, you’re in big trouble. And I thought the guys showed a good response. At the very end there, it would have been nice to be 2-2, but we didn’t score that last chance.”
Kinnear made his gamble after watching New England scramble San Jose’s attempts to play out of the back for much of the early going. The Quakes did well enough possessing the ball in their end, but before San Jose could get it into the attacking third, New England simply created turnovers time and again, short-circuiting the visitors’ offense and giving themselves another chance to swoop in on David Bingham’s net.
The Revs’ first goal was generated in just such a fashion, with Daigo Kobayashi nicking a pass from Shaun Francis, then feeding Lee Nguyen wide right. Nguyen pulled a pass back for Rowe, whose shot from just inside the area deflected off Francis and past Bingham.
“We weren’t playing through their pressure,” Kinnear said. “And the pressure wasn’t fantastic; we were just making bad decisions and giving the ball away in bad spots. The first goal was a testament to that. We just couldn’t get going. They came out with good energy, and we were just a little bit passive in our movement off the ball and therefore, we weren’t giving ourselves a ton of help.”
Putting Jahn, a classic target forward, atop the Quakes’ attack meant that Wondolowski could slide further down the pitch and provided further relief valves for San Jose to play through.
“[I] dropped into midfield, went side-by-side with Matias [Perez Garcia],” Wondolowski said. “I’ve got to cover a little bit more ground, but I was able to make some runs out of midfield. I think that it kind of helped us settle things down and connect some passes. I thought Adam did a great job of battling and posting up and being a target forward. That helped us keep the ball a bit.”
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After collecting just one shot on goal and one corner kick in the opening 45 minutes, San Jose had four and six of each stat in the second half.
“Once you get one, you get the momentum going and look for the second one,” Jahn said. “I think we put them on their heels, at home, in the second half. We were unlucky not to get a tie.”
