SAN JOSE, Calif. – In his first start with the San Jose Earthquakes, Mark Sherrod was unquestionably the center of attention at Avaya Stadium69784839" style="z-index: 0" tabindex="0">on Sunday, just not for all the reasons that the second-year forward might have wanted.
Playing at the top of the Quakes’ 4-1-4-1 formation, Sherrod nearly opened his Quakes account 30 minutes into a scoreless tie with FC Dallas. Then, early in the second half, Sherrod clipped Dallas’ Dan Kennedy while trying to hurdle the downed goalkeeper and saw a straight red from referee Baldomero Toledo.
That was the first of three reds on the day; Dallas’ Je-Vaughn Watson and San Jose’s JJ Koval also were sent off in the second half. The ejections overshadowed what had been a celebratory day for Sherrod, who replaced Adam Jahn as coach Dominic Kinnear’s target forward of choice in just his second game back from a torn ACL that cut short his rookie MLS season last May.
“It’s tough up there sometimes on your own, but he worked hard, came close on that one cross in the first half and held the ball up well for us at times,” Kinnear said. “It’s unfortunate, the way the day ended for him.”
Sherrod’s near goal came at the start of a 15-minute stretch where the Quakes had four dangerous opportunities to go up a goal on Dallas, but couldn’t break through. Cordell Cato loosed a right-wing cross just between the visitors’ back four and Kennedy, who remained pinned to his line. The ball, however, skittered tantalizingly out of reach of the lunging Clarence Goodson and Sherrod.
“Me and Clay both used every muscle in our bodies to try to get something on it,” Sherrod said. “We would have used our tongues, if we could of.”
Instead, it became another in a too-long list of near-misses for the Quakes, joining Victor Bernardez’s bounced header over the crossbar in the 44th minute, Matt Hedges’ last-second interception of Shea Salinas’ free kick delivery with Chris Wondolowski lurking in the 74th and Wondolowski’s just wide looping header 10 minutes after that.
Nevertheless, San Jose felt like they put together more opportunities than the raw stats, which showed Wondolowski’s 33rd-minute shot – blocked by a sliding Kennedy – as the only shot on goal out of 10.
“You’ve got to get the opportunities first,” Wondolowski said. “Yeah, we need to do a better job of getting them on frame and in the goal, but you’ve got to create the opportunity, otherwise you won’t get that shot.”
Said Sherrod: “They’re coming. They’re for sure coming. We had more chances than shots on goal today.”
The question is whether it will be Sherrod taking those shots in the Quakes’ next MLS match on69784840" style="z-index:0" tabindex="0">June 20in Seattle. Kinnear flatly called the play “not a red card” and described it as “incidental and accidental.” General manager John Doyle told MLSsoccer.com that the club would “most likely” appeal the ejection.
Toledo, answering questions from a pool reporter, said that Sherrod’s card was given due to “violent conduct.” Asked if intent was deemed on Sherrod’s part, Toledo simply answered, “Yes.”
“The ball came in on a cross and he was on the ground and I was just trying to get out of the way and his head came up to my cleat,” Sherrod said. “I definitely nicked him, but it was 100 percent incidental. There was not a lot I could do with that. . . . I tried to get [Toledo] to look at the replay, to reconsider, but once you give a red card, there’s really nothing else you can do.”
