SAN JOSE, Calif. -- It didn’t take long Friday night for Quincy Amarikwa to make his San Jose return pay off for the Earthquakes.
It took even less time for Amarikwa’s first career MLS brace to become a footnote as the LA Galaxy roared back from two goals down to record a 5-2 victory in Steven Gerrard’s MLS debut.
In just his second match after rejoining his initial MLS side, Amarikwa scored in the 22nd and 25th minutes as the Quakes opened a 2-0 lead.
Those were Amarikwa’s first league goals since Sept. 20, 2014, when he bagged the last of a career-high eight for Chicago in his breakout season. But the Fire brought in several other forwards to compete for playing time, and Amarikwa failed to rediscover that same touch early in 2015, going scoreless in 735 minutes before getting swapped June 26 for center back Ty Harden.
The achievement didn’t elicit much in the way of showy celebrations from Amarikwa, who went that route deliberately.
“Scoring goals, 1) it’s my job and 2) I want more of them,” Amarikwa told reporters after the game. “I want it to be business as usual. I’m always for a good celebration, but I knew one goal, two goals might not be enough against the Galaxy. So I wanted to stay focused on the task at hand. I was hoping it would get us, as a team, to really know that there’s another 70 minutes left in this game that we need to stay focused to come with some points. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that.”
It might have easily been a hat trick for Amarikwa, who burst in behind the LA defense in the 12th minute and gracefully settled a long ball that had been flighted over the top. After taking one dribble, however, Amarikwa unleashed a shot with no real power behind it, and Galaxy goalkeeper Brian Rowe scooped it up with relative ease.
Rowe faced a much tougher challenge 10 minutes later, when the Quakes -- who conceded more than 65 percent of possession on the night -- created a classic counterattacking chance. Quakes captain Victor Bernardez created a turnover at the edge of San Jose’s defensive third and fed Marvell Wynne, who fired a long pass down the sideline for Sanna Nyassi to chase. Nyassi caught up and delivered a first-touch cross that skittered across the ground and into the path of Amarikwa, once again unchecked by a porous LA back four.
Amarikwa used his right foot to bury a first-touch strike, leaving Rowe little opportunity to alter its path. That broke a season-worst 220-minute scoreless string for San Jose, who were once again without regular captain and leading scorer Chris Wondolowski. It was also the first goal scored by an MLS opponent at the StubHub Center in 233 minutes.
Three minutes later, Amarikwa doubled his haul for the first time in 129 career MLS games. Nyassi drew a free kick on Leonardo, and after Matias Perez Garcia’s delivery bounced to the ground, Amarikwa was the first to reach the ball, lashing it with his left foot from 10 yards.
That was the high point for the Quakes’ evening, however. San Jose didn’t get another shot on goal for the last 65 minutes, lowering the Quakes’ SOG-per-match average to just 3.47 a game (19th of 20 MLS clubs). A 30th-minute penalty kick awarded against Tommy Thompson -- who was called for brandishing a high elbow at Gerrard in the area -- led to the first of Robbie Keane’s three goals for the hosts, who were off and running after that, never to look back.
“We let the ref’s decisions on certain plays get the best of us, and rather than buckle down and just accept that it wasn’t going our way, I think we kind of let that play into us a little bit,” Amarikwa said. “Unfortunately, we allowed LA to get back into the game. . . . I think we did well the first 35 minutes of the game. And that call, for the penalty, kind of changed our mentality for the rest of the game, unfortunately. Hopefully we learn from it.”
