SAN JOSE, Calif -- The San Jose Earthquakes were left frustrated, and still shy of a playoff spot, after failing to hold a lead at home against the Philadelphia Union Saturday night. While the score sheet shows that a pair of Conor Casey goals turned a 1-0 advantage into a 2-1 loss, the Earthquakes blame only themselves for coming up short.
“Our giveaways cost us tonight,” said Quakes head coach Dominic Kinnear. “You keep applying pressure on yourself by not taking care of the ball. And it wasn’t just one person, it was collective miscues on our part. We were trying to force things; we were trying to do too much at times, which leads to turnovers. Sometimes you get away with it. Tonight we didn’t.”
While the Quakes were able to take the lion's share of possession, the Union fared significantly better connecting in the final third. On 132 attempts, San Jose only completed 56 percent of their final third passes.
“The result’s the most important thing. Even if you’re not playing well, are you still in the game? Do you still have a chance to win?” Kinnear said. “At 1-0, we’re in the driver’s seat. But our turnovers... we had three or four in a row in really bad areas. If you continue to do that you’re gifting a team a little bit of momentum. Sometimes you get away with it but tonight Conor Casey comes on and makes the difference for them. Shame on us for not protecting the lead better with our play.”
Quakes goalkeeper David Bingham agreed. “It’s extremely frustrating. We let ourselves down tonight," he said. "We pride ourselves on set pieces, on both sides of the ball, and momentary lapses cost us. At the end of the day, we gave up two set piece goals, and beyond that, we were pretty poor.”
The two set piece goals were part of three shots on target for the Union, who chose their spots well. San Jose, despite taking 12 shots, only had two trouble the keeper.
“We gave the ball away in some bad areas all night,” Clarence Goodson said. “Look at the last four games [all shutout wins], and the way that we played, the intensity, and tonight it wasn’t there from us. It was a really bad game from us. When you go up a goal, you have to lock it up. That’s the most disappointing thing."
The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for San Jose, and leaves them two points shy of the last playoff slot in the Western Division, with six games left to play. Next up for the Earthquakes is a home match Saturday against Seattle, one of the teams they’re chasing for a post-season opportunity.
“We’ve beat them twice already this year, but it’s not going to be easy," said Goodson. "We’ve gotten ourselves in trouble this year. We’ve beaten some quality opponents and beaten a lot of good teams away, and then we lose to teams like this at home.”
Bingham summed it up concisely. “We need to get back to what we’ve been doing," he said, "and beat Seattle on the weekend.”
