Saturday July 5th, 2008
MLS - Match 15

Home Depot Center, Carson, CA

Attendance: 13,561

 

Kelly Gray has been an important element of stability for the Earthquakes since he arrived at the club. With a yellow card and 2 big fouls after 13 minutes, he certainly knew that he was on the edge and it is probably one of the causes of the difficulties San Jose faced in the first half (Listen to Gray's and Yallop's reaction to the early yellow card below).

With Gray handicapped by his disciplinary status, the Quakes abandoned possession to Chivas. Nick Garcia and Jason Hernandez, with the help of Ramiro Corrales and Ronnie O'Brien (who, once again, seemed to be everywhere tonight), managed to stop most of Chivas' attacks before they became critical, but the feeling that the local team could be dangerous at any moment was in the air.

However, San Jose, almost scored when Ramiro Corrales, seeing that Brad Guzan (Chivas' goalkeeper) was out of position, took a splendid shot from over 30 yards which crashed on the post. Kamara, on the rebound, missed the target.

This was the only real opportunity San Jose produced in the first 45 minutes and Chivas seemed to control the game, just waiting for the right opportunity to cash out their domination.

Like last week at Chicago, the Earthquakes looked much better after the break. Gray didn't seem to be disturbed by his yellow card anymore, Ronnie O'Brien was still working hard to touch the ball as often as possible and move it forward, Ivan Guerrero was trying to imitate him, Garcia and Hernandez looked very concentrated and the 2 forwards (Ryan Johnson and Kei Kamara) were doing their job as target players.

The team was still missing a real striker but they were trying to move forward and had many opportunities, most of them coming from long-distance shots, by Corrales and Gray.

The second half was actually a mirror of the first half, with the Earthquakes dominating and Chivas finding the post by Paulo Nagamura after a great combination between Chivas' forwards (53').

Both teams had another big opportunity in the second half. San Jose first, after Eric Denton perfectly crossed the ball to Gray at the 6-yard line. His deflection looked perfect and was flying toward the net but Guzan's dive saved his team (70').

10 minutes later, Jesse Marsch intercepted a pass in the center of the field and nicely sent the ball in Sacha Kljestan's run while the Earthquakes' defenders, surprised by the interception, where still running the other way. Kjlestan received the ball at the top of the box, totally free to control it and beat Joe Cannon. But the San Jose fans' favorite perfectly closed the door and deflected the low shot with his right foot into corner.

One half each, one post each and one other great opportunity each...the match was approaching its final minutes with a fair score.

But both teams needed the three points and tried to earn them until the end. Chivas did, thanks to a fantastic direct free kick from about 30 yards by Ante Razov, after a foul committed by Ronnie O'Brien. On this sequence, the Earthquakes lost the game and Ramiro Corrales who hurt himself right before O'Brien committed the foul and collected a yellow card (87')!

Things can go fast in soccer and even though they showed some good things in the second half, the Earthquakes couldn't score and lost the game. With only 12 points in 5 games, They are now 6 points behind Dallas and 7 points behind Chivas. To improve the situation, they will need to score goals.

After the game, Frank Yallop repeated that he will hire 2 or 3 new players before the end of the transfer window (July 15), and, for the first time, confirmed that, even though he usually doesn't name anyone before it is official, he would really like to sign Francisco Lima, who has been on trial for the last 2 weeks (listen to Frank Yallop about Lima - Below).

Thierry Heumann (email)

Kelly Gray's reaction:
Frank Yallop about the game:
Yallop about Gray's early Yellow Card:
Yallop about the team's poor 1st half:
Yallop about signing Lima:
Ronnie O'Brien about his good shape:

 

Attendance: 13,561

Yellow Cards:

CHV: Atiba Harris (Tackle from Behind, 50')

SJ: Kelly Gray (Reckless Foul, 10'), Ronnie O'Brien (Tackle from Behind, 86')

Brad Guzan
Carey Talley	Claudio Suarez (C.)	Bobby Burling	Johnathan Bornstein
	Paulo Nagamura
Sacha Kljestan			Francisco Mendoza (Justin Braun, 66')
	Jesse Marsch
Atiba Harris		Ante Razov

Asst: Chris Strickland	Ref. Terry Vaughn	Asst: Paul Scott
4th: Yader Reyes

Ryan Johnson		Kei Kamara
Ivan Guerrero (John Cunliffe, 58')	Ramiro Corrales (Ned Grabavoy, 87')	Kelly Gray	Ronnie O'Brien
Eric Denton	Nick Garcia (C.)	Jason Hernandez	James Riley (Shea Salinas, 89')
Joe Cannon

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