San Jose Earthquakes Tie RSL 1-1

That’s the game all over; sometimes you get a break in front of goal and sometimes, 52 minutes later, the soccer gods conspire to have your most experienced defender chip his keeper to tie the game.

The bottom line, San Jose’s disappointments aside at losing the lead, is that a point on the road in the first of three away games in eight days isn’t too shabby.

The first shot on goal of the game came in the 11th minute from Quakes midfielder Sanna Nyassi.  Nyassi brought the ball from near midfield to the edge of the 18-yard box and hit a powerful right-footed that skimmed just over of the bar.

San Jose hit the back of the net in the 19th minute with a predatory strike from Chris Wondolowski. Midfielder Shea Salinas dribbled the ball just outside of the penalty area, created space for himself and fired a couple of shots on goal that were blocked. The second shot skipped between two RSL players and after Kyle Beckerman seemed to attempt to play the ball back to his keeper, Wondo pounced. Beckerman’s loose ball deflected to Wondolowski, who smacked the ball home for his fourth goal of the season. The officials deemed Beckerman’s involvement had played Wondolowski onside, the flag stayed down, and the goal stood.

The two teams entered the locker rooms at halftime with the score 1-0.

RSL drew level in the 71st minute after glancing RSL header fell to Quakes defender Victor Bernardez. With keeper David Bingham running off his line toward the ball, a breakdown of communication in the defense saw Bernardez, seemingly trying to clear the ball, chip it over his keeper’s head and into the net to tie the game 1-1

The referee issued just 3 yellow cards but the game accumulated a massive 37 fouls (split 20 RSL/17 Quakes) a foul rate of approximately one foul every 2.43 minutes. The two sides were unable to break the deadlock before the final whistle sounded and the match finished in a 1-1 stalemate.

San Jose Earthquakes 1-1 Real Salt Lake

May 1, 2015 - Rio Tinto Stadium

Attendance: 19,715

Scoring Summary: SJ - Chris Wondolowski (unassisted) 19; RSL - Victor Bernardez (own goal) 71.

Misconduct Summary: RSL - Kyle Beckerman (caution) 2; SJ - Innocent (caution) 21; RSL - Jordan Allen (caution) 48.

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: David Bingham, Marvell Wynne, Victor Bernardez, Clarence Goodson, Cordell Cato, Sanna Nyassi (Tommy Thompson 75), Matias Perez Garcia (JJ Koval 85), Chris Wondolowski, Shea Salinas, Innocent (Adam Jahn 57).

SHOTS: 8; SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; SAVES: 0; FOULS: 17; CORNER KICKS: 4;OFFSIDES: 2.

REAL SALT LAKE: Nick Rimando, Tony Beltran, Jamison Olave, Elias Vasquez, Abdoulie Mansally, Kyle Beckerman, Luke Mulholland (Sebastian Saucedo 82), Javier Morales (Jordan Allen 41), Luis Gil, Olmes Garcia (Devon Sandoval 63), Alvaro Saborio.

SHOTS: 7; SHOTS ON GOAL: 0; SAVES: 1; FOULS: 20; CORNER KICKS: 5;OFFSIDES: 1.

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR

On the match:
"I feel pretty good. It's a difficult place to play - they're a good team. We are both fighting for every point we can get right now. Any time that you come to Salt Lake and you get a point, it's a positive. I thought at 1-0, we had a couple of chances to go a little bit farther ahead, but that wasn't the case. All of a sudden, a mix up in the back, we share the points."

On if it's disappointing to lead late and not come away with a win:

"We were defending a lot. We were a little bit leggy there at the end. I thought that we won the balls in good areas, and with a little bit more sharpness, maybe we're looking at 2-0 instead of 1-1. [Nick] Rimando makes a good save. Other times, we went a different way than possibly the one that gets us to the goal."

On the chippiness in the first half:

"I think the goal, and the manner in which it was scored, raised the intensity and the temperature a little bit. These are grown men out there - you have to remember that - and they're proud, and sometimes the game does get physical."

On what he saw on the own goal:

"It is something that is definitely correctable. If the play were to be done again, maybe two minutes later, it would be a different outcome, but that's just the way the ball bounced - it bounced wrong for us in that situation."

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI

On the match:

"It's always tough to lose a lead and drop points. If you had told us that we were going to get a point, [we would have been] not ecstatic, but we'll take it and learn from it and grow from it. I thought that we could have come away with three points if we did a little better."

On the chippiness of the game:

"I really didn't think it was too bad. There were a lot of fouls called. I think that the teams just played hard and were playing well. Both sides were just going for it. There was no malice intent. There was nothing really."

On if the chippiness makes it tough to get into a flow:

"Yes, it's very tough. It's horrible as a player, and both sides - Kyle [Beckerman] as their captain - we were talking to him: let's keep playing, we want to get into a flow, we want to get in there. He kept wanting to talk to everyone; he kept wanting to slow down the game. Both teams wanted to play. We want to get out there, we want to try knocking it around, try get in a flow. It was very tough to establish that."

On having scored more goals against RSL than any other club:

"I didn't know that, but Salt Lake has a great defense. It's just one of those things where it happened to go in. Thinking back now, there were a couple of times when they were a man down, and we took advantage of that. It's just one of those things."

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES MIDFIELDER CORDELL CATO

On the match:

"It was a great performance by the team. We came out ready. We've got three games on the road, this is the first one, and we needed to come out with the right attitude. I think we did that. We moved a lot, and we played for each other, and we created a lot of chances."

On if it was disappointing to surrender a late lead:

"This is football - that's how it goes. You're always in danger when you score early and it's only 1-0 going into the game. The other team is giving everything trying to get a goal back. Unfortunately, with a bit of luck, they did it today. I can't be too mad about it, because we've got a game on Tuesday, so we've just to refocus as team and be prepared for that."