Avaya Stadium is not Oracle Arena - and Quincy Amarikwa is not Steph Curry.
But on Sunday afternoon, as the ball gracefully dropped out of the sky and into the Portland net from no less than 35 yards out, you could have been forgiven for thinking that the Golden State golden boy had headed down I-880, donned a black and blue jersey and decided to give soccer a try.
This, however, was Quincy’s time – and what timing. His wonderstrike, undeniably the finest in Avaya’s short history, came after Chris Wondolowski had ghosted in front of his marker to meet an Anibal Godoy cross and give the Earthquakes the lead. It put clear space between the home side and the 2015 champs and it also came seconds before the referee put his whistle to his lips for half-time.
There was to be no response from the visitors until injury time loomed. And even after Jack McInerney finally breached the Clarence Goodson/Victor Bernardez wall to give the green shirted guests shoots of recovery, there was no late onslaught. The Timbers had been felled.
Within hours of the final whistle, Amarikwa’s strike was viral. ESPN’s SportsCenter ranked it number one on its famed Top 10. The match was broadcast in 122 countries, the admiration global.
The man himself modestly took it in his stride.
“Most goalkeepers play off their line, so I thought if I can turn quickly I have an opportunity,” he said.
“When I took my first touch long, the keeper was off of his line unsure if he should come or not. Then on my second touch, I looked up and figured if I put it over his right should he would have difficulty getting to it. Once I made contact with it, I knew I hit how I wanted to. Luckily, it fell in the back of the net.”
It sounded simple, and not everyone agreed it was intentional.
“A flukey goal ,” was how Portland coach Caleb Porter described it. With no teammates to pass to, a closing defense and a keeper off his line, few would agree with Porter’s assessment of what was on Amarikwa’s mind as he burst clear.
Dominic Kinnear rarely allows himself to get carried away but even he was taken aback.
“It was something special,” the Quakes coach mused.
Amarikwa rightly took the plaudits but it would be remiss not to praise the efforts of the Goodson/Bernardez axis. In years gone by, the San Jose faithful embraced the Bash Brothers of Alan Gordon and Steven Lenhart for their no-nonsense ability to hammer defenses into submission. At the other end of the field the wily veterans, both 33, are surely the Block Brothers, ably assisted by right back Marvell Wynne and the surprising emergence of Kip Colvey.
The young Kiwi, making his full debut after being picked up in the third round of the SuperDraft, once again displayed a wise head beyond his 21 years and played a key role in the opener, his precise pass teeing up Godoy for the Panamanian’s first Earthquakes assist.
On the subject of the Quakes young guns, the return of last year’s rookie of the year runner-up Fatai Alashe, slotting into midfield alongside Godoy and allowing the unshackled Simon Dawkins to maraud down the left side, was also key.
Portland huffed and puffed and things may well have been different bar for a couple of woodwork interventions, but as Kinnear remarked after a less sightly victory over Colorado Rapids last weekend, the final score is the only stat that matters – and San Jose now sits proudly atop the Western Conference after winning its first two games for the first time in the club’s MLS history.
It is not a Warriors-like record yet – but it is a good start.
