SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Earthquakes fell 2-1 to Sporting Kansas City Saturday night at Avaya Stadium in front of a sold-out crowd. After conceding early in the match, the Earthquakes equalized with Simon Dawkins’ goal before Kansas City scored the winner in the 81st minute.
The Earthquakes had a chance on goal in the first play of the match in which defender Jordan Stewart sent a cross to forward Quincy Amarikwa. Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia punched the dangerous ball to the top of the box and Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski followed up with shot at goal. Melia made the save to keep the score level.
The Quakes took an early blow as Amarikwa suffered a right knee injury during that play when he collided with Melia. Henok Goitom replaced Amarikwa to make his fourth appearance with the Quakes since joining the club.
In the seventh minute, the visiting side capitalized to get the early lead. After receiving a short free kick from Benny Feilhaber, Paulo Nagamura played a long cross to Dom Dwyer who headed the ball into the back of the net.
Moments before the halftime whistle, the Earthquakes equalized. Goitom won the ball in the six-yard box from Kansas City defender Nuno Coelho and laid the ball to Simon Dawkins with the back of his heel. Dawkins simply passed the ball into the goal to make the score 1-1.
The second half started with momentum that matched the beginning of the first. Midfielder Alberto Quintero dribbled down the right flank and found Wondolowski sprinting into open space. The Quakes captain flicked the ball at the goal, but Melia made a diving save to deny the chance.
Quintero was close to giving the Quakes the lead in the 60th minute, sending a rocket towards the bottom left corner. Melia came to the rescue for Sporting once again.
In the 81st minute, Kansas City capitalized on a corner kick to make the score 2-1. Feilhaber took the corner and defender Kevin Ellis, with his back turned to the goal, knocked the ball into the back of the net.
The Quakes head back on the road for a mid-week clash against the Montreal Impact on Wednesday, Sept. 28. The match kicks off at 4:30 p.m. PT and will be broadcast live on CSN California, 1590 KLIV and 1370 KZSF.
Notes:
- San Jose is now 7-9-13 on the season and 6-3-6 at home.
- San Jose now has a 24-22-7 all-time record against Sporting KC, including a 16-5-6 record at home.
- Earthquakes midfielder Darwin Ceren played in his 50th career game in MLS, starting and playing 90 minutes.
- Forward Quincy Amarikwa returned to the starting XI for the first time since Aug. 24 vs. New England.
- Simon Dawkins scored his fourth goal of the season after most-recently finding the back of the net on Aug. 12 against Whitecaps FC at BC Place. It marked his second career goal against Sporting KC, with his only other goal against the club coming on May 27, 2012 at Livestrong Sporting Park.
- Dawkins has now scored the second most goals on the team (four) behind captain Chris Wondolowski's 10.
- Forward Henok Goitom earned his first career MLS assist on Dawkins' goal. He also became the 14th different Earthquakes player to tally at least one assist this season.
- Saturday’s loss marked the end of a 16-year unbeaten streak at home against Kansas City. Prior to the tonight’s match, the Quakes had not lost at home to Sporting since Aug. 16, 2000.
MLS Regular Season
San Jose Earthquakes 1 – Sporting Kansas City 2
Sept. 24, 2016 – Avaya Stadium in San Jose, CA
Attendance: 18,000
Scoring Summary: KC – Dom Dwyer (Paulo Nagamura) 7; SJ – Simon Dawkins (Henok Goitom, Victor Bernardez) 42; KC – Kevin Ellis (Benny Feilhaber) 81.
Misconduct Summary: KC – Paulo Nagamura (caution) 52; SJ – Darwin Ceren (caution) 57; KC – Roger Espinoza (caution) 64; SJ – Henok Goitom (caution) 80; KC – Tim Melia (caution) 84.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: David Bingham; Jordan Stewart, Marvell Wynne, Victor Bernardez, Cordell Cato; Alberto Quintero (Tommy Thompson 80), Darwin Ceren, Fatai Alashe, Simon Dawkins (Shaun Francis 33); Quincy Amarikwa (Henok Goitom 4), Chris Wondolowski.
SHOTS: 16, SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; SAVES: 0; FOULS: 17; CORNER KICKS: 9; OFFSIDES: 3.
SPORTING KANSAS CITY: Tim Melia; Nuno Coelho, Jimmy Medranda, Kevin Ellis, Saad Abdul-Salaam; Paulo Nagamura (Brad Davis 63), Soni Mustivar, Roger Espinoza; Benny Feilhaer, Dom Dwyer, Jacob Peterson (Ike Opara 76).
SHOTS: 6; SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; SAVES: 3; FOULS: 19; CORNER KICKS: 1; OFFSIDES: 0.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On the loss:
“It’s a killer to be honest with you. With them [Sporting Kansas City] now being nine points ahead of us, and that’s one of the teams we’re chasing – I know Portland lost tonight, I think we’re seven behind them – with two games in hand on both, we have got to put together a run of wins that we haven’t done this year. So it’s going to take a monumental effort. It’s a pretty crushing result tonight.”
On how the two early injury subs affected the outcome:
“The first one is a bit tough. Henok’s last 90 minutes was in Columbus. I think maybe in the end he kind of ran out of gas a little bit. I don’t like changing the back four too much, especially with injuries and subs... 33rd minute, you look at your bench, and you’d rather be making subs being attacking ones or defensive ones at the very end, so that disrupted that.”
On set pieces in general and Kansas City’s last goal in particular:
“There’s a series of mistakes that leads to the corner. I don’t think it’s a foul on our guy at the halfway line, then we have a chance to clear it and we don’t and it goes to a corner. Obviously they’re dangerous, especially with Ike Opara’s insertion into the game. So they scored off of two set pieces tonight. I think we had nine corners, they had one, and that was at the very, very end and that was the killer one. So set pieces on both sides of the ball this year – I don’t know about the defensive side, but on the attacking side, we haven’t been as dangerous as we’d like to be, and it’s something we work on every week. It’s something we’ll continue to work on.”
On Henok Goitom’s performance:
“I thought he did okay. Some real nice touches when he dropped into midfield. He had a couple chances, I think if it were to happen all over again, he’d get a better first touch and give him a better look at goal. The ball was just kind of leaking away from him tonight. They sat in – this has nothing to do with Henok – they sat in, they were just kind of waiting for that opportunity that came off a set piece. We had a lot of the ball, especially in the first half, especially on the right hand side. The star quality was just off tonight. But I think Henok did okay, had a good play for the goal. It would be nice to see him and everybody else be a little sharper in that final third.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD HENOK GOITOM
On the clever play to level the game:
“When I stole the ball, I just wanted to know how the ball would end to see if I had a chance to shoot. When I touched the ball I saw it was going to be too far and then I saw Simon was in a perfect spot. I saw that Simon was all alone so it was better to back heel it to him and then he would have an easy goal.”
On if it’s mixed feelings getting your first assist but the team being unable to complete the comeback:
“The most frustrating I think for the whole team is that we had the game but yet they scored so easy, especially because we know we have to win to get closer to the playoffs. I think that’s the most frustrating thing for the whole team.”
On if he thinks there’s a road back to playoffs:
“To be honest, if you think like that you are thinking too far ahead. I think you have to just think about the Montreal game, try to win that one and then we’ll see from there.”
