SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Earthquakes were defeated by Minnesota United FC 5-2 on Saturday evening at Earthquakes Stadium. The match saw the MLS debut of Quakes forward Cade Cowell, who at 16 years and 150 days, became the youngest player to debut in club history and fifth youngest in league history.
The Quakes got goals from Magnus Eriksson and Vako, both of whom tallied their first goal of the season. Eriksson, who converted on a penalty, is now perfect five for five from the penalty spot in his MLS career.
San Jose now prepares for their first road match of the season against the Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park next Saturday, March 14 at 4:30 p.m. PT. The match will be broadcast live on NBC Sports California+, KNBR 1050 and 1370 KZSF.
MATCH NOTES:
The Earthquakes now have a 0-1-1 record in the 2020 MLS season.
The Earthquakes now hold a 4-3-0 all-time record against Minnesota United FC, including a 2-2-0 record at home.
Cade Cowell made his MLS debut, entering as a halftime substitute. Cowell, at 16 years and 150 days old, became the youngest player to make an MLS appearance in Earthquakes history and fifth-youngest player in league history.
Magnus Eriksson scored by way of a penalty kick, marking his first goal of the season and the 13th of his MLS career. He has now converted five of five penalty kicks in his MLS career.
Vako scored his first goal of the season and 24th of his MLS career. Vako is now one goal shy of Brian Ching for the fifth most goals in Quakes history (25).
MLS Regular Season
San Jose Earthquakes 2 – 5 Minnesota United FC
March 7, 2020 – Earthquakes Stadium in San Jose, Calif.
Attendance: 12,223
Scoring Summary: MIN – Ike Opara (Jan Gregus) 13; SJ – Magnus Eriksson (penalty) 19; MIN – Jan Gregus (Luis Amarilla) 26; MIN – Luis Amarilla (Kevin Molino) 32; MIN – Robin Lod (unassisted) 45+3; SJ – Vako (unassisted) 53; MIN – Ike Opara (Jan Gregus) 71.
Misconduct Summary: MIN – Luis Amarilla (caution) 67.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: Daniel Vega; Nick Lima (Shea Salinas HT), Oswaldo Alanís, Guram Kashia (Chris Wondolowski 64), Tommy Thompson; Jackson Yueill, Magnus Eriksson, Cristian Espinoza; Vako, Danny Hoesen (Cade Cowell HT), Andy Rios.
SHOTS: 20, SHOTS ON GOAL: 6; SAVES: 5; FOULS: 7; CORNER KICKS: 6, OFFSIDES: 1.
MINNESOTA UNITED FC: Tyler Miller; Ike Opara, Michael Boxall, Romain Metanire, Chase Gasper; Osvaldo Alonso, Kevin Molino (Hassani Dotson 42), Jan Gregus, Ethan Finlay, Robin Lod (Raheem Edwards 88); Luis Amarilla (Aaron Schoenfeld 81).
SHOTS: 17, SHOTS ON GOAL: 10; SAVES: 4; FOULS: 10; CORNER KICKS: 8, OFFSIDES: 1.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH MATIAS ALMEYDA
On how the team will prepare for their first road match versus Philadelphia:
“I think we have to analyze this game very well. Obviously, there’s the analysis we make about the opponent. I liked the way the team played in the last match. There were good things, and they overcame a 2-0 result, which is hard to overcome. Today, we have to see, taking away the set pieces and analyze the game itself. In the game, it was even. However, you cannot make many mistakes. Now when you lose a mark, that’s our mistake. When you commit a PK, that’s our mistake. When you mess up, you have to kick off from the middle, so we have to improve all of that. But the unfortunate thing is that we have been working on this for a while. And it’s telling me as a coach I should work even more to keep on improving.”
On his first impressions on Cade Cowell’s MLS debut:
“My impressions are positive. I think that in every team that I have been in, I have always tried to support the younger players. This is a young player with lots of talent, who has a great future, and my idea is to help him grow little by little. I think that, not only for San Jose, but also for the U.S. Men’s National Team, there’s a promising player called Cade that has a great future and that we’ll be helping little by little.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI
On the matchup with former teammate Ike Opara:
“Yeah, Ike’s a great player. He’s the defending defender of the year and rightfully so. He’s amazed me how well he’s adapted to having the ball at his feet. I was joking with him, I saw him last night, and I was joking with him that about three or four years ago, he was the guy we were pressing. Now it’s the opposite. That shows how much work and effort he’s put into that, and that’s a credit to him and kudos to him. He’s always been dangerous on set pieces and can jump out of the gym. I’ve seen him dunk a basketball and make it look easy. He did that today and he’s always a handful.”
On the first two games:
“Every game’s important and we feel that we let points slip these last two games. We want to go out and get three points, get maximum points whenever we can. And tonight, Minnesota took it to us and took advantage. They played well. They took advantage of – not our mistakes – but they took advantage of their strengths and some things that we worked on that we didn’t take care of. That being said, we look at last year and I think in four games we had zero points, so we’re way ahead of pace right now so, we’ll go with that.”
On if Saturday’s performance was an anomaly:
“Yeah. I thought we played well especially the first half. We created chances. You look at the second goal we had a chance where Cristian [Espinoza] cuts the guy and took the shot near post, and that was unlucky, and they come right down and score their second goal. We let up three set pieces, one a penalty kick. Even the last game against Toronto, we let up another penalty kick on a set piece, so that has nothing to do with formation to be honest, that’s all individual things and things we need to work on.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES MIDFIELDER JACKSON YUEILL
On whether this was a deflating loss:
“I don’t see it as deflating at all. It’s a loss, but it’s only the second game of the year. I think we’re still much better than we were last year when we were getting destroyed at the beginning of the year. We ended up turning it around. I take it as something to learn, something to improve on. We have a lot of games left to play.”
On the positives to take into Philadelphia:
“We take a lot of positives. The last two teams have been good teams in the league. They have size, they have quality, they have good work rate. I think through most of this game, we were there. The set pieces were lacking a little bit; a little bit of size and intensity during some moments, but I think for most of the game, we were right with them. I think this is just the start for us and there’s a lot of room to improve, but there’s a lot of games to do that.”
