The Quakes took off for their first Eastern Conference road trip of the year Saturday. After a rough start & a red card shown to Anibal Godoy, San Jose found themselves down a man and down a goal. Offseason signing Simon Dawkins showed his flare in a fantastic weaving move to create the space for his shot that gave the Quakes the 1-1 draw. The goal is his first of the season and first since returning to the club.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On Simon Dawkins getting more involved in the second half:
“Yeah he did, tried to get more on the ball. Obviously the red card makes it a little more difficult, but I thought Shea Salinas came in, too, at that particular point and kind of opened the game up for us with his running and it kind of gave Simon [Dawkins] a little bit more freedom underneath too. Great goal. I haven't seen a replay. I watched it live, he got around a couple guys in tight spaces and his finish was excellent. It's something that we definitely needed and it was his first goal of the year for us and it couldn't have come at a better time.”
On the role the substitutes played in the match:
“It's huge and I think we got a good contribution from all the guys off the bench. Matias [Perez Garcia], as soon as he comes in, he sends in a dangerous corner and plays some nice passes, and obviously Adam [Jahn]’s work at the end there was tireless for us and it was something we needed. But Shea [Salinas] I thought his work being able to come inside and run at them opened up the game a little bit and it made us more dangerous.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES MIDFIELDER SHEA SALINAS
On the match:
“We had a lot of confidence coming into the game. We thought we could come out with three points. And then once you go down a man, and you’re down a goal, you’re like ‘Okay, lets get a point out of this.’ We fought hard and Simon scored a great goal and we got the point.”
On changing the formation following the red card:
“Well, when you go to 10 men, formation has to change. So, yeah, we just tucked Simon there in the middle and Wondo [Chris Wondolowski] was up there by himself. He put in a shift, he’s all over the place up there, so it was a tough night for him and I’m glad we got a goal out of it.”
On coming off the bench:
“As a competitor, you always want to be in the starting lineup. You always want to play as many minutes as possible but once you know that you are a sub, you've got to prepare mentally to come on and give that 30-40 minutes of sprinting to give your team whatever you've got. Coming off the bench, Dom told me to be aggressive and run at them and that’s my favorite thing to do so every time I got the ball, I tried to be dangerous.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES MIDFIELDER SIMON DAWKINS
On the game-tying goal:
“Yeah, it just fell to me at the edge of the box and I was going to shoot, and I sort of hesitated to shoot, and things just opened up for me. Thankfully it went in. I want to try to chip in with my goals, like I did the last time I was here. So hopefully that’s the start of something.”
On being able to salvage a point:
“It was really hard fought from us guys to be down to 10 men. But we dug in, stuck together and thankfully we got a point away from home.”
On being able to play against fellow Jamaican international Andre Blake:
“Yeah, we had a conversation at halftime on if I would be able to score. He said I wouldn’t, so it was a good end to the game. He just said ‘well done.’ He was great in goal for them, like he has been all season, but yeah it was good to score.”
