Salt Lake City – The San Jose Earthquakes tied Real Salt Lake 1-1 at Rio Tinto Stadium Friday night in their first encounter of the season. Chirs Wondolowski gave the Quakes an early lead, but the home side came back to equalize the game in the second half. With the result, San Jose remains in seventh in the Western Conference.
Wondolowski gave the Quakes the advantage nine minutes into the first half scoring the Quakes’ first goal of the season from a corner. The forward sent the ball into the back of the net after Simon Dawkins’ cross took a deflection off a Salt Lake defender and landed at his feet.
The goal marked Wondolowski’s 113th goal for the Quakes and as a result, the forward surpassed Landon Donovan and moved into second place all time in MLS history for goals scored for one club.
After conceding early, Real Salt Lake looked to equalize. In the 16th minute, Quakes’ keeper David Bingham saved a long shot from Real Salt Lake’s captain Kyle Beckerman, but forward Joao Plata raced for the rebound. Bingham made a diving save to deny the scoring opportunity.
The first half ended 1-0 with the Quakes heading back to the locker room having out-shot Salt Lake 8-6. With the start of the second half, the team looked to extend the lead. Quincy Amarikwa had an early chance on goal, but his shot from Cordell Cato’s cross went just wide of Nick Rimando’s goal.
In the 64th minute, Luke Mulholland found Salt Lake’s equalizer when he capitalized on Javier Morales’ chip and volleyed a shot past Bingham (watch).
With the score even, both teams looked to walk away with three points. Bingham came to the rescue in the 72nd minute making a vital save against Real Salt Lake’s Olmes Garcia in a 1v1 situation. The Quakes also came close to taking the lead in the 79th minute when Shea Salina’s shot hit the cross bar in the 80th minute.
After several last minute attempts in which Bingham made important saves to keep the score even, the game ended 1-1 and both teams walked away with a point.
San Jose Earthquakes will host MLS All-Star game on Thursday, July 28 at Avaya Stadium as the best of MLS take on Arsenal from the English Premier League. The All-Star team is lead by the Earthquakes’ head coach Dominic Kinnear and features Bingham and Wondolowski.
The Quakes return to action and in search of their first away win against the Houston Dynamo on Sunday, July 31 at 6 p.m. PT at BBVA Compass Stadium.
Notes:
• San Jose is now 6-6-8 on the season and 0-5-5 on the road.
• San Jose now has an 8-9-9 all-time record against Real Salt Lake.
• After being unable to find the back of the net since April 24 against Sporting Kansas City, San Jose’s all-time leading goal scorer Chris Wondolowski scored his 113th MLS goal for the Quakes and eighth of the season.
• Wondolowski is now ranked second in MLS history for goals scored for one club with 113, surpassing Landon Donovan (112) and trailing only to Jamie Moreno who scored 131 for D.C. United.
• Wondolowski’s goal was the eighth in his career against Real Salt Lake and he leads all active players for goals against Salt Lake.
• Wondolowski has now scored more goals on the road (59) than home goals (58).
• Wondolowski’s ninth-minute goal was the Quakes’ third-earliest goal scored in a match this season, after Alberto Quintero’s third-minute goal vs. HOU (5/11) and fourth-minute goal at FCD (4/9).
• The Earthquakes have held opponents to no more than one goal in 15 of their 20 matches this season, including nine of their last 10.
MLS Regular Season
Real Salt Lake 1 – San Jose Earthquakes 1
July 22, 2016 – Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake City
Attendance: 19,842
Scoring Summary: SJ – Chris Wondolowski 9: RSL – Luke Mulholland (Javier Morales, Joao Plata) 64.
Misconduct Summary: RSL – Tony Beltran (caution) 33.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: David Bingham; Cordell Cato, Marvell Wynne, Victor Bernardez, Jordan Stewart; Simon Dawkins, Anibal Godoy, Fatai Alashe, Alberto Quintero (Shea Salinas 63’); Chris Wondolowski ©, Quincy Amariwka (Chad Barrett 75’).
SHOTS: 12, SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; SAVES: 6; FOULS: 9; CORNER KICKS: 8; OFFSIDES: 0.
REAL SALT LAKE: Nick Rimando; Tony Beltran, Justen Glad, Chris Wingert (Demar Phillips 72’), Aaron Maund; Kyle Beckerman ©, Javier Morales, Luke Mulholland (Jordan Allen 84’); Juan Manuel Martinez, Joao Plata, Yura Movsisyan (Olmes Garcia 45’).
SHOTS: 14; SHOTS ON GOAL: 7; SAVES: 2; FOULS: 13; CORNER KICKS: 9; OFFSIDES: 2.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On building momentum from tonight’s result:
“Yes and no. Yes because we scored the first goal. I thought we were playing well and then at the end of the game we were kinda hanging on. They maybe think that they could have got three points, I think at times with Shea (Salinas) hitting the cross bar at the end there and the couple chances we had we could have scored another goal. That is the way the game went and I am pretty happy with the guys. Great effort for tonight.”
On the team’s away record:
“The next game is on the road as well. It’s not like we are not trying to win, we scored the first goal tonight, I thought we looked positive and aggressive as the game was going. Tough life on the road. We have a Western Conference opponent coming up and we’ve got more Western Conference games, so those are some big swings in points there. If you can pick up a win on the road it is going to be good for you. I think it just breeds confidence in the whole team as well.”
On if the team is close to their first away win:
“The one before this was against Chicago and I don’t think we played particularly well, but tonight was better. We’ve been competitive in all the games and we haven’t been run off the field. Tonight, like I said, we could be sitting here talking about a win and we’re talking about a tie. We’re close. It would be nice to get that one.”
EARTHQUAKES GOALKEEPER DAVID BINGHAM
On the result:
“It’s disappointing to go up 1-0 and come out with a draw, but at the end of the day it is always good to get points on the road and we have to keep building to keep picking up points throughout the year.”
On Real Salt Lake’s Goal:
“We know (Javier) Morales is a good player and he sees things that other players don’t. He saw (Luke) Mulholland come through, was able to get it on his foot and Mulholland was able to strike it clean. It’s a bit unfortunate but credit to the guys no one dropped their heads. We kept fighting for the entire 90 minutes which is important.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI
On goal:
“Right place, right time. It was a good ball by Simon (Dawkins). Jordan Stewart got a head on it and just skimmed it a little bit. It deflected off someone and bounced right to me and I was able to finish. If we had more of a killer instinct in the first half and got a second goal, that would have changed the game. We had some chances, but we just didn’t finish them.”
On getting road wins:
“We have to stay the course on the road. We had a lot of positives tonight, but we had a few lapses here and there and that cost us. When we put a full 90 minutes together, that’s when we will get a win. Right now, we will put 60-70 minutes together but not a full game and we are not getting the results we want. Credit to Salt Lake though, they are a good team and they played well tonight.”
