SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Earthquakes played to a scoreless draw against Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Avaya Stadium Sunday afternoon in their final home game of the 2016 MLS regular season.
Seven minutes inside the first half, midfielder Simon Dawkins shot while crashing into the area from the left side of the field. Looking to narrow the angle, Vancouver goalkeeper Paolo Tornaghi came off his line and saved the shot to send the ball towards the end line.
In the ninth minute, Cordell Cato received the ball at the right edge of area. After taking a couple of touches, he sent a curling shot with his left foot at Vancouver’s goal, but Tornaghi made a diving save to deny the chance once again.
The first half remained scoreless, despite both teams having a couple of glimpses on goal. The chances continued into the second half.
In the 54th minute, Vancouver’s Masasto Kudo one-timed a loose ball in the Earthquakes box towards the goal, but Quakes keeper and Defensive Player of the Year David Bingham rebuked the chance.
One minute later, Kudo shot at the Earthquakes goal again from the left side while running in the 18-yard box, but Bingham saved the attempt. Kudo struck the rebound, but the ball ricocheted off the crossbar to keep the score even.
The game ended with both teams earning a shutout and a point.
The Quakes head back on the road for their final match of the season against Sporting Kansas City on Sunday, Oct. 23. The match kicks off at 1 p.m. PT and will be broadcast live on CSN California, 1590 KLIV and 1370 KZSF.
Notes:
- San Jose is now 8-11-14 on the season and 7-3-7 at home.
- The Earthquakes are now undefeated in their final home game of seven consecutive seasons (4-0-3).
- San Jose now has a 3-6-7 all-time record against Vancouver, including a 2-0-6 record at home.
- The Quakes have now gone undefeated against Vancouver in a season series (1-0-1) for the first time since 2011 and just the second time in the rivalry’s six-year history.
- Earthquakes defender Marvell Wynne made his 300th career MLS appearance, becoming the 36th player in league history to reach the milestone.
- Earthquakes Defensive Player of the Year, goalkeeper David Bingham, earned his eighth shutout of the season.
- Midfielder Anibal Godoy will miss next Sunday’s match against Sporting Kansas City due to yellow card accumulation.
MLS Regular Season
San Jose Earthquakes 0 – 0 Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Oct. 16, 2016 – Avaya Stadium in San Jose, CA
Attendance: 18,000
Scoring Summary: N/A.
Misconduct Summary: SJ – Anibal Godoy (caution) 44; VAN – Cristian Techera (caution) 68.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: David Bingham; Jordan Stewart, Marvell Wynne, Victor Bernardez, Cordell Cato (Kofi Sarkodie 79); Tommy Thompson (Shea Salinas 70), Anibal Godoy, Darwin Ceren, Simon Dawkins; Henok Goitom (Chad Barrett 59), Chris Wondolowski.
SHOTS: 18, SHOTS ON GOAL: 6; SAVES: 7; FOULS: 10; CORNER KICKS: 13; OFFSIDES: 1.
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC: Paolo Tornaghi; Tim Parker, Fraser Aird, Jordan Harvey, Kendall Waston; Nicolas Mezquida (Giles Barnes 63), Matias Laba, Andrew Jacobson, Cristian Techera (Marcel de Jong 73); Masato Kudo (Marco Bustos 77), Erik Hurtado.
SHOTS: 14; SHOTS ON GOAL: 7; SAVES: 6; FOULS: 18; CORNER KICKS: 1; OFFSIDES: 3.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On the first half:
“The first 30 minutes, I thought we were excellent. We should have been good for a goal. We had some good moments, really got ourselves in good positions. Quality was lacking a little bit. I’ll give credit to them, they had one spell where I think they blocked maybe three shots in a row with some good defending, but I thought the first 30 minutes we were really good and should have been good for a goal and we weren’t. We didn’t score and that’s unfortunate.”
On the Earthquakes’ finishing throughout the season:
“You look at the stats and the stats don’t lie. We haven’t scored enough goals this year. I’m not going to hide from it. We need to score more goals. We said last year that we thought we needed goals after the opening goal to put teams away. This year we lack the first goal and a lot of times in MLS, when you look at the crazy stats, the team that scores the first goal I think wins like 70 percent of the games almost, so that first goal is crucial. It’s not that we’re not trying to score. It’s just the quality in the last little bit has escaped us today and for quite a few games this year.”
On the sentiment in the locker room going into halftime scoreless:
“Just frustration, not let down. Let down would be if guys weren’t trying, so for me frustration is the point of being right there. We were getting clear looks, but like I said, we just needed a little bit better of a cross, a little bit better of a run. [Earthquakes midfielder] Simon [Dawkins] had a good chance and [Vancouver Whitecaps FC goalkeeper Paolo] Tornaghi made a couple of decent saves as well, but that’s what they’re supposed to do. But not let down because I thought the guys were visibly frustrated and the one thing we said was, ‘we don’t come here losing this game’ because I think we played well enough to win it and it’s a game of two halves. Our effort and our mentality should be the same as it was in the first.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI
On the season:
“We feel that we have a very strong team and we didn’t play up to our expectations. It is a very fine line in the league between winning and losing and making the playoffs or not. There is so much parity in the league, if you are not bringing it every week then its tough.”
On the first 15 minutes against Vancouver:
“We still have a lot of pride in our soccer and we wanted to come out right from the start and I think we did. It has kind of been the theme for this season. I think we played well at times, had some chances and created a lot of things, but did not quite have that final product, that final pass or that final touch. It ended up hurting us.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES GOALKEEPER DAVID BINGHAM
On frustration of missing playoffs with talented roster:
“There’s no potential about it, we have a good enough team to make the playoffs. It’s really frustrating that we’ve kind of had the season that we’ve had, especially with these players and the quality of this locker room. I think we definitely should be in the playoffs, but that’s not the situation we’re in now. We need to keep fighting and come out with a win on Sunday.”
On the goal for the season finale:
“To win. I’m here to win. I don’t like losing. We have 14 ties this year. It’s frustrating. I don’t think anyone’s more frustrated than the players in this locker room. So we have to put our heads down and go to Kansas City and get a result.”
