SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Earthquakes defeated the Colorado Rapids 1-0 Saturday night at Avaya Stadium, earning the full three points at home. The club is now 6-1-4 at home this season.
Earthquakes Homegrown defender Nick Lima tallied his second goal of the season to secure the victory, scoring on a powerful shot from outside the 18. Shea Salinas and Darwin Ceren each tallied an assist on the goal.
The Quakes will now face Columbus Crew SC at home on Saturday, Aug. 5 with kickoff scheduled for 7:15 p.m., presented by BMW. Ahead of the match, the Quakes will host their annual A&W Root Beer Float Night in the 7UP Epicenter, benefitting the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of Positive Coaching Alliance. As part of the league-wide initiative, the Aug. 5 match will also be the first Quakes game to include Video Assistant Referee.
MLS Regular Season
San Jose Earthquakes 1 – 0 Colorado Rapids
July 29, 2017 – Avaya Stadium in San Jose, CA.
Attendance: 18,000
Scoring Summary: SJ – Nick Lima (Darwin Ceren, Shea Salinas) 59.
Misconduct Summary: COL – Mike da Fonte (caution) 37; SJ – Andres Imperiale (caution) 77.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: David Bingham; Andres Imperiale, Victor Bernardez, Florian Jungwirth; Shea Salinas, Jackson Yueill, Nick Lima, Simon Dawkins (Tommy Thompson 67), Darwin Ceren; Chris Wondolowski, Marco Ureña (Danny Hoesen 77).
SHOTS: 15,SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; SAVES: 2; FOULS: 6; CORNER KICKS: 4; OFFSIDES: 3.
COLORADO RAPIDS: Zac MacMath; Mike da Fonte (Alan Gordon 45), Eric Miller, Axel Sjoberg, Jared Watts; Mohammed Saeid, Micheal Azira (Dillon Powers 78), Dillon Serna (Bismark Boateng 66), Marlon Hairston; Dominique Badji, Kevin Doyle.
SHOTS: 8;SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; SAVES: 1; FOULS: 11; CORNER KICKS: 3; OFFSIDES: 2.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH CHRIS LEITCH
On Nick Lima's goal:
“It was good. Lima's got a hell of a shot for a defender. It's great when you've got power and you can put it on frame as well. Thought it was really good.”
On the result:
“Any time you're at home, you're trying to maximize your points, all three points. That's in all phases of the game, for sure, so it's really good to get this result and not concede after conceding multiple games. You never want to concede, but when you're on the road and you're playing from behind, I'd like us to still go after the game and try to get something out of it. At home it's a double-edged sword. You want to get that first goal, but you can't open yourself up to too much so as to potentially concede too. I thought we did a pretty good job of toeing that balance all game.”
On compartmentalizing Matheus Silva's return with getting a result tonight:
“It's tough to compartmentalize. Matheus is a part of this family. He walked out on the field when the guys had already went out for warmups and when they saw Matheus, they literally stopped what they were doing mid-warmup and came over and gave him a big hug. And I think no, you don't compartmentalize those things. That kind of situation supersedes anything else going on in your mind and I'm sure Matheus gave us a really good lift today as I know our team has been thinking about him quite a lot since the accident. It's just great to see him in our locker room, with his teammates in this club. It's just truly awesome to see. ”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES MIDFIELDER SHEA SALINAS
On the result:
“It's a huge win for us. It would've been nice to put a couple more goals there away in the second half, but three points is three points and we needed it, especially looking at the standings. Right now we like where we're at with a home game next week and get three more points there and we'll keep moving up.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES DEFENDER NICK LIMA
On the goal:
“When it bounced I took a touch and I just tried to hit it cleanly and get it over in that side, in that area, and it went in. I’m glad we got a win after that. I just picked out the corner and tried to hit it as cleanly as possible and got some spin on it. The keeper didn’t see it and could not get there before it hit the back of the net so that was nice.”
On the feeling going into the game:
“The objective coming in was to get three points at home. Initially, it’s hard to win on the road. You can take advantage of the wins at home and that’s what we did. We came over here from getting shutout and that’s hard to do. We fought from the beginning to the end and ended up getting three points.”
On the importance of a shutout:
“I think getting a shutout shows the whole team’s bought in. We are fighting our set piece battles and winning second balls. At times, we saw we were getting away from that and the guys were able to dig deep and get back to that. We put them on the back foot quite a bit and so getting that shutout is big time at home. It makes teams around MLS know it’s hard to come play here.”
