San Jose Earthquakes 1–2 St. Louis City: Redemption Performance?
When Major League Soccer gets into the busy part of its schedule, you have to move like a shark: just keep swimming forward regardless of the result. That was especially the mindset for Luchi Gonzalez and his players after a 4–1 loss to Houston Dynamo. It was a humbling defeat similar to the one St. Louis City SC inflicted on them earlier in the season back in Missouri. As fate would have it, this redemption opportunity would come up against that same opponent. This time however PayPal Park was the venue and their two best players João Klauss and Eduard Lowen would be unavailable due to injury.
San Jose Earthquakes Starting Lineup (4–3–3; Luchi Gonzalez)
4–3–3: Daniel; Carlos Akapo, Rodrigues, Jonathan Mensah, Miguel Trauco; Carlos Gruezo, Jamiro Monteiro, Jackson Yueill; Cristian Espinoza, Jeremy Ebobisse, Jack Skahan
St. Louis City SC Starting Lineup (4–4–2; Bradley Carnell)
4–4–2: Roman Burki; Akil Watts, Joshua Yaro, Tim Parker, Kyle Hiebert; Aziel Jackson, Njabulo Blom, Miguel Perez, Jared Stroud; Rasmus Alm, Samuel Adeniran
Key Events
41’ Goal 0–1 St. Louis Samuel Adeniran (assisted by Rasmus Alm)
47’ Goal 1–1 San Jose Jamiro Monteiro (Jackson Yueill)
49’ Yellow Card Jamiro Monteiro
57’ Goal 1–2 St. Louis Samuel Adeniran (penalty)
59’ Yellow Card Aziel Jackson
71’ Benji Kikanovic for Jack Skahan, Ousseni Bouda for Jamiro Monteiro
72’ Indiana Vassilev for Miguel Perez, Nicolas Gioacchini for Aziel Jackson
78’ Paul Marie for Carlos Akapo
81’ Tomas Ostrak for Samuel Adeniran, Celio Pompeu for Jared Stroud
83’ Niko Tsakiris for Carlos Gruezo, Tommy Thompson for Miguel Trauco
84’ Yellow Card Niko Tsakiris
90+1’ Yellow Card Carlos Akapo (from the sideline)
90+2’ Isak Jensen for Rasmus Alm
90+2’ Yellow Card Celio Pompeu
90+6’ Tomas Ostrak
Jonathan Mensah’s return to the starting lineup got off to a solid start the way he confidently made tackles as far up as midfield, but things would take a turn for the worse later. St. Louis had the first good chances of the game forcing Daniel into a clutch double save (albeit the second play was ruled offside anyway).
Espinoza needs one assist to break the tie with Shea Salinas for highest number of assists in San Jose Earthquakes history but his first attempt to reach Ebobisse was calmly dealt with by the St. Louis defense. It would be a quiet night for him offensively by his standards but he also made some important contributions winning the ball back in tight defensive positions.
Ebobisse’s confidence level was put under the microscope after his miss against Houston, and this time his first shot was saved by Burki but still a good opportunity.
The biggest game changer for St. Louis proved to be 6 foot 5 forward Samuel Adeniran at 6 foot 5 who was recently recalled on loan from San Antonio FC. He presented a difficult aerial challenge that San Jose couldn’t cope with as he won every header. He ultimately headed home the opening goal just before halftime which was a blow to the Quakes as they would’ve liked to respond from their defensive performance in Houston with a clean sheet at least through halftime.
A disappointing end to the first half quickly became a great start in the second half through Jamiro Monteiro’s first goal of the season. Unfortunately he picked up a slight injury on his ankle during the celebration. The good feelings from the goal completely subsided when Jonathan Mensah conceded a penalty about 10 minutes later. Samuel Adeniran stepped up against Daniel and the stellar San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper guessed the wrong way in the spot kick. St. Louis restored their lead and the onus was back on the home team to respond.
San Jose had multiple great chances to salvage a point in the final stages of this match. Niko Tsakiris hit an attempted equalizer right at Roman Burki who held onto the shot on a night where he seemed unbeatable. The former Dortmund and Switzerland national team player was having a great performance and kept it up denying Rodrigues’s header soon after. Tsakiris hesitated in a last second opportunity, the ball fell to Tommy Thompson, and yet another Burki save. Coming up empty handed tonight, they need to end this pointless free fall next week against Stanford otherwise the pressure will mount with a trip to LAFC, a home rematch to the Sounders, and then the Leagues Cup interrupting the MLS campaign.
The longest home streak without a loss was held by the Quakes this season but St. Louis put an end to that with an emphatic double in this season series between the two clubs.
Luchi Gonzalez used all five subs in this match while Cade Cowell was unavailable due to his call up to the United States Gold Cup roster (he was subbed on in the 55th minute as USA drew 1–1 to Jamaica in their opening fixture of the group Stage). This showed faith and gave more of the squad an opportunity, but while some of those substitutes have potential to become a game changer, San Jose need to sign another current game changer during this summer transfer window.
“Burki is a great goalkeeper, made some great saves tonight and a game winning save on Tommy’s shot. We have our own good starting goalkeeper and group of goalkeepers”-Luchi Gonzalez on the goalkeeper duel on display that night.
“You can lose and still have good performances. I thought we did enough to at least tie the game”-Luchi Gonzalez agreeing with the fan consensus that were were some positives to take from the disappointing result.
This was a redemption performance in the sense that the effort they put out there was good enough to earn a point at least, but San Jose Earthquakes need to aim higher. Another opponent with a chip on their shoulder will arrive at Stanford this Saturday and LA Galaxy have already beaten the Quakes once. This needs to be where they get back on track. Keep swimming forward and transform from prey back into a predator.
