Photo by Lyndsay Radnedge
After some improved play had the San Jose Earthquakes on the verge of turning a corner on what has been a disaster of a season, The Quakes found a brick wall around that corner, as Sporting Kansas City came to town and put on a show in the form of a 5-1 wire to wire domination on Saturday Night at Avaya Stadium.
“Sporting Kansas City are from my perspective the best team we have played against this season,” said Earthquakes Coach Mikael Stahre. “They are organized and they have an idea and good players. They’re doing a really good job over there.”
After a week off for the International Break, the game was slow out of the gate until the 18th minute when Gerso Fernandes blew past Nick Lima and found an unmarked Felipe Gutierrez in front of the goal to slot home the opener.
It was just five minutes later when Gutierrez returned the favor, finding Fernandes open on a perfectly timed run behind the Quakes backline. Fernandes chipped Andrew Tarbell and that sinking feeling came over the fan base as SKC had a 2-0 lead just 23 minutes in.
“We were almost perfect tonight so we just need to keep doing the same thing,” said Fernandes. “We know what our goals and we need to keep working to accomplish them.”
“It was probably one of his best performances of the year,” said Sporting Kansas City Coach Peter Vermes of Fernandes. “His movement in the game was great, he caused a lot of problems for their backline and lot of that has to do with the fact that he’s working very hard in training every week.”
Photo by Lyndsay Radnedge
As the life was being sucked out of Avaya Stadium, SKC punished the Quakes backline again, when Ike Opara cleaned up a spilled rebound from Andrew Tarbell to make it 3-0 just before halftime.
“From the opening whistle to the final whistle we were dominant in the game,” said Sporting Kansas City Coach Peter Vermes. “We were very confident in our buildup play which created a lot of opportunities for us. Both offensively and defensively, we were very solid.”
The rules say they had to come out of the second half, and while the Earthquakes play was better after the break, there was little to show for it.
Sporting added another when Fernandes and Krisztian Nemeth found themselves behind the Quakes back line once again as Fernandes played the ball to Nemeth to slot it past a helpless Tarbell to make it 4-0 in the 67th minute.
A small consolation for the Earthquakes came in the 80th minute, when Danny Hoesen fired a rocket past Tim Melia for his team leading 11th of the season.
Most of the announced crowd of 16,682 had already hit the parking lot by the 86th minute when Fernandes capped his two goal, two assist night by volleying home a Diego Rubio cross to bring the game to its 5-1 final.
Photo by Lyndsay Radnedge
While Sporting was masterful on the night, the Quakes can’t just take solace in running into a buzzsaw, as their own lethargic play contributed to Sporting’s chances.
“We came out without energy,” said Stahre. “You can talk about game plans and structure and these kind of things, but when we’re playing at home, we expect energy and commitment, but everything went wrong in the first half.”
While Sporting Kansas City heads east to take on Philadelphia next Sunday, the true test of “can it possibly get worse” for the Earthquakes will come next Wednesday when Eastern Conference leading Atlanta United brings their explosive attack to town for their first ever match at Avaya Stadium.
San Jose Earthquakes
Sporting Kansas City
